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Changes in Women's Hours of Market Work: The Role of Returns to Experience

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Author Info
Claudia Olivetti () (Department of Economics, Boston University)

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Abstract

Over the past several decades, married women?s hours of market work increased signi?cantly in the US. I argue that changes in behavior by married women with children account for much of this change. In particular, the pattern of married women?s work hours has changed substantially over the life-cycle. In the past, married women in childbearing age tended to specialize in childrearing and home production activities at the expense of engaging in market work. Now they do not curb the hours worked on the market. What factors contribute to this change in behavior? In this paper, I focus on relative changes in returns to experience as an explanation. I quantitatively assess how these changes in returns to experience contributed to changes in married women?s life cycle pro?les of hours worked. I build a life-cycle model with human capital accumulation and home production in which the basic unit of analysis is a married couple with children, and calibrate it using data from the 1970s and 1990s. I show that changes in returns to experience account for a large part of the observed variation. Moreover, according to the model, the increase in returns to experience accounts for roughly half of the increase in the female/male wage ratio that is found in the data. I also show that a decline in the gender wage gap, holding returns to experience constant, cannot explain the change in the shape of women?s life cycle pro?les. Although the focus of the analysis is the labor supply behavior of women, the model also allows predictions about the behavior of men and single women. These predictions are consistent with the data.

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Paper provided by Boston University - Department of Economics in its series Boston University - Department of Economics - Macroeconomics Working Papers Series with number WP2005-008.

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Length: 44 pages
Date of creation: Sep 2005
Date of revision: Jun 2006
Publication status: published, Review of Economic Dynamics 9, no. 4 (October 2006): 557-587.
Handle: RePEc:bos:macppr:wp2005-008

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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Raquel Fernandez & Alessandra Fogli & Claudia Olivetti, 2002. "Marrying Your Mom: Preference Transmission and Women's Labor and Education Choices," NBER Working Papers 9234, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Richard Rogerson, 2006. "Understanding Differences in Hours Worked," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 9(3), pages 365-409, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Merz, Monika, 2004. "Women's Hours of Market Work in Germany: The Role of Parental Leave," IZA Discussion Papers 1288, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  4. Matthias Doepke & Moshe Hazan & Yishay D. Maoz, 2006. "The Baby Boom and World War II: The Role of Labor Market Experience," DEGIT Conference Papers c011_026, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Ellen R. McGrattan & Richard Rogerson, 2007. "Changes in the distribution of family hours worked since 1950," Staff Report 397, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. [Downloadable!]
  6. de la Rica, Sara & Dolado, Juan José & García-Peñalosa, Cecilia, 2008. "On Gender Gaps and Self-fulfilling Expectations: Theory, Policies and Some Empirical Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 3553, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Claudio Michelacci & Josep Pijoan-Mas, 2007. "The Effects Of Labor Market Conditions On Working Time: The Us-Eu Experience," Working Papers wp2007_0705, CEMFI. [Downloadable!]
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  8. Stefania Albanesi & Claudia Olivetti, 2009. "Gender Roles and Medical Progress," NBER Working Papers 14873, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Claudia Goldin, 2006. "The Quiet Revolution that Transformed Women's Employment, Education, and Family," NBER Working Papers 11953, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Matthias Doepke & Moshe Hazan & Yishay D. Maoz, 2007. "The Baby Boom and World War II: A Macroeconomic Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 3253, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  11. Christian Bredemeier & Falko Jüßen, 2009. "Household Labor Supply and Home Services in a General-Equilibrium Model with Heterogeneous Agents," Ruhr Economic Papers 0091, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen. [Downloadable!]
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  12. Jonathan Heathcote & Kjetil Storesletten & Giovanni L. Violante, 2008. "The Macroeconomic Implications of Rising Wage Inequality in the United States," NBER Working Papers 14052, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  13. Greenwood, Jeremy & Guner, Nezih, 2007. "Marriage and Divorce since World War II: Analyzing the Role of Technological Progress on the Formation of Households," CEPR Discussion Papers 6391, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Stefania Albanesi & Claudia Olivetti, 2007. "Home production, market production and the gender wage gap: Incentives and expectations," Discussion Papers 0607-10, Columbia University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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