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Nature or nurture? learning and female labor force dynamics
In the last century, the evolution of female labor force participation has been S-shaped: It rose slowly at first, then quickly, and has leveled off recently. Central to this dramatic rise has been the entry of women with young children. We argue that this S-shaped dynamic came from generations of women learning about the relative importance of nature (endowed ability) and nurture (time spent child-rearing) in determining children's outcomes. Each generation updates the beliefs of their parents, by observing others' outcomes. When few women participate in the labor force, most outcomes are ...
Journal Article
Wives at work
From 1950 to 1990, married women tripled their hours in the workplace. New research suggests that reduced wage discrimination-not better appliances or higher incomes-caused this sea change in the workforce
Journal Article
Refashioning my career with community in mind
Plans change. Elizabeth Hart was in law school preparing for further career development when she decided to launch an independent nonprofit organization to help women move from welfare to work. She's learned a lot along the way, and she uses that knowledge to support women and their families.
Working Paper
Elimination of gender-related employment disparities through statistical process control
This paper proposes a novel approach that has the potential to hasten the eradication of gender disparities in employment. This approach relies upon the concept of statistical process control (SPC) to more systematically remedy disparate employment outcomes for women. SPC also serves as a new vehicle for conceptualizing the influence of industry on equal employment opportunity (EEO) outcomes. Using data from U.S. Current Population Surveys, we compare industries on EEO performance as assessed by a recently developed Systemic Gender Disparity Scorecard. The theory and practice of SPC suggest ...
Journal Article
Multi-income families
Journal Article
From the valley to the summit: a brief history of the quiet revolution that transformed women's work
We can have a meaningful discussion today about "women at the top" only because of a quiet revolution that took place 30 years ago.
Journal Article
Observations: bringing home the gold
High labor force participation by women is correlated with athletic prowess.
Working Paper
Nonparametric estimation of the impact of taxes on female labor supply
Econometric models with nonlinear budgets sets frequently arise in the study of impact of taxation on labor supply. Blomquist and Newey (2002) have suggested a nonparametric method to estimate the uncompensated wage and income effects when the budget set is nonlinear. This paper extends their nonparametric estimation method to censored dependent variables. The modified method is applied to estimate female wage and income elasticities using the 1987 PSID. I find evidence of bias if the nonlinearity in the budget set is ignored. The median compensated elasticity is estimated at 1.19 (with a ...
Journal Article
Women's labor market involvement and family income mobility when marriages end
The last 30 years have seen a dramatic change in women's social and economic status in the United States, particularly in their labor market activity. When women were less involved and less successful in the labor market, many of them gained access to market income only or primarily through marriage or cohabitation with a working man. As a result, women and children were especially vulnerable to the death of a partner, separation, or divorce. ; In this article, the authors examine three decades of data on the relationship between women's labor market activity and the income mobility of ...
Journal Article
Women's rise: a work in progress
Recent data show declines in labor force participation for highly educated women, but the causes of these changes are not easy to identify.