Research has rarely tested the proposition that women have lost more than men when low- income countries introduce minimum wage legislation and certain other labor market regulations that raise the cost of labor to firms compared with families. But such interventions in the labor market may slow women's transition from nonmarket and family work to employment by firms. And that may affect the rate and structure of economic growth.

Today, more American women than ever before stay in the workforce into their sixties and seventies. This trend emerged in the 1980s, and has persisted during the past three decades, despite substantial changes in macroeconomic conditions. Why is this so? Today’s older American women work full-time jobs at greater rates than women in other developed countries. In Women Working Longer, editors Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz assemble new research that presents fresh insights on the phenomenon of working longer. Their findings suggest that education and work experience earlier in life are connected to women’s later-in-life work. Other contributors to the volume investigate additional factors that may play a role in late-life labor supply, such as marital disruption, household finances, and access to retirement benefits. A pioneering study of recent trends in older women’s labor force participation, this collection offers insights valuable to a wide array of social scientists, employers, and policy makers.

A guide to the continually evolving field of labour economics.