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Nature or Nurture? Learning and Female Labour Force Dynamics

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Author Info
Fogli, Alessandra
Veldkamp, Laura

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Abstract

Much of the increase in female labour force participation in the post-war period has come from the entry of married women with young children. Accompanying this change has been a rise in cultural acceptance of maternal employment. We argue that the concurrent S shaped rise in maternal participation and its cultural acceptance comes from generations of women engaged in Bayesian learning about the effects of maternal employment on children. Each generation updates their parents' beliefs by observing the children of employed women. When few women participate in the labour force, most observations are uninformative and participation rises slowly. As information accumulates and the effects of labour force participation become less uncertain, more women participate, learning accelerates and labour force participation rises faster. As beliefs converge to the truth, participation flattens out. Survey data, wage data and participation data support our mechanism and distinguish it from alternative explanations.

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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 6324.

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Date of creation: Jun 2007
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Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6324

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Related research
Keywords: female labour force participation information diffusion labor supply preference transmission S-shaped learning

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E2 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment
J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
N32 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Income, and Wealth - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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References listed on IDEAS
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.:
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    Other versions:
  2. repec:att:wimass:192021 is not listed on IDEAS
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  4. Paola Giuliano, 2007. "Living Arrangements in Western Europe: Does Cultural Origin Matter?," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 5(5), pages 927-952, 09. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Doepke, Matthias & Zilibotti, Fabrizio, 2007. "Occupational Choice and the Spirit of Capitalism," CEPR Discussion Papers 6405, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Lídia Farré & Francis Vella, 2007. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Role Attitudes and its Implications for Female Labor Force Participation," IZA Discussion Papers 2802, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. 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)
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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. Cavalcanti, Tiago & Tavares, José, 2007. "The Output Cost of Gender Discrimination: A Model-Based Macroeconomic Estimate," CEPR Discussion Papers 6477, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Francis Vella & Lídia Farré, 2007. "The Intergenerational Transmission Of Gender Role Attitudes And Its Implications For Female Labor Force Participation," Working Papers. Serie AD 2007-23, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Raquel Fernandez, 2007. "Culture as Learning: The Evolution of Female Labor Force Participation over a Century," NBER Working Papers 13373, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Hanno Lustig & Stijn Van Nieuwerburg & Adrien Verdelhan, 2007. "The Wealth-Consumption Ratio: A Litmus Test for Consumption-based Asset Pricing Models¤," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2007-030, Boston University - Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Mayssun El-Attar, 2007. "Trust, Child Care Technology Choice and Female Labor Force Participation," IZA Discussion Papers 3135, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  6. Fernández, Raquel, 2007. "Culture as Learning: The Evolution of Female Labour Force Participation Over a Century," CEPR Discussion Papers 6451, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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