Louvain-la-Neuve
Doyen 22, Place des doyens 1
Victor Gay
(Toulouse School of Economics)
will give a presentation on
Collateral Damage? How World War One Changed the Way Women Work
Abstract: Drawing on individual-level data from the 1911 and 1921 population censuses and census-linking techniques, we analyze the consequences of World War I in France on female labor force participation. Our results suggest that the war induced many women to enter the labor force: in municipalities that experienced greater military death rates, women were more likely to declare an occupation after the war than they did before the war. In contrast with results in the literature, in our sample, these effects are driven by women moving out of waged occupations outside the home (and inactivity) into farming activities.
joint with Lionel Kesztenbaum, PSE, INED)