Gender, Household Composition, and Risk of Voluntary and Involuntary Job Loss

Yuqi Lu , Cornell University

In this paper, I use data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation and employ event history analysis to examine how male and female workers’ risk of both voluntary and involuntary job loss differ by their household compositions, net of workers’ characteristics. The results show that 1) the risk of both voluntary and involuntary job loss vary greatly across household compositions; 2) household members other than partners also affect job loss risks, albeit to a lesser extent; 3) there are significant interactions between household members (children, partners, others); 4) while men are mostly unaffected by or even benefit from the presence of various household members, women are often more at risk of job loss when living with children, working partners, and other members, which is not only true for voluntary job exits, but also for involuntary job losses, thus expanding the “motherhood penalty” literature beyond the hiring processes.

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 Presented in Session 4. Marriage, Family, Households, & Unions