The career and family choices of women: A dynamic analysis of labor force participation, schooling, marriage, and fertility decisions

This paper formulates and estimates a discrete time, discrete choice dynamic labor supply model in which marriage, fertility, and education are choice variables. The dynamics of these choices are captured by various forms of state and duration dependence. Uncertainty comes from the imperfect control women have over births and from a choice-specific random shock to utility each period. Women choose different career and family life-cycle paths because of these uncertainties and also because they have different tastes. The structural parameters of the model are estimated using maximum likelihood estimation techniques with data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.