PhD Candidate, Department of Economics, LSE
Contact information
Email: s.e.maurer@lse.ac.uk
Phone number: +44 (0)745 0249 820
Room number: 32L.2.01H
Address: Department of Economics || London School of Economics and Political Science || Houghton Street || London WC2A 2AE
Research Interests
Primary Fields: Labour Economics || Economic History
Secondary Fields: Political Economy || Economic Geography
Job Market Paper
Male-biased Demand Shocks and Women's Labor Force Participation: Evidence from Large Oil Field Discoveries (with Andrei Potlogea)
Abstract
Do male-biased demand shocks affect women's labor force participation? To study this question, we examine large oil field discoveries in the US South from 1900-1940. We find that oil wealth has a zero net effect on female labor force participation due to two opposing channels. Oil discoveries increase demand for male labor in oil mining and manufacturing and consequentially raise male wages. This leads to an increased marriage rate of young women, which could have depressed female labor force participation. But at the same time, oil wealth also increases demand for women in services, which counterbalances the marriage effect and leaves women's overall labor force participation rate unchanged. Our findings demonstrate that when the nontradable sector is open to women, male-biased demand shocks in the tradable sector need not reduce female labor force participation.
Publications and Additional Papers
"Voting Behaviour and Public Employment in Nazi Germany", CEP Discussion Paper No. 1326, Revisions requested, Journal of Economic History.
“Of Mice and Merchants: Trade and Growth in the Iron Age”, joint with Jörn-Steffen Pischke and Ferdinand Rauch.