TITLE:
Gender Differences in Employed Job Search: Why Do Women Search Less than Men?
AUTHORS:
Jeffrey J. Yankow, Mary Jean Horney
KEYWORDS:
Gender Differences; Job Search; Marriage; Children
JOURNAL NAME:
Modern Economy,
Vol.4 No.7,
July
17,
2013
ABSTRACT: Using an extended panel from the National
Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, this study explores the impact of marriage
and children on the employed job search behavior of young workers. Estimation
results from a bivariate probit model of employed job search that accounts for
the selective nature of participation and employment demonstrate that both
marriage and children significantly reduce the likelihood of on-the-job search
for women but not for men. We find that married women with children have an
employed search probability that is 18 percentage points below that of single
women without children. Moreover, both the age and number of children present
in the household are important determining factors for women in the decision to
conduct on-the-job search. The inhibiting effect of children, however, is only
pronounced for married women; single women with children are no less likely to
search than single women without children.