Culture as Learning: The Evolution of Female Labor Force Participation over a Century

Raquel Fernandez
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Raquel Fernandez: NYU

No 78, 2009 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics

Abstract: Married women's labor force participation increased dramatically over the last century. I investigate the role of changes in culture arising from learning in this process. In the model, women hold (heterogeneous) beliefs regarding the long-run payoff of market work versus working at home. Beliefs evolve via an intergenerational learning process which generically generates an S-shaped figure for female LFP. I calibrate the model and show that it does a good job in replicating the historical evolution of female LFP in the US over 120 years. I find that the model's novel dynamic role for wages is quantitatively important.

Date: 2009
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:red:sed009:78

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