Persistent Policy Effects on the Division of Domestic Tasks in Reunified Germany

We are only beginning to unravel the mechanisms by which the division of domestic tasks varies in its sociopolitical context. Selecting couples from the German SocioEconomic Panel who married between 1990 and 1995 in the former East and West regions of Germany and following them until 2000 (N= 348 couples), I find evidence of direct, interaction, and contextual effects predicting husbands’ hours in and share of household tasks but not child care. East German men perform a greater share of household tasks than West German men after controlling for individual attributes and regional factors. Child care remains more gendered, and the first child’s age proves the most important predictor of fathers’ involvement. These findings further our understanding of how the state shapes gender equity in the home.     

Mitgegangen – mitgefangen?

While previous research has provided general evidence on the positive outcomes of regional mobility for the labour market success of men and single women, most studies have also concluded that for married or partnered women residential relocation imposes severe disadvantages in terms of their economic situation and career. When accounting for these effects, most authors refer to microeconomic household theory – an approach that has been increasingly criticized for its restrictive assumptions regarding intra family decisions. Moreover most of these studies are outdated and do not fully capture the economic and social developments that have taken place in recent decade, especially in Germany. This paper contributes to the topic by extending the theoretical scope to a bargaining model of mobility decisions within couples and by using more current data. Additionally regional labour market structures are seen as important moderators of the effects of mobility and are explicitly considered in the analysis. Based on longitudinal data from the SOEP for the years 1992–2006 the following article focuses on the (longterm) income effects of regional mobility among East and West German couples with special regard to the economic situation of partnered women. The results of the panel fixed-effects estimations not only lend support to bargaining theory and stress the relevance of regional opportunity structures, but also indicate that the consequences of mobility for German women have changed. The paper discusses implications of the results for labour market processes and partnerships.     

EAST-WEST DIFFERENCES IN ATTITUDES ABOUT EMPLOYMENT AND FAMILY IN GERMANY

This article examines East-West differences in attitudes toward the traditional gender division of labor among German women and men, using data from the 1991 German Social Survey (ALLBUS). We test hypotheses about the effects of region and gender, and the interaction of both, in shaping gender-role attitudes. The results indicate that the combination of region and gender produces (1) a similar gender gap in attitudes in both regions, with women in East and West voicing stronger opposition to traditional gender roles than their male counterparts and (2) regional differences in attitudes, with East Germans more likely than West Germans to oppose a gender-based division of labor. Thus, this study shows that although state socialism was successful in fostering more progressive attitudes among East Germans, especially women, it did not eliminate the gender gap in attitudes about gender, work, and family.     

Maternal labor market return and domestic work after childbirth in Britain and Germany

This study investigates how the duration of maternal labor market interruptions and mothers' employment status after return relate to the division of domestic work in couples after childbirth in West Germany, East Germany, and Britain. It extends the literature by considering how these two aspects of postnatal labor market return decisions of mothers may give rise to or counteract growing gender inequality in domestic work afterbirth events. Using data on 826 British and 1614 German new parent couples based on the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) (1991–2008) and on the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) (1990–2010), I apply fixed-effects panel models. Mothers perform more housework with increasing length of their employment interruptions across the three contexts. For childcare, longer time-outs increase mothers' childcare share in West Germany but not in East Germany. This result is in line with institutional variations in day-care provision. Across contexts, mothers' full-time returns are associated with a larger reduction in their domestic work share than short time-out. After mothers returned to part-time employment, couples show no or much weaker compensating behaviors for longer previous maternal time-outs than after a full-time return.     

The impact of privatization and change of social security systems upon living conditions of east German households

After the collapse of the communist regime East Germany became the prime example of a ‘Big Bang’ strategy of transformation. Rapid marketization and privatization brought about a disastrous economic downturn. But immense transfer payments from West Germany and the import of a well‐developed system of social security institutions accompanied the transformation, minimizing social costs. This article summarizes the main developments and analyzes their impact on the living conditions of East German households. The indicators presented cover labour force participation, business activities and economic inactivity in the household context; relative income position, poverty, income inequality and the self‐assessment of income changes; consumption and livelihood. The article reveals both the different experiences of gains and losses within East German society and the (in some respects) advantageous position of East German households compared with households in Hungary, Poland, and the Czech and Slovak Republics.     

Regional Contexts and Family Formation: Evidence from the German Family Panel

Substantial regional variation in marriage and fertility patterns continues to exist in Germany. Following a multilevel approach, we exploit longitudinal data from the German Family Panel (pairfam), enhanced by an array of district-level variables, to investigate the extent to which spatial variations in men’s and women’s family formation behaviors result from differences in population composition or from ‘true’ contextual effects. Our multilevel analyses provide evidence for only small—if any—contextual effects on individuals’ family formation behaviors (except for a continuation of significant differences between East and West Germany). However, we still find indication that (1) regional economic circumstances matter in determining individuals’ fertility intentions as well as their transition to first marriage, (2) regional milieus are associated with individuals’ fertility, and that (3) selective family migration takes place. While it seems that social interaction rather than differences in local opportunity structures plays a role here, more research is needed to further substantiate this conclusion.     

Individual versus Household Migration Decision Rules: Gender and Marital Status Differences in Intentions to Migrate in South Africa

This research tests the thesis that the neoclassical microeconomic and the new household economic theoretical assumptions on migration decision‐making rules are segmented by gender, marital status, and time frame of intention to migrate. Comparative tests of both theories within the same study design are relatively rare. Utilizing data from the Causes of Migration in South Africa national migration survey, we analyse how individually held “own‐future” versus alternative “household well‐being” migration decision rules effect the intentions to migrate of male and female adults in South Africa. Results from the gender and marital status specific logistic regressions models show consistent support for the different gender‐marital status decision rule thesis. Specifically, the “maximizing one’s own future” neoclassical microeconomic theory proposition is more applicable for never married men and women, the “maximizing household income” proposition for married men with short‐term migration intentions, and the “reduce household risk” proposition for longer time horizon migration intentions of married men and women. Results provide new evidence on the way household strategies and individual goals jointly affect intentions to move or stay.     

More than just the Adoption of Western Capitalism? Time Use Changes in East Germany Following Reunification

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, this paper examines changes in East German time use following the German Reunification of 1990, which led to large and unexpected economic and institutional changes, including the switch from a socialist to a capitalist system. By estimating Differences-in-Differences models, the study finds that East Germans reduced the time they spend on market work (96 min per weekday) and nonmarket work (51 min), while increasing the time allocated toward leisure and job search activities. The observed declines in market work time were largest for low-educated East Germans, those who were in the lowest income group, as well as for individuals between the ages 46 and 64. When comparing trends in time use for East and West Germany between 1990 and 2000, I provide evidence for a convergence in East German time use to its West German counterpart following the adoption of Western Capitalism and several other institutional and economic changes in East Germany. One possible explanation for this might be the adoption of West German time preferences following the reunion of the two regions.     

Gender Asymmetry in Family Migration: Occupational Inequality or Interspousal Comparative Advantage?

This paper examines gender inequality in the determinants of job‐related long‐distance migration among married dual‐earner couples during the 1980s and 1990s. The analysis tested the structural explanation, which attributes gender asymmetry in family migration to structural inequality in the labor market, and the comparative advantage explanation derived from relative resource theory. The analysis used individual‐ and family‐level data from 5,504 Panel Study of Income Dynamics families, occupation‐level data from the 1980–2000 U.S. Decennial Censuses Integrated Public Use Micro Samples, and discrete‐time event history models. Gender differences in the determinants of family migration were not explained by gender differences in occupational characteristics, but the results partially support the relative resource theory by illustrating the conditioning influence of interspousal comparative advantage.     

Gender‐Specific Migration from Eastern to Western Germany: Where Have All the Young Women Gone?

With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, open migration from East to West Germany became possible. Between 1989 and 2007, roughly 10 per cent of the East’s population at the time of reunification migrated from east to west. The emigrants were predominantly young and female. This selective migration pattern led to a tremendous deficit of females in the 18–29 year old age group in eastern Germany. Overall, the sex ratio in that age group is as low as 89 females per 100 males in the east. In some rural counties, the sex ratio is 80 females per 100 males. We find that excess female emigration at the county level is associated with gender disparities in educational attainment that favour women, a labour market structure that favours men and the lower availability of potential partners with similar levels of education in eastern Germany.     

Childhood Family Structure and Early Family Formation in East and West Germany

This study investigated the association between childhood living arrangements and early family formation in Germany. Drawing on persisting sociocultural differences between East and West Germany, the author examined whether the association of childhood family structure and the transition to adulthood varies in different societal contexts. Data from the German Family Panel showed that children from nontraditional family structures experience important demographic transitions faster than children who were raised by both biological parents. The study revealed considerable context‐specific differences that point to the long‐term consequences of the postwar separation of East and West Germany. Family structure was less predictive for early family formation in the postcommunist East. In addition, this study adds to a growing body of literature indicating that even seemingly similar family‐structure effects might bear very different implications—for example, for status attainment and the reproduction of inequality—depending on the sociocultural context.     

Convergence or Continuity? The Gender Gap in Household Labor After Retirement

This research examined 2 hypotheses about the effect of retirement on couples' division of household labor. The continuity hypothesis posits that the gender gap in household labor remains unaffected by retirement, whereas the convergence hypothesis expects it to close. The authors tested these hypotheses using longitudinal data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel Study (N = 1,302 couples). Fixed effects models revealed that male breadwinners doubled up on total hours of household labor across their transition to retirement. This rise was accompanied by a concurrent, albeit less pronounced, decline in wives' hours. As a result, the gender gap in household labor was cut in half. This convergence involved a moderate trade‐off in female‐typed tasks of routine housework and an increase in husbands' hours spent on male‐typed tasks of repairs and gardening. The study concludes that gendered patterns of time use change substantially after retirement, rendering couples' division of household labor more equitable in later life.     

Public Child‐Care Expansion and Changing Gender Ideologies of Parents in Germany

This study investigates whether the expansion of public child care for children aged younger than 3 years in Germany has been associated with individual‐level change in gender ideologies. The authors develop and test a theoretical framework of the short‐term impact of family policy institutions on ideology change. The analysis links the German Family Panel pairfam (2008 to 2015) with administrative records on county‐level child‐care provision for those aged younger than 3 years and applies fixed effects panel models. The findings show that the child‐care expansion has been associated with moderate changes toward less‐traditional gender ideologies only among mothers in West Germany and mostly among mothers without a college degree. In East Germany, the authors found evidence of more traditional gender ideologies among mothers without a college degree as the child‐care reform unfolded. The results provide evidence that policy reforms may alter gender ideologies also in the short‐term.     

BRIDES FOR SALE: CROSS‐BORDER MARRIAGES AND FEMALE IMMIGRATION

Developed East Asian countries import a large number of women from abroad as brides every year, although such cross‐border marriages virtually did not exist 20 years ago. With a theoretical framework and empirical evidence, we argue that developed Asian countries' demand for foreign brides is the consequence of improvement in women's economic status and gender‐discriminative household arrangements that insufficiently incorporate women's improved status in marriage. We offer sets of empirical evidence in line with our argument, using various macro‐ and microlevel datasets. (JEL A12, J12, J61)     

Perceived Economic Uncertainty and Fertility: Evidence From a Labor Market Reform

Whereas in theory individuals tend to postpone fertility decisions in times of economic uncertainty, empirical evidence on that question is scarce. Using data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel (N = 4,548), the authors estimated the effect of economic concerns on the probability of becoming pregnant in the next year. They exploited exogenous variation in economic concerns induced by the announcement of a major German unemployment benefit reform as an instrumental variable and found that strong economic concerns were significantly related to lower fertility of women between ages 26 and 44 years cohabiting with a male partner. Jointly estimating the impact of male and female concerns in a model that allows for endogeneity of perceived economic uncertainty revealed that it was strong economic concerns perceived by the women that reduced fertility. The effect was driven by male main breadwinner couples, by couples with a medium household income, and by couples who already had children.     

Local Day Care Quality and Maternal Employment: Evidence From East and West Germany

By investigating how locally available early childhood education and care quality relates to maternal employment choices, this study extends the literature, which mostly has focused on the importance of day care availability or costs. The authors provide differentiated analyses by the youngest child's age and for West and East Germany to examine moderating influences, such as work‐care cultures, in a market with strongly state‐subsidized provision and near‐universal participation of preschool children. The empirical analysis linked the Socio‐Economic Panel and the Families in Germany Study for 2010 and 2011 (N = 3,301 mothers) with regional structural quality data and applied multivariate regression models. In East Germany, mothers with a child under age 3 years who lived in districts with smaller day care groups were more likely to be employed and to extend their work hours. For mothers in West Germany and those with older children, day care quality was not significantly related to employment.     

How Do Children Matter? A Comparison of Gender Earnings Inequality for Young Adults in the Former East Germany and the Former West Germany

The former Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) differed sharply in their family policies. We follow 1950s and early 1960s birth cohorts from their first jobs to 1989 to see in what ways having children affected earnings for women and men. For the FRG, we find that being a parent had stronger earnings effects (positive for men and negative for women) than in the GDR, with much of this impact mediated by employment hours for women. This does not mean that having children was unimportant for women's and men's earnings in the GDR, but it indicates that the less variable life course led to more society‐wide than individual‐level impact. Further, in the East, some young women balanced family and employment by taking jobs below their qualifications, and this reduced their earnings.     

Gender ideology, division of housework, and the geographic mobility of families

The paper studies the relevance of gender ideology for the geographic mobility of families using data from the German Socio-economic Panel. The analysis proceeds in two steps. First, it is shown that single men and women—who are in some sense “unconstrained” optimizers—reveal identical mobility patterns. There are no fundamental gender differences in the inter-regional mobility of German singles. Second, I focus on dual-earner households and split this group into “traditional” and “egalitarian” couples using information on their factual division of housework rather than their reported gender ideology. Separate migration analyses for both groups reveal important differences indicating the significance of gender ideology in families’ migration behavior: job-related characteristics of men statistically dominate those of women in traditional couples, whereas in egalitarian couples, male and female characteristics have the same effect on family migration behavior, i.e. there is no gender bias. Failure to account for the heterogeneity in gendered family roles across families thus misses an important explanatory factor in migration research.      

Gender differences in determinants of temporary labor migration in China: a multilevel analysis

Data from a 1998 migration survey in Hubei province are used to examine gender differences in the determinants of temporary labor migration from a multi-level perspective. The authors find that community level factors play a key role in temporary labor migration; models omitting community level variables are poor in predicting temporary labor migration. Significant gender differences exist in determinants of temporary labor migration. For men, temporary labor migration is mainly a response to community level factors; individual or household characteristics have little predictive power. For women, by contrast, temporary labor migration is predominantly determined by individual characteristics; community level factors are not as important.