Early Labour Market Disruption: Effect of Young Adult Childbearing on the Women’s Labour Market Outcome

Work interruptions related to birth are expected to affect mothers’ wages directly through changes in the formation of human capital. This effect is proposed to be exceptionally strong for young adult childbearing women who are about to start their working careers. This study investigates whether the long-term socioeconomic problems experienced by women with first childbirth before turning 26 are a reflection of pre-existing disadvantages or are a consequence of the childbearing timing? The purpose is furthermore to observe whether a new combination of the best practices of earlier studies on the subject can serve as a better estimation method. This is done by applying a Sister First Difference estimator while using miscarriages as exogenous variation. This exact design has, to my knowledge, never been used before to estimate socio-economic effects of childbearing timing. I find no effects of young adult childbearing on the women’s wages.