The Oxford Handbook of Women and the Economy

The transformation of women's lives over the past century is among the most significant and far-reaching of social and economic phenomena, affecting not only women but also their partners, children, and indeed nearly every person on the planet. In developed and developing countries alike, women are acquiring more education, marrying later, having fewer children, and spending a far greater amount of their adult lives in the labor force. Yet, because women remain the primary caregivers of children, issues such as work-life balance and the glass ceiling have given rise to critical policy discussions in the developed world. In developing countries, many women lack access to reproductive technology and are often relegated to jobs in the informal sector, where pay is variable and job security is weak. Considerable occupational segregation and stubborn gender pay gaps persist around the world.

The Oxford Handbook of Women and the Economy is the first comprehensive collection of scholarly essays to address these issues using the powerful framework of economics. Each chapter, written by an acknowledged expert or team of experts, reviews the key trends, surveys the relevant economic theory, and summarizes and critiques the empirical research literature. By providing a clear-eyed view of what we know, what we do not know, and what the critical unanswered questions are, this Handbook provides an invaluable and wide-ranging examination of the many changes that have occurred in women's economic lives.

Susan L. Averett is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Economics at Lafayette College. She has published widely on topics at the intersection of health and demographic/labor economics. With co-author Saul D. Hoffman, she is the author of Women and the Economy: Family, Work, and Pay (3rd edition, 2016), an economics textbook on women's family and work issues, published by Palgrave Macmillan. She served on the board of the American Economic Association's Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession and is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Labor Research in Bonn, Germany.

Laura M. Argys is Professor of Economics and Associate Dean for Research and Creative Activities at the University of Colorado, Denver. She is well known for her research on the impact of health, education, and welfare policies on the economic well-being of families and children. Her work has been funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the American Education Finance Association, and she is currently a Research Fellow at the Institute for Labor Research in Bonn, Germany.

Saul D. Hoffman is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Delaware and Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Colorado, Denver. He has published widely in topics in labor economics and economic demography. He is the author of By the Numbers: The Public Costs of Teen Childbearing and co-editor of Kids Having Kids (2nd Edition), to which he also contributed several chapters. With co-author Susan Averett, he is the author of Women and the Economy: Family, Work, and Pay (3rd edition, 2016), an economics textbook on women's family and work issues, published by Palgrave Macmillan.