How Does Fertility Affect Female Employment? Evidence from Albania
使用混合方法分析2000年代阿尔巴尼亚农村和城市地区生育对女性就业的影响，发现额外孩子降低农村母亲就业概率，但对城市女性无显著影响，并探讨了结构性障碍。
This article inspects the relationship between fertility and employment, providing an explanatory mixed-method analysis to gauge their nexus for rural and urban Albania over the 2000s. We instrument reproductive decisions with having two first-born daughters in a 2SLS model of employment. We show that having an additional child negatively influences employment probability for rural mothers, but not for women in urban areas. Heterogeneous analyses show that rural women who lack education or wealth are more dependent on their fertility decisions, whilst there are no relevant differences by occupation types. We further show that the fertility effect is reinforced by the characteristics of the rural household, such as the presence of seniors in the household or if the partner is working. We then examine qualitatively how structural and contextual settings influence women in their decisions. We inspect the experience of rural women and employers from three distinct rural municipalities. Interviews reveal several obstacles that create a gap between employer and employee expectations, resulting in females refusing job offers. The qualitative findings suggest that targeted policies on transport, childcare, and employment services are essential aspects of policy-making to favour rural and distant women’s integration.