Teacher Mobility and Fertility Behavior

This paper studies the interdependence between labor force attachment to the teaching sector and fertility decisions of female teachers. A joint dynamic model of labor supply and fertility is formulated and estimated to predict the effects that child care subsidies would have on teachers' employment and fertility choices. Estimates indicate that gains of exiting teaching to start a family vary between 75% and 88% of the average teaching wage. At late periods and provided a positive stock of children, nonpecuniary penalties to return to teach lie between one and two times the average teaching wage. Child care subsidies increase retention by 11% - 29% and more than double the average number of births per woman. New births are concentrated at early periods and yield longer first teaching spells as teachers simultaneously increase their fertility while employed in teaching jobs. However, large nonpecuniary rewards at late periods of the non labor market alternative relative to being in teaching as well as exits out of the workforce concentrated at late periods do not favor re-entry of nonworking teachers.