Entry into employment after first birth; a reexamination of the transitions to full-time and part-time employment among Swedish mothers

In this paper we analyze transitions into employment made by mothers after the birth of their first child, making separate analyses for the entries into full-time and part-time work. The data we have used have been drawn from the Swedish Fertility Survey of 1981.

Some significant changes have been made from previous analyses of these transitions by Bernhardt. These changes, which relate to the definition of the sample, the choice of the starting point for the analyses, and the selection of covariates included, produce some interesting new results. First, a new conclusion is that the process of taking up full-time work is distinct from that of taking up part-time work. Second, while we find that entry into part-time employment increases with increasing labor force experience, we also find the converse for the entry into full-time employment. Third, these analyses suggest that the causes for any changes in the propensity to enter into full-time employment should be searched for among factors that are extraneous to individual women rather than in changes in women's preferences.