Relative income concerns and the rise in married women's employment

• 成果类型: Article; Proceedings Paper
• 署名作者: Neumark, D; Postlewaite, A
• 署名单位: University of Pennsylvania; Michigan State University; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/S0047-2727(98)00065-6
• 发表日期: 1998
• 页码: 157-183
• 关键词: Relative income; married women; EMPLOYMENT

摘要

We ask whether women's decisions to be in the workforce may be affected by the decisions of other women in ways not captured by standard models. We develop a model that augments the simple neoclassical framework by introducing relative income concerns into women's (or families') utility functions. In this model, the entry of some women into paid employment can spur the entry of other women, independently of wage and income effects. We show that relative income concerns can help to explain why, over some periods, women's employment rose faster than can be accounted for by the simple neoclassical model. We test the model by asking whether women's decisions to seek paid employment depend on the employment or incomes of other women with whom relative income comparisons might be important, including sisters and sisters-in-law The evidence is largely supportive of the relative income hypothesis. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.