Women Working Longer: Facts and Some Explanations

Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz

No 22607, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: American women are working more, through their sixties and even into their seventies. Their increased participation at older ages started in the late 1980s before the turnaround in older men’s labor force participation and the economic downturns of the 2000s. The higher labor force participation of older women consists disproportionately of those working at full-time jobs. Increased labor force participation of women in their older ages is part of the general increase in cohort labor force participation. Cohort effects, in turn, are mainly a function of educational advances and greater prior work experience. But labor force participation rates of the most recent cohorts in their forties are less than those for previous cohorts. It would appear that employment at older ages could stagnate or even decrease. But several other factors will be operating in an opposing direction leading us to conclude that women are likely to continue to work even longer.

JEL-codes: J21 J22 J26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-lma, nep-ltv and nep-sog
Note: DAE LS
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published as Women Working Longer: Facts and Some Explanations , Claudia Goldin, Lawrence F. Katz. in Women Working Longer: Increased Employment at Older Ages , Goldin and Katz. 2018

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