Engines of Liberation

Jeremy Greenwood (), Ananth Seshadri () and Mehmet Yorukoglu
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Mehmet Yorukoglu: Sabanci Universitesi

No 503, RCER Working Papers from University of Rochester - Center for Economic Research (RCER)

Abstract: Electricity was born at the dawn of the last century. Households are inundated with a flood of consumer durables. What was the impact of this consumer goods revolution. It is argued here that the consumer goods revolution was conducive to liberating women from the home. To analyze this hypothesis, a Beckerian model of household production is developed. Households must decide whether or not to adopt the new technologies and whether a married woman should work. Can such a model help to explain the rise in married female labor-force participation that occurred in the last century? Yes.

Keywords: The second industrial revolution; technology adoption; household production theory; female labor force participation. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E1 J2 N1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge
Date: 2003-10
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Related works:
Working Paper: Engines of Liberation (2002)
Working Paper: Engines of liberation (2002)
Journal Article: Engines of Liberation (2005)
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