Gender in the Economy: Structural Transformation and Women’s Time-Use

The NBER Working Group on Gender in the Economy, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, promotes research on gender issues in the economies of developing and developed nations. The group will convene a research meeting on “Structural Transformation and Women’s Time-Use” to explore the gender-specific link between processes of structural transformation and the changing allocation of household time between unpaid and paid activities. Possible themes include conceptual and practical aspects of measuring time use, as well as gender-specific factors shaping labor supply and/or labor demand within and across sectors. Examples of topics include: the mechanization of agriculture, changes in the technology of home production, social norms affecting the measurement of market work and the use of time by gender (including over the lifecycle), social institutions (e.g., school calendar, availability of child or elder care), and labor regulations and other frictions that may result in lower GDP growth. These themes can be set in any relevant period or place.

The conference program will be arranged by NBER Research Associates Taryn Dinkelman (Notre Dame), Claudia Goldin (Harvard) and Claudia Olivetti (Dartmouth). The meeting will be held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Friday, March 27th, with a conference dinner on Thursday, March 26th. 

The program will include both 50-minute paper presentations with time for questions, as well as “egg-timer sessions” lasting 10 minutes without questions. Submissions need not be complete papers, but complete papers will be given priority for longer presentations. Submissions may be designated “egg-timer only” by noting this in the comments field on the submission page. All submissions that are not selected for longer presentations will be considered for “egg-timers.” 

Submissions of both empirical and theoretical research, of papers by scholars who are NBER affiliates as well as those who are not, and by researchers who at all stages of their careers are welcome. Please do not submit papers that will be published by March 2026. To be considered for presentation, please upload submissions by 11:59pm ET on Monday, December 8, 2025. 


Authors chosen to present papers will be notified by early January 2026. The NBER will cover the cost for up to two authors per paper to attend the meeting; other co-authors are welcome to attend at their own expense. Please share this call for papers with others who may be interested in submitting a paper.

Questions about this conference may be addressed to confer@nber.org.