UM07-15: Trends in the Labor Force Participation of Married Women
Researchers
Abstract
We propose to construct a life-cycle including key determinants of married women’s labor force participation and to estimate the new formulation’s coefficients. This project would aid in understanding increased participation of married women, a dramatic trend that, due to spousal entitlements, has enhanced Social Security’s solvency. This work fits SSA’s list of research priorities, which includes work trends and solvency concerns. In contrast to the authors’ earlier funded research, which studied work hours, this project would tackle the difficult econometric task of estimating fixed costs that determine thresholds of female market participation at different stages of life.