Working Papers
[Job Market Paper]
[Draft]
Abstract:
Occupational segregation remains a persistent source of gender differences in labor market outcomes, with 20 percent of occupations today predominantly female and 45 percent male. These patterns of occupational gender segregation reflect historical processes that unfolded over generations. I study the dynamics underlying the process of occupational gender segregation using a large temporary shock to women’s employment, the mass mobilization of men during World War II, which drew women into a broad set of new occupations. I find that, after the war, women were more likely to remain in occupations with lower physical demands and greater schedule flexibility. Women too young to respond directly to wartime labor demand were then more likely to enter these occupations, particularly if their mothers, older sisters, or female neighbors had wartime experience. I rationalize these empirical patterns in an equilibrium model of occupational choice in which women have imperfect information about occupations' gendered non-wage attributes and learn them through work experience and social learning, allowing information to transmit across cohorts of women.
Revise & Resubmit (Second Round),
American Economic Review
Winner of the
2026 Ghazala Azmat Award
[Draft]
[IPR Working Paper]
Abstract:
Workplace technological changes were instrumental in creating new
tasks for women over the last century. This paper studies the
adoption of the typewriter into US workplaces. Exploiting exogenous
variation in typist demand across sectors, I document that the
typewriter increased women’s labor force participation, leading to
lower rates of marriage and fertility. These developments stemmed
from a transition of White women from households into office work
and an indirect crowding-in effect drawing Black women into domestic
services. Acting as a “meeting technology,” the typewriter reshaped
social interactions, enabling White women to marry above their
socioeconomic backgrounds and achieve upward mobility.
Presentations:
NBER Development of the American Economy SI (2025),
Opportunity Insights Conference (2025),
Paris School of Economics Economic History Seminar,
Stanford Institute for Theoretical Economics Gender Conference (2024),
EHA Annual Conference (2024),
Cliometric Conference (2024),
Chicago Federal Reserve, Columbia Gender in the Global Economy Conference,
Harvard Graduate Economic History Workshop,
Yale Graduate Economic History Workshop,
Stanford Graduate Economic History Workshop
Featured in:
Marginal Revolution,
The Argument Podcast,
National Affairs
with
Katherine Eriksson,
Gregory Niemesh,
and Jacqueline Craig
[Draft]
[NBER Working Paper]
[CEPR Working Paper]
Abstract:
We document that women’s economic mobility improved nearly a
century before married women gained broad labor market opportunities.
Using Massachusetts marriage registers linked to U.S. censuses
(1850–1920), we create new father–child links for women to estimate
intergenerational mobility and assortative mating, overcoming a key
historical linkage barrier. Estimates from a structural marriage
market model suggest assortative mating fell 61% from 1850–1870 to
1900–1920. Counterfactuals imply women’s mobility would have been far
lower absent the decline in assortative mating. Had late cohorts
faced early cohort sorting, the rank–rank slope between a woman’s
father and husband would have been 2.5 times higher.
The Immigrant Advantage in US Intergenerational Mobility
with
Ran Abramitzky,
Leah Boustan,
Elisa Jácome,
Santiago Pérez,
and
Jonathan Rothbaum
Please Email Me For Draft (Public Circulation Pending Data Provider Review)
Abstract:
Why do children of immigrants experience greater upward mobility than children of US-born parents? We construct parent-child linked data from federal tax returns, household surveys and Social Security Administration records. Unlike in the early twentieth century, immigrant families do not settle in more economically advantaged locations. Rather, we find that immigrant parents from all sending regions are now positively selected, ranking higher in the educational distributions of their countries of origin than US-born parents with similar incomes. This parental advantage shapes parenting practices and investments in children. For most children of immigrants, higher parental education rank is associated with greater college attendance, particularly at selective institutions and in STEM fields. For children of Latin American immigrants, higher parental educational rank is instead associated with stronger labor force attachment.
Publications
with
Ran Abramitzky,
Leah Boustan,
Harriet Brookes Gray,
Katherine Eriksson,
Santiago Pérez,
Hannah Postel,
and Noah Simon
Explorations in Economic History
,
2026
[Draft]
[NBER Working Paper]
[Published Version]
Abstract:
We introduce a new rule-based linking algorithm for historical
Census records. We augment earlier ABE algorithms based on name,
age and place of birth (Abramitzky, Boustan, Eriksson, 2012), with
five matching characteristics – middle initial, county of residence,
and spouse and parents’ names. Relative to basic ABE, ABE-Extra
Information (“ABE-EI”) greatly increases match rates, improves
accuracy and is similarly representative of the population on most
attributes, with geographic mobility being one important exception.
Relative to machine learning algorithms, ABE-EI has somewhat lower
match rates, similar accuracy, improved representativeness, and
offers full replicability.