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Has the Increased Attachment of Women to the Labor Market Changed a Family's Ability to Smooth Income Shocks?

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  • Olga Gorbachev

Abstract

An increase in a married woman's attachment to the labor market affected her family's ability to smooth unexpected income shocks. Between 1970 and 1990, the sharp rise in labor market attachment provided an increasingly important channel for smoothing shocks to spousal income. As the participation rate stabilized, this contribution to smoothing evened out. In the Great Recession, both spouses received negative income shocks, and access to transfer income became the main insurance mechanism. Volatility of consumption followed volatility of family income trends but at a lower magnitude. Families' ability to weather income shocks didn't change during the 1970-2010 period.

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  • Olga Gorbachev, 2016. "Has the Increased Attachment of Women to the Labor Market Changed a Family's Ability to Smooth Income Shocks?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 247-251, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:106:y:2016:i:5:p:247-51
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20161119
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Dynan Karen & Elmendorf Douglas & Sichel Daniel, 2012. "The Evolution of Household Income Volatility," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(2), pages 1-42, December.
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    4. Jason DeBacker & Bradley Heim & Vasia Panousi & Shanthi Ramnath & Ivan Vidangos, 2013. "Rising Inequality: Transitory or Persistent? New Evidence from a Panel of U.S. Tax Returns," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 44(1 (Spring), pages 67-142.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kathrin Ellieroth, 2019. "Spousal Insurance, Precautionary Labor Supply, and the Business Cycle - A Quantitative Analysis," 2019 Meeting Papers 1134, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    2. Olga Gorbachev & María Jose Luengo-Prado, 2016. "The credit card debt puzzle: the role of preferences, credit risk, and financial literacy," Working Papers 16-6, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    3. Jiang, Xiandeng & Zhao, Ningru & Pan, Zheng, 2022. "Regional housing wealth, relative housing wealth and labor market behavior," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    4. Dai, Mi & Huang, Wei & Zhang, Yifan, 2021. "How do households adjust to tariff liberalization? Evidence from China's WTO accession," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    5. Dai, Mi & Huang, Wei & Zhang, Yifan, 2018. "How Do Households Adjust to Trade Liberalization? Evidence from China's WTO Accession," IZA Discussion Papers 11428, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Kathrin Ellieroth, 2017. "Cyclicality of Hours Worked by Married Women and Spousal Insurance," CAEPR Working Papers 2017-009, Center for Applied Economics and Policy Research, Department of Economics, Indiana University Bloomington.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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