Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/193318 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 12024
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The cohorts of women born at the turn of the 20th century increased markedly their participation in the labor market when older. These are the first cohorts who worked after their childbearing years. In this paper, we document a link between their work behavior and the Great Depression. We show that the 1929 Crash attracted young women 15 to 34 years old in 1930 (whom we name D-cohort) into the labor market, possibly via an added-worker effect. Using several years of Census micro data, we further document that the same cohort remained or re-entered the labor market in the 1940s and 1950s and that its entire life cycle labor supply is tightly linked to the conditions dating back to the Great Depression. We argue that these facts are consistent with the hypothesis of a labor supply shift for this cohort triggered by the 1929 Crash.
Subjects: 
Great Depression
added worker effect
female labor supply
JEL: 
J21
N32
J01
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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