Volume 29, Number 2 (Spring) 1994
Shapiro, David, and Frank L. Mott. 1994. "Long-Term Employment and
Earnings of Women in Relation to
Employment Behavior Surrounding the First Birth." Journal of Human
Resources 29(2):248-276.
Focusing on a group of women from the National Longitudinal Surveys who had a first birth between 1968 and 1973, this paper examines the post-birth work experience of these women up through 1987 aw well as their employment and earnings in 1987 in relation to their employment activity in the period immediately surrounding the first birth. Early employment behavior is a significant independent predictor of lifetime work experience. Differences in work behavior according to the first-birth employment are still evident 14-19 years after the first birth, particularly for women who returned to work within six months following the birth. The corresponding differences in lifetime work experience result in higher wages.
David Shapiro is a professor of economics and women's studies at the Pennsylvania State University and Frank L. Mott is a senior research scientist at the Center for Human Resources Research and an adjunct professor of sociology at the Ohio State University. The authors would like to acknowledge the excellent research assistance oh Hwei-Lin Chuang, and the helpful comments of Alice Nakamura and David Ribar, as well as the comments of the discussants and other participants at the Donner Foundation February 1991 Workshop and December 1991 Conference on the Economic Well-Being of Women and Children, both held at the University of Minnesota Industrial Relations Center. Responsibility for the contents of this paper rests solely with the authors. The data for this article can be obtained beginning in August 1994 through August 1997 from David Shapiro, Department of economics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802.
© 2002 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
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