A Natural Experiment on Job Insecurity and Fertility in France

A-Tier
Journal: Review of Economics and Statistics
Year: 2022
Volume: 104
Issue: 2
Pages: 386-398

Authors (2)

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Job insecurity can have wide-ranging consequences outside of the labor market. A 1999 rise in the French layoff tax paid by large private firms when they laid off older workers made younger workers less secure; this insecurity reduced their fertility by 3.7 percentage points (with a 95% confidence interval between 0.7 and 6.6 percentage points). Reduced fertility is found only at the intensive margin: job insecurity reduces family size but not the probability of parenthood itself. Our results also suggest negative selection into parenthood, as this fertility effect does not appear for low-income and less-educated workers.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:tpr:restat:v:104:y:2022:i:2:p:386-398
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25