The public sector, family structure, and labor market behavior: Jewish mothers in Israel

Recent research has suggested that the characteristics of paid work affect trade-offs between women's activities in the family and employment spheres. One argument suggests that public sector employment, more so than private sector employment, provides conditions that are amenable to the combination of paid work and family. In this article, the authors exploit panel-type data to compare the labor market behavior of Jewish Israeli women in the years following childbirth and focus on differential labor market activity among women with employment histories in the public and private sectors. Their findings point to significant interaction effects between previous sector of employment and childbearing behavior and suggest that the welfare state, through the provision of "family friendly" employment opportunities, plays a role in encouraging women's paid labor in the years following childbirth.