It follows from a number of theoretical models of marriage that the scarcer women are relative to men, i.e. the higher the sex ratio, the less married women are likely to participate in the labor force. It is predicted that such sex ratio effects will be stronger among less educated women. The predictions are tested on individual data from Current Population Surveys for four regions of the U.S. (Northeast, Midwest, South and West), and for the U.S. as a whole, covering the period 1965 to 2005 at five-year intervals. Within-region sex ratio variation results from variation in cohort size (due principally to large fluctuations in number of births) and limited fluctuations in the difference between male and female age at marriage. As hypothesized, we find that sex ratios are inversely related to women’s labor force participation, reflecting that ceteris paribus women born in years of peak baby-boom are more likely to be in the labor force than women born in years of peak baby-bust. Cohort-level sex ratio effects help explain the rapid growth in female labor force participation in the 1970s, the consequent slowdown in that increase, and slight decreases in that participation. These sex ratio effects-especially those for married women–support both Chiappori’s and Grossbard’s models of decision-making in marriage. Our prediction of a weaker effect of sex ratios among educated women holds in two of the four regions of the United States.”) ;
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Presented by:
Shoshana Grossband (San Diego State University)
Date & time:
February 26, 2007 4:00 pm - February 26, 2007 12:00 am
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