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Title: Degrees Are Forever: Marriage, Educational Investment, and Lifecycle Labor Decisions of Men and Women
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2015
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Abstract: Women attend college today at higher rates than men, but continue to select disproportionately into low-paying majors. This paper aims to explain these gender gaps in college attendance and choice of major. I provide reduced-form evidence that, first, degrees may provide insurance against very low income for women, especially in case of divorce; and second, majors differ substantially in the degree of "work-family flexibility" they offer, such as the size of wage penalties for temporary reductions in labor supply. Based on this evidence, I construct and estimate a dynamic structural model of marriage, educational choices, and lifetime labor supply. I use the model to quantify the relative importance of rising skill premiums and changes in the marriage market for the observed changes in the college gender gaps between 1960 and 2010. I then use the model to test the effects of educational and work-family flexibility policies on educational choices. Differential tuition policies that charge less for technical majors, as proposed in some U.S. states, can substantially increase the share of women choosing such majors, but only subsidize men who would have chosen technical majors regardless of the policy. Among interventions intended to improve work-family flexibility, subsidized child care and part-time work entitlements increase the share of women in science and business, while extended maternity leaves have the opposite effect. * I would like to give special thanks to Maurizio Mazzocco and Dora Costa. Thanks also to
Url: https://www.econ.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/Bronson_Paper.pdf
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Authors: Bronson, Mary Ann
Publisher: Georgetown University
Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS CPS
Topics: Education, Family and Marriage, Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Other
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