Working Paper: NBER ID: w22913
Authors: Claudia Goldin; Joshua Mitchell
Abstract: A new lifecycle of women’s employment emerged with cohorts born in the 1950s. For prior cohorts, lifecycle employment had a hump shape; it increased from the twenties to the forties, hit a peak and then declined starting in the fifties. The new lifecycle of employment is initially high and flat, there is a dip in the middle and a phasing out that is more prolonged than for previous cohorts. The hump is gone, the middle is a bit sagging and the top has greatly expanded. We explore the increase in cumulative work experience for women from the 1930s to the 1970s birth cohorts using the SIPP and the HRS. We investigate the changing labor force impact of a birth event across cohorts and by education and also the impact of taking leave or quitting. We find greatly increased labor force experience across cohorts, far less time out after a birth and greater labor force recovery for those who take paid or unpaid leave. Increased employment of women in their older ages is related to more continuous work experience across the lifecycle.
Keywords: women's employment; labor force participation; birth cohorts; SIPP; HRS
JEL Codes: J16; J21
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| new lifecycle of women's employment (J29) | labor force participation rate (J49) |
| increased cumulative work experience (J29) | greater recovery and sustained participation in later years (I24) |
| less time out of the labor force after childbirth (J22) | greater recovery and sustained participation in later years (I24) |
| timing of births shifted (J19) | increased participation rates in younger cohorts (J49) |
| labor force participation patterns associated with specific birth cohorts (J21) | cohort effects (C92) |
| age and life events influence (J26) | lifecycle effects (C41) |