The effect of household appliances on female labor force participation: Evidence from microdata

Daniele Coen-Pirani, Alexis León, Steven Lugauer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

69 Scopus citations

Abstract

We estimate the effect of household appliance ownership on the labor force participation rate of married women using micro-level data from the 1960 and 1970 U.S. Censuses. In order to identify the causal effect of home appliance ownership on married women's labor force participation rates, our empirical strategy exploits both time-series and cross-sectional variation in these two variables. To control for endogeneity, we instrument a married woman's ownership of an appliance by the average ownership rate for that appliance among single women living in the same U.S. state. Single women's labor force participation rates did not increase between 1960 and 1970. We find evidence in support of the hypothesis that the diffusion of household appliances contributed to the increase in married women's labor force participation rates during the 1960's.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)503-513
Number of pages11
JournalLabour Economics
Volume17
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2010

Keywords

  • Female labor supply
  • Home production
  • Household appliances
  • J22

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Economics and Econometrics
  • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

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