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Alice Evans

@_alice_evans

Feb 16

Why do Americans work such long hours?

Culture?
Low taxes?

No.

My theory:

Full-time work is necessary for employer-provided insurance. Opting out creates huge financial uncertainty.

So 80% of women workers are FULL TIME.

Hence aggregate work hours are also very high.

Americans work 50% more than Germans, French and Italians

- observes Prescott.

He thinks it reflects the marginal tax rate on labour income

nber.org/system/files/w…

Alesina, Glaeser & Sacerdote contend that taxes can only explain a small portion of the difference in work hours

citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid…

Read 16 tweets

Alice Evans

@_alice_evans

Feb 16

In 1997, when US FLFP was stagnating, 42% of women respondents said a return to the 1950s would be “better”.

Another national poll found the same in 1997.

Why were so many women unsatisfied?

My hypothesis: employer insurance means they’re working FT, making it hard to care.

If part time work doesn’t come with health insurance, then many women may not consider it worthwhile.

So mothers either work long hours (with little government support) or drop out of the labour market entirely

It’s rat race or quit

And paid care is unaffordable on PT salaries

Most of the literature in this area focuses on the lack of affordable quality childcare.

True. It’s phenomenally expensive.

PT restrictions are as important

- Blau & Kahn 👇

(They don’t say, but this relates to health insurance).

Read 6 tweets

Alice Evans

@_alice_evans

Feb 16

“Nooo!!

Don’t go there.

I’m from Philadelphia, I’m used to crime, but by that Starbucks there are homeless people.

They’re not violent but strung out & unpredictable.

I’d get an Uber”

- a USF student kindly cautioned me before I walked out @ 5:30am

Crime —> car dependence

70% of Americans say they’d like cities to be more walkable

Correct me if I’m wrong but it doesn’t seem to be just an issue of infrastructure but also crime?

The sidewalks I’ve seen in San Francisco are fine.

But for safety reasons, the female student wouldn’t walk, she’d Uber

Rich anglophone countries are so connected by shared consumption of films, tv and social media networks that it sometimes feels like our worlds are similar & overlapping.

But it’s striking how many of my mundane, routine, happy activities are ill-advised or impossible in the US.

Read 5 tweets

Alice Evans

@_alice_evans

Feb 16

Rocked up in San Francisco, got chatting to a guy who was a Peace Corp in a remote Andean village in the 1960s!

He shared that men & women socialised freely; trial marriage was normal, unless she got pregnant & the father either assumed responsibility or was ostracised & fled!

Let me add background literature:

Trial marriage was a pre-colonial practise, which the Catholics saw as “diabolical” & tried to stamp out. But they were unsuccessful.

The 82 year old guy was fluent in Quechua.

He told me that trial marriage was still normal but if she became pregnant, they were supposed to formalise. The father would swaddle the baby to show he recognised it as his own.

But one father fled the village & wasn’t seen again.

Read 6 tweets

Alice Evans

@_alice_evans

Feb 14

In 1855, women only accounted for 5% of 🇨🇳 immigrants in San Francisco. This was due to patriarchal restrictions.

It created high demand for prostitution.

90% of Chinese women were prostitutes

This trade was lucrative, violent & immensely controlling.

(Sex ratio hell).

Source: this superb book by Judy Yung.

Chinese prostitution was so profitable that a Chinese woman might even be kidnapped on the streets of San Francisco, and coerced into sex work.

Chinese women who amassed income also became traffickers, they pimped younger women.

Read 4 tweets

Alice Evans

@_alice_evans

Feb 14

What % of US immigrants came alone as unmarried women and how did this vary by country, in 1900?

This would be a fantastic comparative indicator of patriarchal restrictions.

Eg, suppose unmarried women accounted for 2% of Chinese immigrants, but 20% of Scandinavian immigrants.

Does anyone know how we would calculate these statistics?

It would provide brilliant comparative data on restrictions on female mobility in 1900,

(before 20th century economic growth turbo-boosted gender equality in the West & East Asia).

This would enable us to quantify and compare cross-national variation in the “honour-income trade-off”.

If anyone can calculate this data, I will give 💰💰💰.

Read 4 tweets

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