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Title: Female Work and Fertility in the United States: Effects of Low- Skilled Immigrant Labor

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2009

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Abstract: This paper examines the effects of low-skilled immigration on the work andfertility decisions of high-skilled women born in the United States. The evidencewe present indicates that low-skilled immigration to large metropolitan areas between1980 and 2000 lowered the cost of market-based household services. Usinga novel estimation technique to analyze joint decision making, we find thatcollege-educated native females responded, on average, by increasing fertility andreducing short-run labor force participation. These changes were accompanied bya weakening of the negative correlation between work and fertility, as well as anincrease in the proportion of women who both bore children and participated inthe labor force. Taken in combination, our estimates imply that the continuinginflux of low-skilled immigrants substantially reduced the work-fertility tradeofffacing educated urban American women.

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Authors: Furtado, Delia; Hock, Heinrich

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Publication Number: 2009-20

Institution: University of Connecticut

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Publisher Location: Storrs, CT

Data Collections: IPUMS CPS

Topics: Gender, Labor Force and Occupational Structure

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