Family-oriented versus career seekers: mixture regression separation

Using a finite mixture regression approach, we identify two groups of individuals, family- and career-oriented. Depending on whether the employment status is treated as a binomial or trinomial (with part-time work) variable, 55–70% of women and 4–10% of men belong to the family-oriented group. Children variables are the main source of differences between the two identified groups and between the family-oriented group and the average woman. Treating all women as one group leads to averaged-out estimates of children effects and underestimates the importance of part-time work for family-oriented women. Our results are important for studying women’s labour supply and for designing policies aimed at encouraging women’s labour market involvement.