Volume 29, Number 2 (Spring) 1994
Shaw, Kathryn. 1994. "The Persistence of Female Labor Supply: Empirical Evidence and Implications." Journal of Human Resources 29(2):348-378.
Previous research has shown that female hours of work are very persistent over women's lifetimes-that women tend to be either workers or nonworkers. This paper uses PSID data from 1967 to 1987 to examine changes in persistence over time. The overall finding is that there is little change in persistence because as women entered the labor force in greater numbers they tended to become continuous workers, replacing continuous nonworkers. Among older women, spells of reduced hours are now less prolonged (holding constant a fixed effect). Among young women, the persistence of hours has increased slightly over time, and patterns of employment now appear to develop prior to marriage and continue into the married years.
The author is an assistant professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University. This research was funded by a grant from the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. She would like to thank Alice Nakamura, whose influence and suggestions are pervasive throughout the paper, and the participants of the Donner Foundation February 1991 Workshop and December 1991 Conference on the Economic Well-Being of Women and Children, held at the University of Minnesota Industrial Relations Center. She also thanks her research assistant, Stephen Peters. The data is this article can be obtained beginning in October 1994 through October 1997 from the author at the following address: GSIA, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA 15213.
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