Immigration, family responsibilities and the labor supply of skilled native women

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of Spain's large recentimmigration wave on the labor supply of highly skilled native women. Wehypothesize that female immigration led to an increase in the supply ofaffordable household services, such as housekeeping and child or elderlycare. As a result, i) native females with high earnings potential were ableto increase their labor supply, and ii) the effects were larger on skilledwomen whose labor supply was heavily constrained by familyresponsibilities. Our evidence indicates that over the last decadeimmigration led to an important expansion in the size of the householdservices sector and to an increase in the labor supply of women in highearningoccupations (of about 2 hours per week). We also find thatimmigration allowed skilled native women to return to work sooner afterchildbirth, to stay in the workforce longer when having elderlydependents in the household, and to postpone retirement.Methodologically, we show that the availability of even limited Registrydata makes it feasible to conduct the analysis using quarterly householdsurvey data, as opposed to having to rely on the decennial Census.Immigration, labor supply, fertility, retirement, household services