We study the trajectory of maternal employment as children age and assess the factors underlying the smooth increase in mothers’ employment as their youngest child ages. Our results indicate that the rising employment profile is largely not associated with falling child care costs, changes in nonlabor income, or marital dissolution as children age. Differences in educational attainment and wage opportunities are related to some of the increase in employment when children are under 4 years old but do not explain any after that age. We discuss explanations for the rising pattern of mothers’ employment that might be consistent with our results.

中文翻译：

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评估母亲在儿童时代就业的平稳增长

我们研究了随着孩子年龄增长的母亲就业轨迹，并评估了随着孩子年龄的最小母亲就业平稳增长的潜在因素。我们的结果表明，随着儿童年龄的增长，就业状况的上升与儿童保育成本的下降，非劳动收入的变化或婚姻的消散无关。受教育程度和工资机会的差异与4岁以下儿童的就业增长有关，但在4岁以下儿童没有任何解释。我们讨论了有关母亲就业模式上升的解释，这可能与我们的结果相符。