Evidence of Added Worker Effect from the 2008 Economic Crisis

Arbeitspapier

This paper contributes to the research on interdependencies in spousal labor supply by analyzing labor supply response of married women to their husbands' job losses ("added worker effect"). It empirically tests the hypothesis of added worker effect relying on a case study on Turkey during the global economic crisis of 2008. Identification is achieved by exploiting the exogenous variation in the output of male-dominated sectors that were hit hard by the crisis and the high degree of gender segmentation that characterizes the Turkish labor market. Findings based on the instrumental variable approach suggest that the probability of entering the labor force for a woman increases by up to 29% in response to her husband's unemployment. However the effect is not contemporaneous; it appears with a quarter of lag and remains existent only for two quarters.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 8937

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Single Equation Models: Single Variables: Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation ; Household Behavior: General ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Time Allocation and Labor Supply
• Subject: spousal labor supply ; added worker effect ; discouraged worker effect ; global economic crisis

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Ayhan, Sinem H.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2015

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/110145
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET