American way of life and "jeitinho brasileiro": how do they affect women’s labor supply?

Abstract

The present study is the first to compare Brazil and the United States regarding the factors, especially those related to the use of time, that cause the disparity in the labor supply between the genders. Using the National Household Sample Survey (2011) and the American Time Use Survey (2011) as well Heckman’s linear regression models as Unconditional Quantile Regressions, the study concludes that in both countries the fact of being a woman negatively impacts the weekly hours dedicated to the labor market. It also found that hours of domestic work negatively impact hours offered to the labor market, but the impact is significantly stronger and more negative for women than for men. Quantile regression models allow a more detailed analysis of these effects. In particular, the impact of the increase in hours devoted to domestic work being higher for women with low participation in the labor market than for women who already offer more hours to the market. The contrary is found for remuneration where results imply in a negatively inclined labor supply curve for Brazilian women of the highest quantiles of the distribution of working hours in the market.