| Number |
CREPEDP-34 |
| Publication Date |
April 2018, revised in October 2018 |
| Title |
Gender Social Norms and Women’s Decision
to Work
Evidence from Japan
|
| Author(s) |
Núria Rodríguez-Planas and Ryuichi Tanaka
|
| Abstract |
Using individual-level data from the National Family Research of Japan Survey (1999, 2004 and 2009), we estimate the causal effect of gender social norms on Japanese women’s decision to work. Our measure of non-traditional gender social norms is the share of individuals who, at least, somewhat disagree with the statement "men should work outside and women should look after the family". Our identification strategy exploits idiosyncratic variation in the share of individuals with non-traditional gender social norms across adjacent cohorts within demographic groups (defined by age group, education level, survey year, and prefecture). We find that a one percentage point increase in share of individuals with non-traditional beliefs increases by 0.016 percentage points the standard deviation of women’s decision to work, the equivalent of an increase of 3.3% standard deviation. Our results are robust to a battery of sensitivity analysis and placebo tests. No impact is found on the decision to work part-time.
|
| Keywords |
gender social norms, women’s decision to work, culture.
|
| Other information |
Paper in English (32 pages) |