Economic Growth with Heterogeneous Households, Gender Division of Labor, and Elastic Labor Supply

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to propose a growth model with gender-heterogeneous households and an elastic labor supply. The dynamic model describes an interaction among economic growth, time, gender, income, and wealth distribution. Our investigation differs from traditional growth and distribution related studies, in that we propose an alternative approach to consumer behavior. We simulate the 3-group model to provide insights into the complexity of growth, income, and wealth distribution with a gender division of labor. Further, we are able to gain a better understanding of dynamic interactions among economic growth, income and wealth distribution, and female labor participation. For instance, our comparative dynamic analysis demonstrates that either a rise in female education or the propensity to work of any one group will increase the female labor participation within that group but that such a change has weak effects on the female labor participation within all other groups.