Employment around first birth in two adverse institutional settings: Evidence from Italy and Poland

This paper analyses women’s employment behaviour around first birth in Italy and Poland. These two countries have much in common as far as their cultural and institutional frameworks are concerned. However, they also display key differences that allow us to better investigate how the country-specific factors mediate women’s employment behaviour around the first birth. Our findings reveal substantial differences in women’s behaviour across educational groups and between the two countries. We conclude that conditions for combining work and family, although important, are not the only determinants of women’s fertility and employment decisions, and that other country-specific factors are also highly influential.