Outside Options, Job Mobility, and Gender: Evidence from Divorce Laws

Abstract

This paper studies the effects of non-market outside options on measures of female job mobility using a hand-collected data set of 3,041 MBA resumes. Specifically, I examine two aspects of the household: spousal assets and children. In order to proxy for these unobserved household characteristics, I exploit cross-state variation in laws regulating post-divorce asset distribution and child custody assignment. Although female MBAs on average are significantly more likely to be employed by more firms and hold more positions than their male counterparts, the effect is largely explained by accounting for differences in household outside options. A decreased likelihood of receiving an equal share of spousal assets after divorce leads to an 8.6% increase in female MBA job positions held. An increased likelihood of gaining sole child custody post-divorce has no effect on female MBA job mobility. The findings also demonstrate a relationship between divorce legislation and job mobility for both genders.