Nº 379 (August, 2026). Inés Berniell & Raquel Fernández

Female labor force participation (LFP) and fertility have evolved jointly across Latin America, with participation rising as fertility declined over the last two decades. This paper studies the extent to which changes in fertility can account for increases in women’s labor supply in the five largest economies in the region as well as in the US. Defining three groups based solely on the presence of children under age 6, under age 13, and no children under age 13, we find that in all countries changes in labor supply within groups overwhelmingly dominate the compositional shifts induced by declining fertility. When we further disaggregate women into groups by their education in addition to the age of their children, the changing composition of the population becomes more important and the increase in LFP is mostly driven by more educated women without children under age 13, reflecting increases in both their participation and population share.

JEL codes: J13, J16, J21

Suggested citation: Berniell, I. & R. Fernández (2026). Female Labor Force Participation and Fertility in Latin America: Decomposing Two Decades of Change. CEDLAS Working Papers Nº 379, August, 2026, CEDLAS-FCE-Universidad Nacional de La Plata.