Employment and second birth in Europe.

Summary This paper investigates the effects of women's employment on second births in contemporary Europe. Using longitudinal data from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) from 2003 to 2011, and aggregate data from the OECD Family Database, we identify evidence that being employed significantly increases the probability of a second birth among women. However, the magnitude of the effect differs across individuals. The positive effect is more pronounced among the most educated women and those whose spouse is employed. The fact that both spouses are working thus favors the expansion of the family from one to two children more than other configurations. Multilevel models also show that the positive effect of employment on the transition to a second birth is stronger in countries with a high supply of child care services. The expansion of such services at the country level, which is the most effective family policy measure for ensuring women's labor force participation, increases the individual probability that a woman will have a second child, which is less true for other types of institutional support (parental leave systems, lump sum allowances, etc.).