Neighborhood Effects, Peer Classification, and the Decision of Women to Work

50 Pages Posted: 20 Jun 2016

See all articles by Nuno Mota

Nuno Mota

Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae)

Eleonora Patacchini

Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF) ; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Stuart S. Rosenthal

Syracuse University - Department of Economics; Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

Abstract

We examine the influence of neighborhood peer effects on the decision of women to work using panel data that follows clusters of adjacent homes between 1985-1993. Modeling assumptions imply rank order restrictions that enable us to classify individuals into peer groups while identifying peer effects and underlying mechanisms. For women, peer effects influence labor supply in part because women appear to emulate the work behavior of nearby women with similar age children. For men, peer effects are mostly absent, consistent with inelastic work decisions. Geographically concentrated panel data are crucial for these estimates. Our approach could also be applied to other instances in which neighborhood peer effects are important.

Keywords: neighborhood peer effects, female labor supply

JEL Classification: R2, J2

Suggested Citation

Mota, Nuno and Patacchini, Eleonora and Rosenthal, Stuart S., Neighborhood Effects, Peer Classification, and the Decision of Women to Work. IZA Discussion Paper No. 9985, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2797556 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2797556

Nuno Mota (Contact Author)

Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) ( email )

3900 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016-2892
United States

Eleonora Patacchini

Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF) ( email )

Via Due Macelli, 73
Rome, 00187
Italy

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Stuart S. Rosenthal

Syracuse University - Department of Economics ( email )

426 Eggers Hall
Syracuse, NY 13244-1020
United States
315-443-3809 (Phone)

Cornell SC Johnson College of Business ( email )

Ithaca, NY 14850
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
116
Abstract Views
884
Rank
508,902
PlumX Metrics