TY  - JOUR
AU  - Acemoglu,Daron
AU  - Autor,David H.
AU  - Lyle,David
TI  - Women, War and Wages: The Effect of Female Labor Supply on the Wage Structure at Mid-Century
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9013
PY  - 2002
Y2  - June 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9013
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9013.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Daron Acemoglu
Department of Economics
MIT, E52-380B
50 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA  02142-1347
Tel: 617/253-1927
Fax: 617/253-1330
E-Mail: daron@mit.edu

David Autor
Department of Economics
MIT, E52-371
50 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA 02142-1347
Tel: 617/258-7698
Fax: 617/253-1330
E-Mail: dautor@mit.edu

David Lyle
607 Cullum Road
West Point, NY 10996
Tel: 845-558-5260
E-Mail: David.Lyle@usma.edu
AB  - This paper investigates the effects of female labor supply on the wage structure. To identify variation in female labor supply, we exploit the military mobilization for World War II, which drew many women into the workforce as males exited civilian employment. The extent of mobilization was not uniform across states, however, with the fraction of eligible males serving ranging from 41 to 54 percent. We find that in states with greater mobilization of men, women worked substantially more after the War and in 1950, though not in 1940.  We interpret these differentials as labor supply shifts induced by the War. We find that increases in female labor supply lower female wages, lower male wages, and increase the college and premium and male wage inequality generally. Our findings indicate that at mid-century, women were closer substitutes to high school graduate and relatively low-skill males, but not to those with the lowest skills.
ER  -