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New Mothers’ Labour Force Participation in Italy: The Role of Job Characteristics
Author(s) -
Bratti Massimiliano,
Bono Emilia Del,
Vuri Daniela
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
labour
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.403
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1467-9914
pISSN - 1121-7081
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9914.2005.00324.x
Subject(s) - legislation , demographic economics , labour economics , longitudinal data , parental leave , private sector , marital status , job loss , economics , business , political science , economic growth , demography , work (physics) , sociology , unemployment , population , mechanical engineering , law , engineering
. In this paper we use newly available individual‐level data from the Longitudinal Survey of Italian Households to investigate the factors associated with female labour force participation after the birth of the first child. We focus on the role of pre‐marital job characteristics and find that new mothers who worked without a contract are less likely to participate, while those who worked in the public sector or in a large private firm have a higher probability of being in the labour force after childbearing. We suggest that these effects could be at least partly attributed to differences in the level of job protection and employment stability enjoyed by workers. This implies that in Italy women with highly protected and stable jobs might find it easier to combine career and family, whereas those who are less sheltered by the legislation might be more likely to be inactive after becoming mothers.