[工程科技]DiorceandtheGenderDiisionofLaborinComparatiePerspectie.pdf

Divorce and the Gender Division of Labor in Comparative Perspective Torben Iversen Department of Government, Harvard University Frances Rosenbluth Department of Political Science Yale University David Soskice Department of Political Science Duke University May 2005 Abstract This paper shows how cross-national variation in labor market attributes, social policies affecting female employment, and divorce laws affect both female labor force participation and divorce. These, in turn, lead to a systematic gendered pattern in the preferences for government spending on social services. Analyzing data on household division of labor and divorce, we show that a politically and institutionally mediated bargaining model better explains choices over allocation of work than does Becker ’s economic model, which assumes a single family utility function. This analysis suggests the fruitfulness of investigating how labor markets and public policies shape gender stereotypes, and for how child support rules may affect women’s decisions about labor market participation. The authors are grateful for insightful comments from Joseph Altonji, Hannah Bruckner, Thomas DiPrite, Ulrich Mayer, Robert Pollak, Justin Wolfers, participants of a panel at the 2004 Annual Meetings of Europeanists, participants of the 2004 workshop Life Cycle and Equality at the Yale University Department of Sociology, and anonymous reviewers and the editors of this j ournal. We also thank Nirmala Ravishankar