Cutting Fertility? The Effect of Cesarean Deliveries on Subsequent Fertility and Maternal Labor Supply

Martin Halla, Harald Mayr, Gerald Pruckner and Pilar Garcia-Gomez

No 9905, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The incidence of Cesarean deliveries (CDs) has been on the rise. The procedure's cost and benefits are discussed controversially; in particular, since non-medically indicated cases seem widespread. We study the effect of CDs on subsequent fertility and maternal labor supply. Identification is achieved by exploiting variation in the supply-side's incentives to induce non-medically indicated CDs across weekdays. On weekends and public holidays obstetricians' are less likely to induce CDs (due tighter capacity constraints in hospital). On Fridays and other days preceding a holiday, they face an increased incentive to induce CDs (due to their demand for leisure on non-working days). We use high-quality administrative data from Austria. Women giving birth on different weekdays are pre-treatment observationally identical. Our instrumental variable estimates show that a non-planned CD at parity one decreases life cycle fertility by almost 17 percent. This reduction in fertility translates into a temporary increase in maternal employment.

Keywords: female labor supply; Caesarean delivery; Caesarean section; fertility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 J11 J13 J21 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 59 pages
Date: 2016-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-eur, nep-hea and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published - published in: Journal of Health Economics, 2020, 72, 102325

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Related works:
Journal Article: Cutting fertility? Effects of cesarean deliveries on subsequent fertility and maternal labor supply (2020)
Working Paper: Cutting Fertility? The Effect of Cesarean Deliveries on Subsequent Fertility and Maternal Labor Supply (2016)
Working Paper: Cutting Fertility? The Effect of Cesarean Deliveries on Subsequent Fertility and Maternal Labor Supply (2016)
Working Paper: Cutting Fertility? The Effect of Cesarean Deliveries on Subsequent Fertility and Maternal Labor Supply (2016)
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