Childbirth and women's labour market transitions in India (revised)

The impact of childbirth on women's employment has been discussed extensively in the context of developed countries. Constraints on mothers' labour market participation and consequent fall in earnings are characterized as the 'motherhood penalty'. This phenomenon is relatively less explored in developing countries primarily because of the lack of suitable data. In this paper, we use primary data from India, collected via a life history calendar administered to men and women separately.