Marriage market imbalances and labor force participation of Canadian women

Several studies find a negative correlation between the ratio of males to females and measures of female labor supply in the US. This negative correlation has been interpreted as empirical support for the hypothesis that marriage market conditions influence intra-household allocation decisions. Given the similarity of cultures and of labor supply behavior of women in Canada and the United States, and the fact that they both experienced baby-booms at roughly the same time, any explanation for changes in female labor supply would be expected to hold for both countries. We test the prediction that marriage market conditions have explanatory power for Canadian female labor force participation (LFP) rates over the period 1971–2001. We find smaller marriage market effects for Canada than those found for the US but similar in magnitude to those found for the US Midwest.

Ana Ferrer (Corresponding author)Email: