Intergenerational Transmission of Employment and Working Behavior of Japanese Wife

Using the 2009-2016 Japan Household Panel Survey, this study examines whether mother-in-law's former employment affects wife's working behavior in Japan. The driving mechanisms behind this relationship is also investigated by testing the effect of mother's former employment on her son's attitudes toward gender roles as well as on husband's skills regarding household chores, paid limited attention in the literature. Main findings suggest that wife's employment is positively associated with mother-in-law's former employment. The influence of a working mother on her son's attitude, tested by employment decision of wife with a little child and husband's life satisfaction, is found statistically significant and positive. In addition, no significant findings are determined the relationship between mother-in-law's employment and time spent by a husband in housework and childcare. Taken together, even though a working mother-in-law shapes son's preferences and beliefs toward gender roles to have a working wife, husband takes an inactive role regarding household chores irrespective of his mother's employment. These results point out that the older generation's employment leads to increase in the current generation's labor supply in Japan by only affecting child's preference rather than skills.