Why do so few women work in New York (and so many in Minneapolis)? Labor supply of married women across US cities

Dan Black, Natalia Kolesnikova and Lowell Taylor

Journal of Urban Economics, 2014, vol. 79, issue C, 59-71

Abstract: This paper documents a little-noticed feature of US labor markets—very large variation in the labor supply of married women across cities. We focus on cross-city differences in commuting times as a potential explanation for this variation. We start with a model in which commuting times introduce non-convexities into the budget set. Empirical evidence is consistent with the model’s predictions: Labor force participation rates of married women are negatively correlated with the metropolitan area commuting time. Also, metropolitan areas with larger increases in average commuting time in 1980–2000 had slower growth in the labor force participation of married women.

Keywords: Female labor supply; Local labor markets; Commute time; Non-convex budget sets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J21 J22 R23 R41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (99)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:juecon:v:79:y:2014:i:c:p:59-71

DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2013.03.003

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