TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lahey, Joanna
TI  - Understanding why black women are not working longer
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 22680
PY  - 2016
Y2  - September 2016
DO  - 10.3386/w22680
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w22680
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w22680.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Joanna Lahey
The Bush School
Texas A&M University
Mailstop 4220
College Station, TX 77843
Tel: 979/458-3463
E-Mail: jlahey47@gmail.com
M1  - published as Joanna N. Lahey. "Understanding Why Black Women Are Not Working Longer," in Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, editors, "Women Working Longer: Increased Employment at Older Ages" University of Chicago Press (2018)

M3  - presented at "Women Working Longer Conference", May 21-22, 2016
AB  - Black women in current cohorts ages 50 to 72 years have lower employment than similar white women, despite having had higher employment when they were middle-aged and younger.  Earlier cohorts of older black women also worked more than their white counterparts.  Although it is not surprising that white women’s employment should catch up to that of black women given trends in increasing female labor force participation, it is surprising that it should surpass that of black women.  This chapter discusses factors that contribute to this differential change over time.  Changes in education, marital status, home-ownership, welfare, wealth, and cognition cannot explain this trend, whereas changes in occupation, industry, health, and gross motor functioning may explain some of the trend.
ER  -