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International Journal of Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE
International Journal of Population Studies
Do young children prohibit

mothers from working? A study

in the Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Chalachew Getahun Desta

Center for Population Studies, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

Abstract: Theoretical work relating economic effect of children suggests that labor
market participation decreases for mothers with large number of young children and
increases when children are adults. The majority of empirical studies find results
consistent with this expectation, but there are some studies which fail to confirm this
theoretical prediction for the developing countries. This paper used data from a
household survey of rural and urban married women to test the theoretical prediction
that labor market participation decreases for mothers with large number of young
children and increases when children are adults. Results show that when all
households are considered, children seem to have positive effects on the probability of
the mother’s work participation. However, when household lifecycle and rural-urban
location differences are considered, coefficients are negative (but not statistically
ARTICLE INFO
Received: May 31, 2017 insignificant) for urban households with large number of young children and positive
Accepted: July 23, 2017
Published Online: July 30, (and statistically significant) for those households with more adult children; whereas
2017 for rural households, these coefficient signs are reversed. Results from the quantitative
data combined with qualitative narratives suggest that large numbers of young children
*CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Chalachew Getahun Desta, do not prohibit rural mothers from working.
Center for Population Studies,
Addis Ababa University,
150400 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Keywords: maternal work status; Amhara region of Ethiopia; lifecycle fertility;
chalget@gmail.com lifecycle maternal labor supply

1 Introduction
CITATION
Desta CG (2017). Do young
children prohibit mothers from Theories linking fertility to parental work, in general, view fertility as a response to the
working? A study in the parents’ demand for children relative to other components in the household’s utility
Amhara Region, Ethiopia. maximization decision. In the standard economic literature which considers children as
International Journal of
Population Studies, 3(2): 29-42. economic goods (Becker, 1960), children are seen to be the result of parental choice
doi: 10.18063/ijps.v3i2.208. relative to other essential household goods, all constrained by financial and time
shortages in the household’s utility maximization framework (Becker, 1960; Hotz and
Copyright: © 2017 Desta CG. Miller, 1988). Given budget constraints in the household’s utility maximization
This is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of framework, parents have to make choices between labor market participation or
the Creative Commons childrearing (Becker, 1960; Hotz and Miller, 1988; Rosenzweig and Wolpin, 1980b).
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 In this line of argument, therefore, the observed fertility is determined by variation in
International License (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/ the opportunity cost of parental time in childcare (Becker, 1960; Hotz and Miller, 1988;
by-nc/4.0/), permitting all Rosenzweig and Wolpin, 1980b). However, these static exogenous models of fertility
noncommercial use, are increasingly criticized since they ignore the inherently sequential nature of fertility
distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the and maternal labor supply decision making over the lifecycle (Adda, Dustmann and
original work is properly cited. Stevens, 2011; Fehr and Ujhelyiova, 2012; Francesconi, 2002; Hotz and Miller, 1988;

International Journal of Population Studies | 2017, Volume 3, Issue 2 29