By
Kathy G.
Today I want to write about a new paper on the labor force participation of married women in the U.S. The paper is of interest in itself, and also for the light it sheds on the so-called opt-out question (the debate over whether women are opting out of the work force). First, a little about the study. It's in the current (July 2007) issue of the Journal of Labor Economics and it's by Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn, two Cornell labor economists who are among the foremost experts in the economics of gender. (The article is available by subscription only, but if you email me I'll send you a copy.) They look at married women's labor force participation rates between 1980 and 2000, and they found two very important results: -- There was a dramatic increase in the labor supply (as measured in hours) of married women between 1980 and 1990, but only a relatively small increase between 1990 and 2000. -- Married women's labor supply was significantly less responsive to both their own and their husbands' wages. Now, what does that second statement mean? Traditionally, women's labor supply has been much more elastic than men's. In economics elasticity refers to the percentage change in one thing with respect to a 1% change in another; in the case of labor supply, it refers to the percent change in employment induced by a 1% increase in wages. Historically, men's labor supply has been inelastic -- they'll work about the same number of hours no matter what, whether their wages go up or down.
