Intergenerational Transmission of Married Women’s Employment in Japan

Abstract

Using the 2011–2016 Japan Household Panel Survey, this study examines the intergenerational transmission of married women’s employment in Japan. The study also analyzes two driving mechanisms. The findings suggest that the wife’s labor supply is positively associated with the mother-in-law’s former employment and the mother’s former employment. The preference mechanism reveals the effect of the wife’s employment on her husband’s satisfaction differs between men raised by a working mother and those with an unemployed mother in the past. The endowment mechanism suggests that married man with working wife cooperates to do domestic tasks regardless of his mother’s former employment.