Abstract

We provide new evidence on the impact of European abortion policies on female labour market outcomes and family formation outcomes. Specifically, this paper studies the impact of abortion liberalisation on the probability of being a mother, marrying and entering in the labor market for the first time before the age of 16-22, by exploiting country and time variation in the implementation of abortion liberalisation in the 1970s. Our estimates suggest that liberalised access to abortion is related with postponed motherhood and marriage, while revealing an association with earlier entry into the labour market.