Shocking Labor Supply: A Reassessment of the Role of World War II on U.S. Women's Labor Supply

Claudia Goldin and Claudia Olivetti

No 18676, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The most prominent feature of the female labor force across the past hundred years is its enormous growth. But many believe that the increase was discontinuous. Our purpose is to identify the short- and long-run impacts of WWII on the labor supply of women who were currently married in 1950 and 1960. We use mobilization rates for various groups of men (by age, race, fatherhood) to see whether there was a wartime impact. We find that an aggregate mobilization rate produces the largest and most robust impacts on both weeks worked and the labor force participation of married white (non-farm) women. The impact, moreover, was experienced primarily by women in the top half of the education distribution. Women who were married but without children during WWII were the group most impacted by the mobilization rate in 1950, although by 1960 WWII still influenced the labor supply decisions of them as well as those with children during WWII. We end the paper with a resolution between the watershed and revisionist views of the role of WWII on female labor supply.

JEL-codes: J16 J2 N3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-his, nep-lab, nep-lma and nep-ltv
Note: DAE LS
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (159)

Published as Goldin, Claudia, and Claudia Olivetti. 2013. "Shocking Labor Supply: A Reassessment of the Role of World War II on Women's Labor Supply." American Economic Review, 103(3): 257-62.

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Journal Article: Shocking Labor Supply: A Reassessment of the Role of World War II on Women's Labor Supply (2013)
Working Paper: Shocking Labor Supply: A Reassessment of the Role of World War II on Women's Labor Supply (2013)
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