What explains the massive increase in women's labour force participation over the last three or four decades? Several factors have been pointed to as the root cause of this increase, including cultural and social changes, and the marked decrease in fertility rates. For a survey, see Jaumotte's 2003 OECD working paper. On "the power of the pill", see Goldin and Katz's 2002 JPE paper (PDF here).
A new paper by Tiago V. de V. Cavalcanti and Jose Tavares focusses on another possible factor: home appliances. Here is the abstract for Assessing the “Engines of Liberation”: Home Appliances and Female Labor Force Participation (PDF):
The secular rise in female labor force participation, highlighted in the recent macroeconomics literature on growth and structural change, has been associated with the declining price and wider availability of home appliances. This paper uses a new and unique country dataset on the price of home appliances to test its impact on female labor supply.
We assess the role of the price of appliances in raising participation by comparing it to the impact of fertility and other macroeconomic factors. A decrease in the relative price of appliances - the ratio of the price of appliances to the consumer price index - leads to a substantial and statistically significant increase in female labor force participation. The impact of the price of appliances is quantitatively of the same order of magnitude as that of fertility.
This result is robust to the inclusion of additional controls, such as income per capita, government spending, and male and female unemployment rates. To assess causality, we test for exogeneity and use the lagged relative price of appliances and the food price index as instrumental variables, confirming that lower appliance prices lead to increased female participation.
This paper is one of many to be presented at the European Association of Labour Economist anual conference in Prague, which commences Friday. This week I'll be featuring a number of other papers from the conference.
xyy
I love braids. But I can never make good braids of my hair Chanel handbags online, at which I
feel sad and upset Chanel handbag online. Every time when I failed in making a good braid,
href="http://www.youknowbags.com/chanel-handbags-c-14.html">Chanel handbags sale
I will fall into bad spirits, but my favor to braids never weak a little.href="http://www.youknowbags.com">designer handbags sale
. So when I saw this Bottega Veneta Box Clutch in beautiful and smooth braid,href="http://www.youknowbags.com">handbag sale
, though somebody said it is a little simple and plain, I found it is really wonderful. It providescomfortable feelings to me and cast a spell on me at the first sight.As we know, the collection of Bottega Veneta Box Clutches has many beautiful choices for us
href="http://www.youknowbags.com">authentic handbags
. All these clutches combine simplicity, beauty, and usability all at once. The knot on the top is theiricon. Some of them are made from very luxurious materials, such as crocodile leather,designer handbags,thus they have
hefty prices, while other are made from more competitive materials, just like satin, then they have more affordable prices. Though this Bottega Veneta Satin Knot Clutch is made
from satin, it is the same luxurious as croc clutches.replica handbags. As we can see, the sleek lilac satin material
is woven into perfection and is very elegant and stunning.
Posted by: Chanel handbags online | Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 04:20 AM
xyy
These two colorways of the nike air max 2009 are inspired by
two of the biggest idols LeBron James had as a child. The red pair is inspired by Deion Sanders, while the other pair honors Penny Hardaway. The pair that is inspired after
Penny Hardaway borrows nike air max LTD
href="http://shop.brandsuper.com/nike-air-max-shoes-c-54.html">
the colors from the Orlando Magic. Sorry to give you the bad news, but these will not release.The Air Max 90 has owned some great colorways in the past. Of all
the great colorways we have examined on the nike air max shoes, my favorite has to be
the Nike Air Max LeBron VII “All Star”. However, here we have two brand new colorways that could be some of the best we have seen. Nike is bringing back some of the true
running classics this year. One of those legendary runners is the Air Max
360, which will release in the OG colorway. Nothing is better than a original. These surfaced last year, and the first look made Air Max heads go crazy of a
possible release.
Posted by: nike air max 2009 | Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 04:34 AM