SHOSHANA AMYRA GROSSBARD
Research on Households

Media & Working Papers

Working Papers, Videos, Media,and Photo Archives

1.WORKING PAPERS


”Spouses as Home Health Workers and Cooks: Insights for Applied Research” IZA Discussion Paper No. 16182, May 2023.

Abstract: This paper presents a model of consumption and household production that takes into account substitution between health-related goods that are produced at home and those produced commercially as well as substitution between goods produced at home by oneself and those produced by one's spouse or partner. New insights are offered that help interpret heterogeneity analysis in data for couples, when individuals differ by gender, age, weight and education. The model also identifies new variables related to marriage markets that could help explain consumption, including demand for medical care and good nutrition. These variables include sex ratios (and exogenous parameters that influence sex ratios) as well as legal changes related to marriage and divorce. A reexamination of the determinants of the price elasticity of demand includes an explanation for gender gaps in such elasticity.

“Adding Grossbard to Grossman: A Model of Demand for Health with Household Production and Marriage Markets” (Shoshana Grossbard and Lorena Hakak). Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise at University of Kentucky Working Paper 48, January 2022.

Abstract: According to the Grossman model the demand for health-related goods or services such as medical care varies with the cost of their substitutes produced in the household. This paper contributes to the literature on the demand for health-related products by simultaneously considering substitution between household-produced items and commercial health-related products and substitution between goods produced at home by oneself and by one’s spouse or partner. New variables that can help explain demand for medical care and other health products are identified, including sex ratios in marriage markets and exogeneous parameters that influence sex ratios such as gender differences in mortality and incarceration. It is argued that laws about marriage or divorce may affect demand for health-related inputs and health outcomes such as good health or good nutrition. We examine how demand for health-related inputs may vary according to many traits of men and women who may marry each other and produce goods on each other’s behalf. New insights are gained regarding the determinants of the price elasticity of demand for health-related goods such as medical services.

"Women and Economics Workshops Run by Gary Becker and Jacob Mincer at Columbia University and the University of Chicago." (with Andrea Beller, Ana Fava & Marouane Idmansour). Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group Working Paper 2021-057, December 2021. later version is forthcoming in J of Family and Economic Issues and will be entitled : “Women, Economics, and Household Economics:  The Relevance of Workshops founded by Nobel Laureate Gary Becker, and of Jacob Mincer” .

Abstract: In the period 1960-1980 Gary Becker founded workshops for graduate students in economics, first the Labor Workshop at Columbia University and then the Applications of Economics Workshop at the University of Chicago. The workshops fostered novel applications of economics dealing with labor, consumption, household production, household formation, human capital, crime and politics. We document the high proportion of women in these workshops, comparing (1) Columbia to Chicago, (2) the Columbia Labor Workshop over various periods, under the leadership of Becker, Mincer, or both, and (3) the Becker-founded workshops to other workshops at Columbia. We estimate regressions of the odds that a PhD was awarded to a woman for students at Columbia or Chicago who graduated between 1960 and 1980, as a function of whether and when the student participated in a Becker-founded workshop. Tentative explanations are offered for inter-university and period variation in odds that graduates were women. In addition, we compare gender ratios of graduates from Columbia and Chicago, where Becker-founded workshops were available during all or part of the period, with that of students at universities located nearby, NYU and Northwestern, where Becker did not found workshops.

“Mothers' Caregiving during COVID: The Impact of Divorce Laws and Homeownership on Women's Labor Force Status.” by Cynthia Bansak, Shoshana Grossbard, Crystal (Ho Po) Wong  IZA Discussion Paper No. 14408, June 2021.

Abstract: We investigate women's likelihood of withdrawing from paid labor to care for children and help them with schoolwork as a result of COVID and school closures. Were women more likely to shift out of paid labor in states where property-division rules would better protect the financial interests of stay-at-home parents? Such higher protection is offered in states with community property regimes or with homemaking provisions, the alternative being equitable-division and no homemaking provisions. We use monthly data from the U.S. Current Population Survey and compare the labor force participation of women with children in grades K-6 between 2019 and 2020, before and after COVID started. We find an association between marital property laws offering women more financial protection and women's labor supply response to COVID-19, especially among non-immigrants.

“Later Onset, Fewer Deaths from COVID” (with Ainhoa Aparicio) SDSU-CHEPS Comment No. 2020-01, October 2020. Published in Pathogens and Global Health, 2020 DOI: 10.1080/20477724.2020.1845930

Abstract: We test whether European countries or US states who experienced their first death from COVID-19 at a later date have fewer deaths from COVID  60 and 100 days after the start of the pandemic in their borders. Our sample consists of 29 European countries associated with the European Union and 50 U.S. states and we control for a number of demographic, economic and health-policy related factors that are likely to influence mortality. We find that late starting countries or states registered fewer deaths from COVID-19. Countries/states’ differential reliance on partial or complete lockdown policies helps explain an area’s advantage of being a late starter.

"Are COVID Fatalities in the US Higher Than in the EU, and If So, Why?" (with Ainhoa Aparicio) IZA Discussion Paper No. 13683, September 2020. Published in Review of Economics of the Household, June 2021, 19(2): 307-326.

Abstract: The COVID crisis has severely hit both the United States and the European Union. Even though they are the wealthiest regions in the world, they differ substantially in economic performance, demographic characteristics, type of government, health systems, and measures undertaken to counteract COVID. We construct comparable measures of the incidence of the COVID crisis and find that US states had more COVID-related deaths than EU countries. When taking account of demographic, economic, and political factors (but not health-policy related factors) we find that fatalities at 100 days since onset are 1.3 % higher in a US state than in an EU country. The US/EU gap disappears when we take account of health-policy related factors. Differences in number of beds per capita, number of tests, and early lockdown measures help explain the higher impact of COVID on US fatalities measured either 50 or 100 days after the epidemic started in a nation/state.

"Intergenerational Residence Patterns and COVID-19 Fatalities in the EU and the US" (with Ainhoa Aparicio) IZA Discussion Paper No. 13452, July 2020. Published in Economics and Human Biology, SI "Economics, Health and Pandemics" Vol 39, December 2020, 100934.

Abstract: We study how patterns of intergenerational residence possibly influence fatalities from Covid-19. We use aggregate data on Covid-19 deaths, the share of young adults living with their parents, and a number of other statistics, for the 27 countries in the European Union, the UK, and all US states. Controlling for population size, we find that more people died from Covid in countries or states with higher rates of intergenerational co-residence. This positive correlation persists even when controlling for date of first death, presence of lockdown, Covid tests pc, hospital beds per capita, proportion of elderly, GDP pc, government’s political orientation, percentage urban, and rental prices. The positive association between co-residence and fatalities is led by the US.  Our estimates pass the Oster test for selection on unobservables.

“Do Immigrants Pay a Price When Marrying Natives? Lessons from the US Time Use Survey.” (with Victoria Vernon) IZA DP No. 13340, June 2020. [revised version published in IZA Journal of Development and Migration 11:16, 2020.

Abstract: Using the American Time Use Survey for the years 2003-18 we compare the allocation of time of native men and women married to immigrants with that of their counterparts in all-native couples. We find that when intermarried to a native some immigrant women pay an assimilation price to the extent that, compared to native women in all-native marriages, they work longer hours at paid work, household chores or both, while their husbands do no extra work. In some cases they work an extra hour per day. Immigrant men don’t pay such price. Some work 34 minutes less at household chores than native men in all-native marriages, while the native women who marry immigrant men seem to pay a price relatively to what their situation would be in an all-native marriage. An explanation based on the operation of competitive marriage markets works for immigrant women but not for immigrant men. Traditional gender-based privileges may allow immigrant men to prevent native women from capturing a price for the value that intermarriage generates for their husbands. Such ‘male dominance’ scenario also helps explain why immigrant men married to native daughters of immigrants from the same region get more benefits from intermarriage than other immigrants.

“Analyzing Intimate Partner Violence with the Work-In-Household Model.” working paper, San Diego State University, March 2020.

Abstract: The existing literature offers mixed evidence regarding the association between intimate partner violence and women’s relative income and income opportunities: in some cases it is negative and in others positive. I present a conceptual framework that makes room for both kinds of associations and points out to other factors that possibly affect IPV (Intimate Partner Violence). It adds to Gary Becker’s theory of marriage by introducing workers in household production and incorporating standard models from labor economics: competitive and monopsonistic labor markets. It is assumed that men may interfere with market equilibria due to their control of political, social and legal institutions. The new framework is comprehensive and able to account for many empirical findings, including the coexistence of positive and negative associations between IPV and women’s labor force participation and reported associations between IPV and divorce.

“Spouses' Income Association and Inequality: A Non-Linear Perspective.” (with Lucia Mangiavacchi, Luca Piccoli and William Nilsson) HCEO Working Paper 2019-076, December 2019.

Abstract: We analyze the association between spouses’ incomes using a rank-rank specification that takes non-linearities along both spouses’ income distribution into account. We also document that the relationships between income and labor force participation and income and couple formation are non-linear. Using simulations, we then analyze how changes in spouses’ rank-dependence structure, labor force participation and couple formation contribute to the upsurge of income inequality in the U.S between 1973 and 2013. We find that an increased tendency towards positive sorting contributed substantially to the rise in inequality among dual-earner couples, but contributed little to overall inequality across households. When considering all households, the factor accounting most for the increased inequality during this period is an increased tendency for individual men and women to remain single.

“The Gender Gap in Citations: Lessons from Demographic Economics Journals” HCEO Working Paper 2018-078 (with Tansel Yilmazer and Lingrui Yang), October 2018. [Revised version published in Review of Economics of the Household]

Abstract: This paper investigates gender differentials in citations of articles published in two journals specialized in Demographic Economics, a field that has traditionally attracted relatively large numbers of women researchers. In contrast to findings based on citations of top economics journals, we find a gender gap in citations favoring women among articles published in the Journal of Population Economics (JPOP) or the Review of Economics of the Household (REHO) between 2003 and 2014 . If the corresponding author is male, having at least one female co-author boosts citations. Across subfields of demographic economics, citations of female authors increase as female representation in the subfield increases. The gender gap in citations favoring women is not found for authors with limited experience past graduate school, which supports an explanation for the gender gap based on authors’ prior experience with economics journals of higher rank.

“Modeling Eldercare by Children and Children-in-law: The Role of Marriage Institutions” Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) Working Paper 750, June 2017 [Revised version published in Review of Development Economics]

Shoshana Grossbard and Sankar Mukhopadhyay,“Body-weight and women's hours of work: More evidence that marriage markets matter” IZA Discussion Paper No. 10775, May 2017. [published in IZA Journal of Labor Economics, 6:9 DOI 10.1186/s40172-017-0059-y  2017 Abstract: Is BMI related to hours of work through marriage market mechanisms? We empirically explore this issue using data from the NLSY79 and NLSY97 and a number of estimation strategies (including OLS, IV, and sibling FE). Our IV estimates (with same-sex sibling’s BMI as an instrument and a large set of controls including wage) suggest that a one-unit increase in BMI leads to an almost 2% increase in White married women’s hours of work. However, BMI is not associated with hours of work of married men. We also find that a one-unit increase in BMI leads to a 1.4% increase in White single women’s hours of work, suggesting that single women may expect future in-marriage transfers that vary by body weight. We show that the positive association between BMI and hours of work of White single women increases with self-assessed probability of future marriage and varies with expected cumulative spousal income. Comparisons between the association between BMI and hours of work for White and Black married women suggest a possible racial gap in intra-marriage transfers from husbands to wives.

Alshaikhmubarak, Hazem, R. Richard Geddes and Shoshana Amyra Grossbard,  "Single Motherhood and the Abolition of Coverture in the United States", CESifo Working Paper No. 6471, May 2017 [published in Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 161(1): 94-118 , March 2019.

ABSTRACT Under the common-law system of coverture in the United States, a married woman relinquished control of property and wages to her husband. Many U.S. states passed acts between 1850 and 1920 that expanded a married woman’s right to keep her market earnings and to own separate property. The former were called married women’s earnings acts (MWEAs) and the latter married women’s property acts (MWPAs). Scholarly interest in the acts’ effects is growing. Researchers have examined how the acts affected outcomes such as women's wealth-holding and educational attainment. The acts' impact on women’s non-marital birth decisions remains unexamined, however. We postulate that the acts caused women to anticipate greater benefits from having children within rather than outside of marriage. We thus expect passage of MWPAs and MWEAs to reduce the likelihood that single women become mothers of young children. We use probit regression to analyze individual data from the U.S. Census for the years 1860 to 1920. We find that the property acts in fact reduced the likelihood that single women have young children. We also find that the “de-coverture” acts’ effects were stronger for literate women, U.S.-born women, in states with higher female laborforce participation, and in more rural states, consistent with predictions.

Shoshana Grossbard. New version of "Marriage and Marriage Markets," January 2017.  

Shoshana Grossbard. “Marriage and Marriage Markets” IZA Discussion Paper No. 10312, October 2016.

Shoshana Grossbard and Victoria Vernon. "Common Law Marriage and Teen Births" IZA Discussion Paper No. 9198, July 2015.

Shoshana Grossbard "Becker’s Demand and Supply Models of Marriage, Sex Ratios, Polygamy, and Bride Prices" IZA Discussion Paper No. 8728, January 2015.

Shoshana Grossbard and Victoria Vernon. "Common law marriage and couple formation." IZA Discussion Paper No. 8480, September 2014. 

Shoshana Grossbard and Victoria Vernon. "Common Law Marriage and Male/Female Convergence in Labor Supply and Time Use" IZA Discussion Paper No. 7937, January 2014

Shoshana Grossbard and Alfredo Marvão Pereira "Savings and Economies of Marriage: Intra-Marriage Financial Distributions as Determinants of Savings" College of William and Mary, Department of Economics WP 95, July 2013 http://economics.wm.edu/wp/cwm_wp95rev1.pdf (revision of CESifo paper below) 


"Children, Spousal Love, and Happiness: An Economic Analysis" (with Sankar Mukhopadhyay) IZA Discussion Paper No. 7119, December 2012


Olivia Ekert-Jaffé and Shoshana Grossbard "Time Costs of Children as Parents’ Foregone Leisure" IZA Discussion Paper No. 5760, June 2011


Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina, Jens Bonke, and Shoshana Grossbard. "Income Pooling and Household Division of Labor: Evidence from Danish Couples" IZA Discussion Paper No. 5418, January 2011.


"Racial Discrimination and Household Chores" (with Jose Ignacio Gimenez and Jose Alberto Molina), IZA Discussion Paper No. 5345, Nov. 2010.


"Independent Individual Decision-Makers in Household Models and the New Home Economics" IZA Discussion Paper No. 5138, August 2010.


"Will Women Save more than Men? A Theoretical Model of Savings and Marriage" (with Alfredo M. Pereira) CESifo Working Paper No. 3146, August 2010.


"How "Chicagoan" are Gary Becker's Economic Models of Marriage?" CESifo Working Paper No. 2637, 2009. (Revised version forthcoming in Journal of History of Economic Thought)

"Far Above Rubies: The Association Between Bride Price And Extramarital Sexual Relations In Uganda" ( with David Bishai), IZA Discussion Papers 2982, August 2007. (Revised version published by Journal of Population Economics, online)

"Does Community Property Discourage Unpartnered Births?" (with Olivia Ekert-Jaffe), IZA Discussion Papers 2816, June 2007. (Revised version was published in European Journal of Political Economy, issue 24(1) 2008)

"Marriage Markets and Women's Labor Force Participation" (with Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes), IZA Discussion Paper 2722, April 2007. (Revised version was published in Review of Economics of the Household, issue 5(3), 2007)

"The Shrinking Role of Demand and Supply Models in Gary Becker's Theories of Marriage," Ms, SDSU, November 2006

Ronald Mincy, Shoshana Grossbard and Chien-Chung Huang "An Economic Analysis of Co-Parenting Choices: Single Parent, Visiting Father, Cohabitation, Marriage", EconWPA papers in Labor and Demography #0505004, May 2005.

"A Model of Labor Supply, Household Production, and Marriage" Abbreviated version. [Full version was published in Advances in Household Economics, Consumer Behaviour and Economic Policy, edited by Tran Van Hoa. London : Ashgate Publishing, 2005.]

"Competitive Marriage Markets and Jewish Law "  Ms, SDSU, 2005. [Published in The Economics of Judaism and Jewish Human Capital, edited by Carmel U. Chiswick and Tikva Lecker with Nava Kahana. Ramat-Gan , Israel : Bar Ilan University Press, 2006.]

"Who Will Pay the Bills? A Theory of Women’s Welfare Dependency, Labor Supply, and Marriage" Ms, SDSU and Columbia University, April 2003. (Revised version was published in Labour in 2005).

Introduction to book by the same title : "Marriage and the Economy" by Shoshana Grossbard-Shechtman, January 30, 2002. Book published by Cambridge University Press, March 2003.

"Women's Labor Force Participation and Status Exchange in Intermarriage: An Empirical Study in Hawaii " (with Xuanning Fu)

"Property Division at Divorce and Demographic Behavior: An Economic Analysis and International Comparison " (with Olivia Ekert-Jaffe and Bertrand Lemennicier) Presented at the American Economic Meetings, Atlanta , January 2002.

Shoshana Grossbard-Shechtman. "Marriage market imbalances and trends in women's labor supply in the U.S." CPE Discussion Paper 2000-02, June 2000

Shoshana Grossbard-Shechtman. "Fewer young married women in the labor force: a new trend with inflationary potential?" Center for Public Economics, San Diego State University, Discussion Paper 00-01.  Revised, March 2000. 

Shoshana Grossbard-Shechtman. "A note on why fewer women are retiring early." Center for Public Economics, San Diego State University, Discussion Paper 98-01. May 1998.

"WOMEN'S JOBS AND MARRIAGE-BABY-BOOM VERSUS BABY-BUST ", English translation of an article published in French in Population, December 1998 (with Clive W.J. Granger).

 

2.Videos and TV appearances

3.Appearances on podcasts and interviews

  • S1E30: Interview with Shoshana Grossbard, Editor of Review of Economics of the Household, The Mixtape with Scott Cunningham who writes “one of the series I have been doing I call “Becker’s students”. I chose Gary Becker because it was Becker’s Nobel prize speech more than any other intellectual experience I had that prompted me to get a PhD in economics. He has cast a massive shadow over me. And my series so far has included interviews with two of his former students from when he was a professor at Columbia University: Robert Michael and Michael Grossman. But this week I am talking with one of his students from the University of Chicago where he spent the majority of his career. My guest this week is Shoshana Grossbard. This interview was one of the best interview experiences I have had yet. Shoshana was honest, warm, and most of all very candid about her career, about the history of household economics, the things that had major impacts on her, but also the discouragements in her career. That she would share both the highs and lows as well as her thoughts about economics as a science and its practitioners so transparently with me of all people was deeply humbling for me. You will learn that Becker was an important figure for her, not surprisingly as he was her advisor, but like many important people to us who we’ve known for years, the relationship was also a complicated one. His influence cast a long shadow over who she chose to become, and I appreciated that she was so forthright.”

  • Shoshana Grossbard on Why Dry Cleaners Charge Women More, on the Economics of Love & Marriage and on Polygamy on Economic Rockstar, 2015.

  • On polygamy

    • at Vancouver’s Radio-Canada CBC ( in French), Dec 8 2010

    • by Sean Leslie for The World Today Weekend, CKNW AM980, British Columbia, Dec 12 2010

    • by David Rutherford, CHQR AM770, Alberta, Dec 13 2010.

4.PRINTED MEDIA