Volume 27, Number 2 (Spring) 1992
Altonji, Joseph G. and Christina H. Paxson. 1992. "Labor Supply, Hours Constraints, and Job Mobility." Journal of Human Resources 27(2):256-278.
If hours can be freely varied within jobs, the effect on hours of changes in preferences for those who do change jobs should be similar to the effect on hours for those who do not change jobs. Conversely, if employers restrict hours choices, then changes in preferences should affect hours more strongly when the job changes than when it does not change. For a sample of married women we find that changes in many of the labor supply preference variables produce much larger effects on hours when the job changes.
Joseph G. Altonji is a professor of economics at the department of economics and the Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research, Northwestern University, and a researcher at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Christina H. Paxson is an assistant professor of economics at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. An initial draft of the paper was completed while Altonji was visiting the Department of Economics and Industrial Relations Section at Princeton University, and their research support is acknowledged with thanks. The authors also are grateful for research support from the U.S. Department of Labor under Contract J-9-M-0170, and the Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research at Northwestern University, and to John Ham and three anonymous referees for constructive criticism of an earlier draft. The authors are responsible for contents of the paper and any remaining errors. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning in August 1992 through August 1995 from the authors at the following address: Department of Economics, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208.
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