Explaining Changes in Female Labor Supply in a Life-Cycle Model

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Attanasio, Orazio; Low, Hamish; Sanchez-Marcos, Virginia
• 署名单位: University of London; University College London; University of Cambridge; Universidad de Cantabria
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.98.4.1517
• 发表日期: 2008
• 页码: 1517-1552
• 关键词: MARKET WORK BEHAVIOR; married-women; Child-care; covariance structure; force participation; marital-status; fertility; earnings; divorce; experience

摘要

This paper studies the life-cycle labor supply of three cohorts of American women, born in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. We focus on the increase in labor supply of mothers between the 1940s and 1950s cohorts. We construct a life-cycle model of female participation and savings, and calibrate the model to match the behavior of the middle cohort. We investigate which changes in the determinants of labor supply account for the increases in participation early in the life-cycle observed for the youngest cohort. A combination of a reduction in the cost of children alongside a reduction in the wage-gender gap is needed.