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Abstract from the article Motherhood is defined as the activities and responsibilities of female parents. Its economic contribution is the reproduction of the number and ‘quality’ of the next generation of producers (and reproducers). Though this contribution is unpaid it should not go unnoticed. To the extent that maternal duties displace women's productive work, motherhood has an economic ‘opportunity’ cost. Forgone earnings can occur through participation, hours of productive work and/or remuneration. They may vary by the number, timing, spacing and survival of births, for woman of given earning power. The cost depends on the context: how much the woman would earn otherwise; how far employment can be combined with childrearing; how far women may draw on sources of income other than her own earnings; the alternative sources of childcare. This is illustrated in estimates for the US, UK, Germany, Sweden, and France. If motherhood lowers earnings it would also lower a woman's savings and pension. Children may help to recompense this loss in old age. The more incompatible are earning and motherhood, the more will mothers be financially dependent upon their husbands (or the state). The greater the tradeoff, the more are improvements on the female labor market likely to deter childbearing, but the tradeoff is not universally high. Literature review: