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Revisiting ‘mothers and sons’ preference formation and the female labor force in Switzerland

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  • Bütikofer, Aline

Abstract

This paper analyzes the interrelation between men's gender role attitudes and female labor supply decision. Following Fernández et al. (2004), I argue that the recent increases in the female labor market participation rate are driven by the growing proportion of men who were brought up in a family with a working mother. First, the paper reexamines the results of the cross-section analysis of Fernández et al. (2004) using the Swiss Household Panel 2005 to illustrate that married women whose mothers-in-law were working are themselves significantly more likely to be in the labor force. In a second step, the paper attempts to test one of their model's crucial mechanisms and show that the effect of a wife's labor market integration on her husband's well-being diverges depending on the former labor market status of his mother. Taken together, this evidence can be interpreted as varying preferences for women with high labor market integration due to exposure to certain sexual stereotypes early in life.

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  • Bütikofer, Aline, 2013. "Revisiting ‘mothers and sons’ preference formation and the female labor force in Switzerland," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 82-91.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:20:y:2013:i:c:p:82-91
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2012.11.003
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    Cited by:

    1. Victor Gay, 2023. "The Intergenerational Transmission of World War I on Female Labour," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(654), pages 2303-2333.
    2. Raymundo Miguel Campos-Vazquez & Roberto Velez-Grajales, 2014. "Female Labour Supply and Intergenerational Preference Formation: Evidence for Mexico," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(4), pages 553-569, December.
    3. Mine Durman-Aslan, 2020. "Female Labor Force Participation in Turkey: The Role of the Intergenerational Links," Post-Print halshs-02900982, HAL.
    4. Juerg Schweri & Annina Eymann & Manuel Aepli, 2020. "Horizontal mismatch and vocational education," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(32), pages 3464-3478, June.
    5. Mine Durmaz-Aslan, 2020. "Female Labor Force Participation in Turkey: The Role of the Intergenerational Links," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 20013, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    6. Mine Durman-Aslan, 2020. "Female Labor Force Participation in Turkey: The Role of the Intergenerational Links," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-02900982, HAL.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Female labor supply; Well-being; Preferences; Marriage; Family;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure

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