Wind of Change? Cultural Determinants of Maternal Labor Supply

Barbara Boelmann, Anna Raute and Uta Schönberg
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Barbara Boelmann: University College London
Anna Raute: Queen Mary University of London
Uta Schönberg: University College London

No 914, Working Papers from Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance

Abstract: Does the culture in which a woman grows up influence her labor market decisions once she has had a child? To what extent might the culture of her present social environment shape maternal labor supply? To address these questions, we exploit the setting of German reunification. A state socialist country, East Germany strongly encouraged mothers to participate in the labor market full-time, whereas West Germany propagated a more traditional male breadwinner-model. After reunification, these two cultures were suddenly thrown together, with consequent increased social interactions between East and West Germans through migration and commuting. A comparison of East and West German mothers on both sides of the former Inner German border within the same commuting zone shows that culture matters. Indeed, East German mothers return to work more quickly and for longer hours than West German mothers even two decades after reunification. Second, in exploiting migration across this old border, we document a strong asymmetry in the persistence of the culture in which women were raised. Whereas East German female migrants return to work earlier and work longer hours than their West German colleagues even after long exposure to the more traditional West German culture, West German migrants adjust their post-birth labour supply behaviour nearly entirely to that of their East German colleagues. Finally, taking advantage of differential inflows of East German migrants across West German firms in the aftermath of reunification, we show that even a partial exposure to East German colleagues induces “native” West German mothers to accelerate their return to work after childbirth, suggesting that migration might be a catalyst for cultural change.

Keywords: cultural transmission; social norms; maternal labor force participation; German (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 J2 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-10-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-evo, nep-his, nep-lma and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:qmw:qmwecw:914

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