TY  - JOUR
AU  - Freeman,Richard B.
AU  - Schettkat,Ronald
TI  - Marketization of Production and the US-Europe Employment Gap
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8797
PY  - 2002
Y2  - February 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8797
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8797.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Richard B. Freeman
NBER
1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 617/868-3900
Fax: 617/868-2742
E-Mail: freeman@nber.org
AB  - Women work much more in the US than in Germany and most other EU economies.  We find that the US-German employment gap is not strongly related to cross-country differences in the level of pay or social benefits.  The difference in employment is due to the different marketization of activities between the two economies: German women work as many hours as US women when we consider time spent in household production as well as in market production. For instance, German women spend more time preparing meals while US women use take-out and restaurants more intensely.   The organization of some social activities, such as schooling, and the dispersion of skills, as well as pay differences, affect the degree of marketization.
ER  -