Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/256806 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 1094
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Essen
Abstract: 
As of 2021, 16 U.S. States and the District of Columbia have implemented laws allowing undocumented migrants to acquire a driver's license. In this paper, I hypothesize that lower barriers to work caused by the ability to obtain driving licenses can affect undocumented migrants' fertility decisions. Using a differencein- differences strategy based on temporal and geographical variation in the implementation of laws granting undocumented migrants access to driving licenses across U.S. states, I find that these laws were associated with about 9% decline in childbirth among likely undocumented married women. Exploring the mechanism, the results of the analysis indicate that granting undocumented migrants access to driving licenses increased the propensity to work along the intensive margin. Among those at work, their usual weekly hours rose by approximately 1.5%.
Subjects: 
driving licenses
undocumented immigrants
fertility
labor market impacts
JEL: 
J13
I38
J15
K37
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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