Employment, Family Union, and Childbearing Decisionsin Great Britain

The paper investigates the relationship between work and family life in Britain.Using appropriate statistical techniques we estimate a five-equation model,which includes birth events, union formation, union dissolution, employmentand non-employment events. The model allows for unobserved heterogeneitythat is correlated across all five equations. We use information from the BritishHousehold Panel Survey, including the retrospective histories concerning work,union, and child bearing, to estimate this model. We obtain well-definedparameter estimates, including significant and correlated unobservedheterogeneity. We find that transitions in and out of employment for men arerelatively independent of other transitions. In contrast, there are strong linksbetween female employment, having children and union formation. Byundertaking a detailed micro simulations analysis, we show that different levelsof female labour force participation do not necessarily lead to large changes infertility levels. Changes in union formation and fertility levels, on the otherhand, do have a significant impact on employment rates.[...]