City-Specific Racial Differences in the Labor Supply of Women

Abstract

Theoretical and empirical analyses typically ignore geographic variation in female employment and racial differences in female employment outcomes. We document that there is substantial heterogeneity in female employment with respect to geographic location, race, and their interaction. We show that a parsimonious set of area-level controls explains a substantial portion of that heterogeneity. Our results suggest that analyses that ignore geographic variation may misstate the determinants of female employment, possibly producing erroneous conclusions and policy prescriptions. They also suggest that understanding geographic heterogeneity is crucial to understanding racial differences in female employment as well as female employment itself.