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Can Subsidies to Permanent Employment Change Fertility Decisions?

Nieto Castro, Adrian LU (2022) In Labour Economics 78.
Abstract
I examine the causal effect of incentives to permanent employment on fertility by exploiting exogenous variation in subsidies given by the Spanish local authorities to employers converting temporary jobs into permanent ones. The amount of the subsidy varies across regions, in the age and gender of the employees whose contracts are converted, and within these three dimensions over time. Using administrative individual-level panel data, I show that subsidies to permanent employment have a positive impact on the probability of entering parenthood for male employees but not for female employees. In contrast, subsidies increase the likelihood of having a second child for both male and female workers. I also find that the effect of subsidies on... (More)
I examine the causal effect of incentives to permanent employment on fertility by exploiting exogenous variation in subsidies given by the Spanish local authorities to employers converting temporary jobs into permanent ones. The amount of the subsidy varies across regions, in the age and gender of the employees whose contracts are converted, and within these three dimensions over time. Using administrative individual-level panel data, I show that subsidies to permanent employment have a positive impact on the probability of entering parenthood for male employees but not for female employees. In contrast, subsidies increase the likelihood of having a second child for both male and female workers. I also find that the effect of subsidies on fertility is lower in magnitude for individuals who have a high opportunity cost of having a child, such as young, highly educated and non-cohabiting individuals. Based on a different aggregate dataset at the municipality level, I replicate the findings from the main analysis and quantify the incidence of subsidies to permanent employment for the Spanish population, which raised fertility by 1.43% at a cost of 18,964 euros per child born. (Less)
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author
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Labour Economics
volume
78
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85133773993
ISSN
0927-5371
DOI
10.1016/j.labeco.2022.102219
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
dc9053ac-5b44-4214-90e9-cd7caa7a3654
date added to LUP
2025-03-18 17:18:52
date last changed
2025-04-04 15:04:37
@article{dc9053ac-5b44-4214-90e9-cd7caa7a3654,
  abstract     = {{I examine the causal effect of incentives to permanent employment on fertility by exploiting exogenous variation in subsidies given by the Spanish local authorities to employers converting temporary jobs into permanent ones. The amount of the subsidy varies across regions, in the age and gender of the employees whose contracts are converted, and within these three dimensions over time. Using administrative individual-level panel data, I show that subsidies to permanent employment have a positive impact on the probability of entering parenthood for male employees but not for female employees. In contrast, subsidies increase the likelihood of having a second child for both male and female workers. I also find that the effect of subsidies on fertility is lower in magnitude for individuals who have a high opportunity cost of having a child, such as young, highly educated and non-cohabiting individuals. Based on a different aggregate dataset at the municipality level, I replicate the findings from the main analysis and quantify the incidence of subsidies to permanent employment for the Spanish population, which raised fertility by 1.43% at a cost of 18,964 euros per child born.}},
  author       = {{Nieto Castro, Adrian}},
  issn         = {{0927-5371}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Labour Economics}},
  title        = {{Can Subsidies to Permanent Employment Change Fertility Decisions?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2022.102219}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.labeco.2022.102219}},
  volume       = {{78}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}