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Working Paper 2007-043E

"Why Do So Few Women Work in New York (and So Many in Minneapolis)? Labor Supply of Married Women Across U.S. Cities"
by Dan A. Black, Natalia Kolesnikova, and Lowell J. Taylor

This paper documents a little-noticed feature of U.S. labor markets – a very large variation in the labor supply of married women across cities. We focus on cross-city differences in commuting times as a potential explanation for this variation. We start with a model in which commuting times introduce non-convexities into the budget set. Empirical evidence is consistent with the model's predictions: Labor force participation rates of married women are negatively correlated with the metropolitan area commuting time. Also, metropolitan areas with larger increases in average commuting time in 1980-2000 had slower growth in the labor force participation of married women.

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Category > Applied Microeconomics
Category > Regional Economics
Author > Natalia Kolesnikova
Research Papers and Publications: JEL Code > J21
Research Papers and Publications: JEL Code > J22
Research Papers and Publications: JEL Code > R23
Research Papers and Publications: JEL Code > R41