Full Citation
Title: The Opt-In Revolution? Contraception, Women's Labor Supply and the Gender Gap in Wages
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2010
ISBN:
ISSN:
DOI:
NSFID:
PMCID:
PMID:
Abstract: This paper uses the NLS and CPS to document the remarkable changes in lifecycle wages for womenborn from the 1920s to the 1950s. Using birth-cohort by state-of-residence variation in access to thePill before age 21, our results show that women with earlier access to the Pill earned lower wages intheir twenties as they invested in human capital but 8 percent more by age fifty. Roughly 60 percentof the Pill premium is accounted for by increases in womens labor market experience, and 33percent is due to educational and occupational investments. "Opting-in" with the Pill accounted for1/3 of the wage gains between the 1943 and 1951 cohorts and 10 percent of the narrowing of thegender gap over the 1980s.
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Bailey, Martha J.; Miller, Amalia R.; Hershbein, Brad
Publisher: University of California, Davis
Data Collections: IPUMS CPS
Topics: Fertility and Mortality, Gender
Countries: