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Author: Wong, Cheng
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Wong, Cheng
Woman's Work: Essays on Female Life-Cycle Labor Choices
Ph.D. Dissertation, New York University, May 2012
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT)
Keyword(s): College Education; Divorce; Fertility; Gender Attitudes/Roles; Labor Force Participation; Occupational Choice; Wage Penalty/Career Penalty; Wages, Women

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Chapter 1, "The Disappearing Gender Gap: The Impact of Divorce, Wages, and Preferences on Education Choices and Women's Work", quantifies the contributions of many significant changes in the economic and family environment towards explaining the changes in labor force participation and college enrollment rates of women born in the cohorts of 1935 and 1955. It concludes that the higher probability of divorce and the changes in wage structure faced by the 1955 cohort are each able to explain, in isolation, a large proportion (about 60%) of the observed changes in female participation across the two cohorts, while a simple change in preferences can account for the residual.

Chapter 2, "Great Expectations? Women's Work and Fertility in the Face of Career Uncertainty", is motivated by the fact that women in different occupations exhibit markedly different patterns of fertility and labor supply over the life-cycle. Women in high-powered occupations tend to give birth later and exhibit a downward-sloping participation profile across the life cycle, while their low- powered counterparts not only give birth earlier but their participation profile is instead upward sloping. Using a life-cycle model in which married households make fertility and female labor supply decisions and learn about their income profile parameters, I find that uncertainty about one's wage growth is key in explaining the different fertility patterns of women, by occupation. High wage penalties due to work interruptions help explain why a significant proportion of professional women do not return to the labor market after exiting upon childbirth.

Bibliography Citation
Wong, Cheng. Woman's Work: Essays on Female Life-Cycle Labor Choices. Ph.D. Dissertation, New York University, May 2012.