Women and Men at Work: Fertility, Occupational Choice and Development

We investigate how changes in barriers to female labor force participation and in the child penalty affect occupational decisions, fertility and income. We build a general equilibrium model of occupational choice with men and women, human capital investment and fertility. We fit the model to the US and India. Changing gender barriers account for 31% of US growth between 1960 and 2010 (4.1% for India in 1983-2004). The implications of these barriers for the welfare of female workers with children were even larger, with lower child penalty alone increasing the welfare of this group by
7% in the US.