Female employment following childbirth: differences between native and immigrant women in Switzerland

This paper analyses how native and immigrant women adapt their labour supply soon after childbirth in Switzerland. The analysis aims to examine whether the heterogeneity in post-birth female employment is explained by differences by women's origin with respect to skills composition, occupational attainment and household financial situation. Using 2010-2015 panel data from the Swiss Labour Force Survey, multinomial models focus on the transitions experienced by employed women from t-1 (one year prior) to different levels of labour-market involvement in t (reference week) after childbirth (which occurs when a woman has a child of less than one year of age in t). Three possible outcomes are considered: same/more working hours, fewer working hours, and withdrawal from employment. Double hurdle models are also used to account for the total amount of hours worked by those women who remain in employment after childbirth. In post-birth employment patterns, a larger positive effect of women's opportunity cost, measured through educational attainment and previous job characteristics, than of partners' income, is observed, especially for immigrant women.