This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics
  4. Forthcoming Articles
  5. Singles, Couples, and Their Labor Supply: Long-Run Trends and Short-Run Fluctuations

Singles, Couples, and Their Labor Supply: Long-Run Trends and Short-Run Fluctuations

  • Jonna Olsson
American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics (Forthcoming)

Abstract

Women’s increased involvement in the economy has been an important change in labor markets during the past century. I show that a macroeconomic model taking into account gender and household composition in an otherwise parsimonious off-the-shelf setting captures key historical labor supply facts regarding trend and volatility across subgroups. Evaluating the economy’s response to aggregate shocks at different points in time shows that the underlying trend growth in married women’s employment contributed to the perceived quick employment recoveries after recessions before 1990, and the absence of growth thereafter consequently helps explain the more recent slower recoveries.

Downloads