Fertility and participation in the Brazilian labor market

Abstract:

This paper analyzes the determinants of fertility and participation of females in Brazil's labor market. For such a purpose, we used the information from the national home sampling survey of IBGE, from 1995 to 2009, and the bivariate probit model. As expected, decreases in fertility were observed, as well as increased participation in the analyzed period. A negative effect of wages on the probability of fertility was also observed and a positive effect on the participation probability in the labor market. In addition, other control variables that affect the decisions of women were found including personal characteristics, condition in the family and place of residence. Furthermore, it was found that the effect of wages on fertility is higher in the lower tail of the distribution of household income, and that the inverse occurs in participation of women in the labor market.

Keywords:
female participation; fertility; wages; income