The Role of Labor and Marriage Markets, Preference Heterogeneity and the Welfare System in the Life Cycle Decisions of Black, Hispanic and White Women

Michael Keane () and Kenneth Wolpin ()
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Kenneth Wolpin: Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania

PIER Working Paper Archive from Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania

Abstract: Using data from the NLSY79, we structurally estimate a dynamic model of the life cycle decisions of young women. The women make joint and sequential decisions about school attendance, work, marriage, fertility and welfare participation. We use the model to perform a set of counterfactual simulations designed to shed light on three questions: (1) How much of observed minority-majority differences in behavior can be attributed to differences in labor market opportunities, marriage market opportunities, and preference heterogeneity? (2) How does the welfare system interact with these factors to augment those differences? (3) How can new cohorts that grow up under the new welfare system (TANF) be expected to behave compared to older cohorts?

Keywords: female life cycle behavior; labor market opportunities; marriage market opportunities; public welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 J2 J3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 90 pages
Date: 2006-01-02
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

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Journal Article: THE ROLE OF LABOR AND MARRIAGE MARKETS, PREFERENCE HETEROGENEITY, AND THE WELFARE SYSTEM IN THE LIFE CYCLE DECISIONS OF BLACK, HISPANIC, AND WHITE WOMEN (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pen:papers:06-004

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