Household Specialization and the Labor-Supply Elasticities of Women and Men

This paper studies gender differences in the elasticity of labor supply in a model of household specialization. I show that household specialization implies larger Frisch elasticities for the partner that specializes in home production. Quantitatively, empirical time-use ratios alone imply differences in the Frisch elasticity between women and men of more than 50%. Similar results are obtained for long-run elasticities. My results imply that the elasticity of labor supply is not a deep parameter which can, e.g., explain parts of the state-dependent effects of fiscal policy.