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The Missing Men: World War I and Female Labor Force Participation

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  • Boehnke, Jörn
  • Gay, Victor

Abstract

Using spatial variation in World War I military fatalities in France, we show that the scarcity of men due to the war generated an upward shift in female labor force participation that persisted throughout the interwar period. Available data suggest that increased female labor supply accounts for this result. In particular, deteriorated marriage market conditions for single women and negative income shocks to war widows induced many of these women to enter the labor force after the war. In contrast, demand factors such as substitution toward female labor to compensate for the scarcity of male labor were of second-order importance.

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  • Boehnke, Jörn & Gay, Victor, 2020. "The Missing Men: World War I and Female Labor Force Participation," IAST Working Papers 20-102, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST).
    • Handle: RePEc:tse:iastwp:123953
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    Cited by:

    1. Gonzalez, Felipe & Prem, Mounu & von Dessauer, Cristine, 2023. "Empowerment or Indoctrination? Women Centers Under Dictatorship," SocArXiv 64mf9, Center for Open Science.
    2. Jörn Boehnke & Victor Gay, 2022. "The Missing Men: World War I and Female Labor Force Participation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(4), pages 1209-1241.
    3. Felipe Carozzi & Edward Pinchbeck & Luca Repetto, 2023. "Scars of War: The Legacy of WW1 Deaths on Civic Capital and Combat Motivation," CESifo Working Paper Series 10298, CESifo.
    4. Victor Gay, 2021. "Mapping the Third Republic: A Geographic Information System of France (1870–1940)," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(4), pages 189-207, November.
    5. Fenske, James & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Neumann, Cora, 2022. "Missing women in Colonial India," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 613, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    6. 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.
    7. Brodeur, Abel & Haddad, Joanne, 2021. "Institutions, attitudes and LGBT: Evidence from the gold rush," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 92-110.
    8. Erich BATTISTIN & Sascha O. BECKER & Luca Nunziata, 2022. "More choice for men? Marriage patterns after World War II in Italy," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 88(3), pages 447-472, September.
    9. Rusu Mihai Stelian, 2021. "Street Names through Sociological Lenses. Part II: Constructionism and Utilitarianism," Social Change Review, Sciendo, vol. 19(1), pages 1-28, December.
    10. Victor Gay, 2017. "The Legacy of the Missing Men: The Long-Run Impact of World War I on Female Labor Force Participation," 2017 Papers pga905, Job Market Papers.
    11. Victor Gay, 2020. "Mapping The Third Republic A Geographic Information System Of France (1870–1940)," Working Papers 05-20, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC).
    12. Brian Beach & Karen Clay & Martin Saavedra, 2022. "The 1918 Influenza Pandemic and Its Lessons for COVID-19," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 41-84, March.
    13. Galina Besstremyannaya & Sergei Golovan, 2022. "Instrumental Variable Quantile Regression For Clustered Data," HSE Working papers WP BRP 255/EC/2022, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    14. ASAI, Kentaro & KAMBAYASHI, Ryo, 2023. "The Consequences of Hometown Regiment : What Happened in Hometown When the Soldiers Never Returned?," Discussion Paper Series 743, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    15. Barbara Boelmann & Anna Christina Raute & Uta Schönberg, 2021. "Wind of Change? Cultural Determinants of Maternal Labor Supply," CESifo Working Paper Series 9094, CESifo.
    16. Fenske, James & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Yuan, Song, 2020. "Demographic shocks and women’s labor market participation : evidence from the 1918 influenza pandemic in india," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1286, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    17. Fenske, James & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Yuan, Song, 2020. "Demographic shocks and women’s labor market participation : evidence from the 1918 influenza pandemic in india," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1286, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    18. Alix-Garcia, Jennifer & Schechter, Laura & Valencia Caicedo, Felipe & Jessica Zhu, S., 2022. "Country of Women? Repercussions of the Triple Alliance War in Paraguay," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 131-167.
    19. Barbara Boelmann & Anna Raute & Uta Schönberg, 2021. "Wind of Change? Cultural Determinants of Maternal Labor Supply," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 090, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    20. Victor Gay, 2023. "The Intergenerational Transmission of World War I on Female Labour," Working Papers hal-02523129, HAL.
    21. Andreas Ferrara & Price V. Fishback, 2020. "Discrimination, Migration, and Economic Outcomes: Evidence from World War I," NBER Working Papers 26936, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Wu, Jiabin & Zhang, Hanzhe, 2021. "Preference evolution in different matching markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    23. Victor Gay, 2021. "Mapping the Third Republic. A Geographic Information System of France (1870–1940)," Working Papers hal-02951461, HAL.
    24. Fenske, James & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Neumann, Cora, 2022. "Missing women in Colonial India," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1402, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    25. Gianluca Russo, 2018. "World War I and the Rise of Fascism in Italy," Boston University - Department of Economics - The Institute for Economic Development Working Papers Series dp-341, Boston University - Department of Economics, revised May 2020.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Female labor; World War I; Sex ratio; Marriage market; Labor supply;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • N34 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: 1913-

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