Data and Code for "Changing Business Cycles: The Role of Women's Employment"

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Stefania Albanesi, University of Miami

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Replication_Package			05/16/2025 02:57:AM
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Project Citation:

Albanesi, Stefania. Data and Code for “Changing Business Cycles: The Role of Women’s Employment.” Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2025. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-09-02. https://doi.org/10.3886/E212321V1

Project Description

Summary:

Women's labor force participation rose rapidly in the post-war period in the United States until the mid-1990s when it flattened out. I examine the impact of this change in trend in female labor supply on aggregate business cycles both empirically and with a quantitative real business cycle model that incorporates gender differences.

I show that the rise in women's participation played a substantial role in the Great Moderation, and not allowing for gender differences leads to incorrect inference on the sources of this phenomenon. I also show that the discontinued growth in female labor supply starting in the 1990s played a substantial role in the jobless recoveries following the 1990-1991, 2001 and 2007-2009 recessions. Moreover, it reduced aggregate hours and output growth during the late 1990s and mid 2000s expansions. I also find that the growth in women's employment added substantially to TFP growth. These results suggest that continued sustained growth in women's employment after the early 1990s would have significantly improved economic performance in the United States.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: female participation; female employment; business cycles

JEL Classification:
      E17 General Aggregative Models: Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
      E32 Business Fluctuations; Cycles
      E37 Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles: Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
      J11 Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
      J21 Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

Geographic Coverage: United States

Time Period(s): 1969 – 2017

Collection Date(s): 1969 – 2017

Universe: United States aggregate variables: GDP, personal consumption expenditures, real investment
United States non-institutionalized population

Data Type(s): aggregate data; program source code; survey data

Collection Notes: NA

Methodology

Data Source: IPUMS CPS 1969-2017
Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis FRED Database

Collection Mode(s): other; record abstracts

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Published Versions

V1 [2025-09-02]

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