Working Paper: NBER ID: w18676
Authors: Claudia Goldin; Claudia Olivetti
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.
Keywords: Labor Supply; World War II; Women's Employment
JEL Codes: J16; J2; N3
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| increase in aggregate mobilization rate (E16) | increase in weeks worked among married women (J22) |
| increase in aggregate mobilization rate (E16) | increase in labor force participation among married women (J49) |
| increase in aggregate mobilization rate (E16) | increase in labor supply decisions of women married without children during WWII (J29) |
| increase in aggregate mobilization rate (E16) | increase in labor supply decisions of women with children (J22) |
| mobilization rates (J62) | different impacts on various demographic groups (J79) |
| mobilization rates (J62) | stronger effects for women married during the war (J12) |
| wartime experience (H56) | lasting impact on labor supply decisions of higher-educated women (J29) |