DP4493 Preference Formation and the Rise of Women's Labour Force Participation: Evidence from WWII

Author(s): Raquel Fernández , Alessandra Fogli , Claudia Olivetti

Publication Date: July 2004

Keyword(s): world war II , preferences , female labour force participation , cultural transmission

JEL(s): J12 , J22

Programme Areas: International Macroeconomics , Labour Economics , Public Policy

Initiatives: Economic History

Link to this Page: www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP4493.asp

This Paper presents intergenerational evidence in favour of the hypothesis that a significant factor explaining the increase in female labour force participation over time was the growing presence of men who grew up with a different family model – one in which their mother worked. We use differences in mobilization rates of men across states during WWII as a source of exogenous variation in female labour supply. We show, in particular, that higher WWII male mobilization rates led to a higher fraction of women working not only for the generation directly affected by the war, but also for the next generation. These women were young enough to profit from the changed composition in the pool of men (i.e., from the fact that WWII created more men with mothers who worked). We also show that states in which the ratio of the average fertility of working relative to non-working women is greatest, have higher female labour supply 20 years later.