Women, War and Wages: The Effect of Female Labor Supply on the Wage Structure at Mid-Century

Daron Acemoglu, David Autor () and David Lyle

No 9013, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of female labor supply on the wage structure. To identify variation in female labor supply, we exploit the military mobilization for World War II, which drew many women into the workforce as males exited civilian employment. The extent of mobilization was not uniform across states, however, with the fraction of eligible males serving ranging from 41 to 54 percent. We find that in states with greater mobilization of men, women worked substantially more after the War and in 1950, though not in 1940. We interpret these differentials as labor supply shifts induced by the War. We find that increases in female labor supply lower female wages, lower male wages, and increase the college and premium and male wage inequality generally. Our findings indicate that at mid-century, women were closer substitutes to high school graduate and relatively low-skill males, but not to those with the lowest skills.

JEL-codes: J21 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-ltv
Date: 2002-06
Note: EFG LS
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Journal Article: Women, War, and Wages: The Effect of Female Labor Supply on the Wage Structure at Midcentury (2004)
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