THE EFFECTS OF RELIGION ON THE LABOR SUPPLY OF MARRIED-WOMEN

Drawing from economic and sociological theories, this study explores two channels through which religion may influence the labor supply behavior of married women: (a) differences across religious groups in attitudes toward gender roles may be translated into different patterns of division of labor within the family, and (b) women who marry outside their faiths may have incentives to make stronger commitments to the labor market, as intermarriages are known to be relatively unstable. Data from the 1987-1988 National Survey of Families and Households an used to quantify the labor supply of women in different types of intra- and inter-faith unions at various stages of the life cycle. The results suggest that when young children are present in the household, both of these effects are operative and religion plays an important role in female labor supply decisions. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.