National Bureau of Economic Research, February 3, 2012, Friday

National Bureau of Economic Research

February 3, 2012, Friday

National Bureau of Economic Research (full article)

Culture and Norms Affect Immigrant Women's Work

In Substitution between Individual and Cultural Capital (NBER Working Paper No. 17275), authors Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn analyze data from the New Immigrant Survey. They find that women who migrate from countries with relatively high levels of female labor supply work more once they arrive in the United States. Furthermore, the effect of source-country female labor supply on an immigrant woman's work hours in the United States remains strong and positive even after the researchers control for her own labor supply before coming to the United States.