Discussion Paper No.410
Intergenerational Transmission of Employment
and Working Behavior of Japanese Wife
AYDINBAKAR Aysenur

2019/7/26

TOHOKU ECONOMICS RESEARCH GROUP
Discussion Paper

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND

MANAGEMENT TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

27-1 KAWAUCHI, AOBA-KU, SENDAI,
980-8576 JAPANIntergenerational Transmission of Employment andWorking Behavior of Japanese Wife ∗Aysenur Aydinbakar †Abstract

Using the 2009-2016 Japan Household Panel Survey, this study examines whether
mother-in-law’s former employment affects wife’s working behavior in Japan. The
driving mechanisms behind this relationship is also investigated by testing the effectof mother’s former employment on her son’s attitudes toward gender roles as wellas on husband’s skills regarding household chores, paid limited attention in theliterature. Main findings suggest that wife’s employment is positively associated withmother-in-law’s former employment. The influence of a working mother on her son’s
attitude, tested by employment decision of wife with a little child and husband’s life
satisfaction, is found statistically significant and positive. In addition, no significant
findings are determined the relationship between mother-in-law’s employment andtime spent by a husband in housework and childcare. Taken together, even thougha working mother-in-law shapes son’s preferences and beliefs toward gender roles
to have a working wife, husband takes an inactive role regarding household chores
irrespective of his mother’s employment. These results point out that the older
generation’s employment leads to increase in the current generation’s labor supply inJapan by only affecting child’s preference rather than skills.

JEL classification: J16, J21, J22
Keywords: Intergenerational transmission, labor supply, preference, endowment,
gender roles∗

I would like to thank Midori Wakabayashi for her guidance and endless support with my study. I
am particularly grateful for the helpful comments made by Kentaro Nakajima, Akira Hibiki, Yoko Ibuka,
and Colin McKenzie. I am grateful to the participants of International Academic Symposium at Tohoku
University in February, 2019 and the participants of Society of Economics of the HOusehold (SEHO). I
also thank Panel Data Research Center at Keio University for providing me the Japan Household Panel
Survey. I am thankful to Turkish Ministry of National Education, and Tohoku University Foundation
Shigemitsu Sunaga Economics Department for support.
†
Corresponding author: Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University: 27-1
Kawauchi, Aoba-ku, Sendai-Shi, Miyagi 980-8576, JAPAN. Email: aysenuraydinbakar@gmail.com

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1.

Introduction

The labor force participation of Japanese women aged between 15 and 64 years old
increased significantly over the last half century. The results of the Labor Force Survey,
conducted by Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, show that whereas thefemale labor force participation(LFP) rate was 54% in 1968, it rose to 71.3% in 2018.
Moreover, the same survey points out that one of the greatest increases in female labor
force participation took place in 25-34 years old women. The LFP of these women increased
from 46.8 % in 1970 to 80.2 % in 2018. Kawaguchi and Miyazaki (2009) explains the change
in employment rate of women from 1987 to 2002 with the rise in real wages women received
1. In addition, particularly, with The Equal Employment Opportunity Law, accepted in1985 and took effect in 1986, forbidding gender discrimination regarding hiring, promotion,
firing and retirement (Edwards, 1988), both higher education decisions of young women
was affected (Edwards and Pasquale, 2003) and also the proportion of women working
full-time increased (Abe, 2011).
With the higher presence of women in labor market, traditional beliefs toward genderroles have partly reshaped during this same period. Retherford and Ogawa (2005) statesthat traditional statement describing husband as breadwinner and wife as one staying at
home was agreed by 71 % of women in 1982 as it decreased to 46 % in 1997. Furthermore,
one of the recent surveys, National Survey on Family in 2008, conducted by the National
Institute of Population and Social Security Research, point outs that the statement "Thehusband should bring home income while the wife concentrates on housework" is agreed by
45% of women, while 55% of them disagree. Moreover, 82.9% of women respondents agree
the statement "The husband should take the same amount of responsibility for houseworkand child-rearing as his wife does" (Nishioka et al., 2012). The fact is, the ratio of working
wives who agree the first statement are between 33% and 44% as it is 55% for housewife.
Additionally, the percentage of working wives who agree the second statement comparedto housewives are higher.
Considering these changes throughout society, an increase in the amount of working
women leads new type of man2 to emerge. Fernández et al. (2004)’s innovative study argues
that this man raised in a household that a mother worked is an important determinantof the increase in female labor force participation. The idea behind the relationshipbetween mother-in-law and wife’s employment is supported by two mechanism: preference,technology/endowments (Fernández et al., 2004). The first mechanism suggests that a
1

Women aged 25 to 29 is referred by Kawaguchi and Miyazaki (2009). Contractual monthly cash
earnings for women aged 25 to 29 increased by 43 % from 1985 to 2000, and the increase in monthly
salary is higher for those aged 30 to 34, which is 54 %. The calculation is done by author of this paper.
The information is obtained from Statistics and Information Department, Minister’s Secretariat, Ministryof Health, Labour and Welfare.
2
Fernández et al. (2004) defines this man as one raised in a different family model in which motherworks.

—2—presence of a working woman is usual and natural for a man with a working mother.
He is less opposed to have a working wife compared to his peers. In addition, mothertransmits her attitudes to her child, and thus son’s preference and taste determined byparents motivates him to choose a working wife. Accordingly, the increase in the amountof this type of man leads more women to invest in education and skills, and thus increases
woman’s labor supply. Fernández et al. (2004) states that individual looks for a spouse who
is similar to his/her opposite-sex parents as claimed by a famous psychoanalyst Sigmund
Freud. This brings mother complex, invested by Freud, known as "Mazakon" in Japaneseslang, in mind which might be the proper term to comprehend to the effect of Japanesemother on her son’s preference. This term in Japan mostly refers to a man who looks for
an ideal woman like his mother who does everything for her son (Yamaguchi, 1992). It is
typically expected that the new image of Japanese mother who has a strong bond to her
son in the house is more likely to boost her son’s preference to seek out a working wife
instead of a non-working wife having less similarities with herself.
The second mechanism assumes that one growing up with working mother tends tocooperate in the household and directly becomes better partner. Hence, woman gets
more time to work or invest her skills. In Japan, once breadwinner couples that a man is
responsible for money and a woman stays at home are partly replaced with dual-earnercouples, men become a part of unpaid work, and thus women’ roles in a household slightly
got weaker. The 2008 National Survey on Family in Japan indicates that a husband helps
her wife for taking out garbage, grocery shopping and clearing the table regardless of her
employment status (Nishioka et al., 2012). The proportion of husbands helping to full-timeor part-time working wife for laundry and preparing meals are greater than those having
a self-employed, family worker or unemployed wife. The son brought up by a household
where a mother worked and a father attempted to do more housework compared to otherhouseholds might get a skill to assist household chores. However, recent statistics showingthat the time wife spends on unpaid work, such as household chores, childcare and soon, is still significantly higher than Japanese husband strongly point that Japanese men
play weak role in the house even if they have abilities. The Survey on Time Use andLeisure Activities in 2016, conducted by Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs
and Communications, shows that married working men aged 30-34 spend 14 minutes
on housework, 37 minutes on childcare, 42 minutes on watching TV, and 93 minutes on
rest while working wives aged 30-34 spend on 92 minutes on housework, 70 minutes onchildcare, 65 minutes on watching TV, and 84 minutes on rest in a week. The average time
non-working wives spend on housework and childcare is more than double working wives’time. Although one of the reasons a working wife spends less time might be husband’scontribution, Ueda (2005) states that husband’s help, reducing wife’s housework time, is
not enough to compensate most of the time spent by wife on housework in dual-earnerhouseholds.
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The objective of this paper is to investigate the intergenerational transmission of
husband’s mother’s former employment to wife’s current employment in Japan by using
the 2009-2016 Japan Household Survey (JHPS). Following to the previous studies, initially,
the effect of mother-in-law’s former employment, which is the indirect measure of culture(Farre and Vella, 2013) and of husband’s attitudes toward gender roles (Bütikofer, 2013),
on wife’s employment is tested. Even though substantial research has been devoted toinvestigate the preference mechanism based on examining the effect of working motheron her son’s attitudes, relatively limited attention has been paid whether being raisedby a working mother makes her son better partner regarding home production or not.
This study contributes to the recent literature by examining both mechanisms behind theintergenerational transmission in Japan.
This study provides empirical evidence from random effect probit models that wife witha working mother-in-law is more likely to work in Japan unlike Kawaguchi and Miyazaki(2009)’s probit model results which show that the relationship between a working motherin-law and wife’s supply in Japan are insignificant. The potential explanation is that thisstudy applied different data source and econometric models. Furthermore, data sourcein this study covers recent and long term compared to Kawaguchi and Miyazaki (2009)’s
data source. Additionally, broadened definition of working is preferred in this study 3 . The
results of preference mechanism examining how having a working mother affects her son’s
attitude present positive and significant effect of a mother-in-law worked when his son was
15 years old on labor supply of wife with a little child. Besides, the analyses reveal thathaving a working wife improves husband’s life satisfaction if he grew up with a working
mother. These results suggest that a working mother leads to increase in less traditional
man in a society, and thus augments labor supply of women. Differrent from Kawaguchi
and Miyazaki (2009), this study also pays attention the endowment mechanism. However,no significant results are found the relationship between mother-in-law’s employment andunpaid time couples spend. Taken together, even though a working mother-in-law shapes
son’s preferences to have a working wife and beliefs toward gender roles, husband takes aninactive role regarding household chores irrespective of his mother’s employment.
The remainder of this study is organized as follows. In Section 2, literature review is
3

The definition of working covers only full-time mother-in-law and full-time wife in the paper of
Kawaguchi and Miyazaki (2009). In the data source this study uses, employment status of mother-in-law
as full-time and part-time is not available. Furthermore, Oishi (2019) states that working part-time was
not popular in the 1970s, and only 10% of women worked less than 35 per week. Regarding wife working
part-time, institutional incentives such as spousal tax deduction, social insurance premiums are seemed asadvantages both by couples and also by employer (Oishi, 2019). In this case, common decision couples
make becomes one of the driven factors to work part-time. Moreover, working part-time might be enoughto self-sufficiency of wife. According to Del Boca et al. (2000), being independent and looking for a status
is more important than earning money for women. In addition, they state that if husband lets her wife tosell her time to the market in case of the loss of his job, it is motivated by his attitudes. Considering very
high participation of part-time job, husband are not strict to have a working wife. Therefore, part-timeworking women fit to the purposes of this study.

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reported. Section 3 presents estimation model and method. Data set and the steps ofsample selection are introduced in Section 4. Estimation results are provided in Section 5.
Section 6 concludes.

2.

Literature Review

The recent literature on intergenerational transmission has suggested that labor supplyof married women are highly associated with a husband brought up by a working mother.
Using the data of Bank of Italy in 1995, Del Boca et al. (2000) analyzes the effectof husband’s unemployment status on wife’s labor supply decision. Their probit model
findings suggest that wife’s employment is determined by her own mother and her husband’s
mother, a proxy of couple’s culture toward a working woman. Fernández et al. (2004)
study on how mother’s former employment influence her son’s wife’s employment using
the General Social Survey in the US. Their probit results show the positive effect ofmother-in-law’s employment on female labor force participation as well as insignificant
effect of wife’s mother on her own labor supply. This finding is confirmed by a seriesof studies following to Fernández et al. (2004), such as Butikofer(2012) for Switzerland,
Morrill and Morrill (2013) for the US, Campos-Vazquez and Velez-Grajales (2014) for
Mexico, Li and Liu (2018) for China, Papapetrou and Tsalaporta (2018) for Greece as afew studies suggest no significant effect regarding the relationship between mother-in-law’s
former employment and wife’s labor supply (Kawaguchi and Miyazaki, 2009; Johnston
et al., 2013).
Following to Fernández et al. (2004), Kawaguchi and Miyazaki (2009), whose study isvery close to my study, test the effect of husband’s mother’s employment on wife’s labor
supply as well as the preference mechanism using repeated cross-sectional data from theJapanese General Social Surveys 2000-2003. The finding from probit model shows the
positive association between wife’s employment and mother-in-law’s employment, but isstatistically insignificant. In addition, they suggest that men raised by a working motherare less likely to hold traditional gender roles. Farre and Vella (2013)’s examinations of therelationship between mother and child regarding attitudes and labor supply reveal thatthe less traditional view mother has, the more egalitarian view her son has. Furthermore,they show that men raised by working mother are more likely to have egalitarian view, andhusband’s beliefs positively affect wife’s work decision. Johnston et al. (2013) determine
direct and positive impact of mother’s attitudes on her son’s non-traditional gender
attitudes as well as the positive effect of her attitudes on daughter-in-law’s employment
status. Tolciu and Zierahn (2012)’s study, which the impact of social norms regarding
work commitment and gender roles on wife’s employment in Germany is focused on,
confirms the positive influence of husband supporting non-traditional gender roles on wife’s
employment.

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Li and Liu (2018)’s comprehensive study assesses intergenerational transmission of
women’ employment with testing both mechanisms using the Chinese General Social
Survey. Their initial findings show that wife’s working behavior is positively affected byher mother-in-law’s employment. To test preference mechanism, the impact of working
mother on her son’s attitudes as well as his behaviors’ effect on wife’s labor supply isestimated. They provide weak evidence for the relationship between working mother andher son’s attitudes even though the strong correlation between husband’s attitudes andwife’s employment. Additionally, the effect of a working wife on husband’s subjective
well-being is analyzed in order to reveal how husband feels if he is married with a working
woman. No significant relationship between happiness of husband and wife’s labor supply
is indicated. Whether the endowment mechanism plays a role on working behavior ofwomen is tested by sibling composition, living arrangement of couples, and time allocationof husband and wife. The positive effect of working mother-in-law on wife’s working hours
as well as its negative effect on husband’s working hours is shown.

3.

Estimation Model and Method

To test the relationship between mother-in-law’s former employment and wife’s employment by using panel data from 2009 to 2016, random effect probit model is estimatedas follows:
P (Eitw = 1|Eim , Xi1 , Xit2 , ci ) = Φ(Eim α1 + Xi1 β + Xit2 γ + ci )(1)where E w represents the current employment status of wife, which equals 1 if wife isself-employed, professional, salaried employee4 and 0 otherwise. E m refers to husband’s
mother’s employment(mother-in-law of wife) when he was 15 years old, which takes thevalue 1 if she was self-employed, professional or wage worker, and 0 if she was a worker atfamily business, working at home, consigned work or subcontractor, or unemployed.
Xi1 and Xit2 consist of the following variables: age of husband and wife at time t;
education dummies of wife and husband, defined as high school or lower and college orhigher, education of parents, defined in three categories: junior high school, high school,
and college or higher 5 ; husband’s income(log) at time t; having a child aged 0-6 at timet; number of children at time t; prefecture husband lived in when he was 15 years old;city size a couple lives in, and year dummies. ci is the unobserved random effect, which isassumed as it is uncorrelated with independent variables.
The effect of mother-in-law’s former employment on wife’s working hours is tested by
4

Salaried employee includes full-time and part-time worker.
Couples who define their education level as other are added to base category of education which ishigh school or lower. Parents choosing other are added to base category of education, junior high school.
5—6—

the following linear random effect model:
Hit = Eim α1 + Xi1 β + Xit2 γ + ci + it(2)where H represents working hours per week including overtime wife. Xi1 and Xit2 arecontrol variables defined in right-hand side of equation 1. ci is the unobserved random
effect, and it is a normally distributed random error.
In the study of Kawaguchi and Miyazaki (2009), four statements about gender roles,
representing Japanese beliefs, are used to test whether mother-in-law’s former employment
influence on her son’s behaviors. Following to one of the statement "A mother’s job holding
a negative impact on the development of pre-primary school children." of Kawaguchi and
Miyazaki (2009) to assess preference mechanism, wife with a little child is considered. It
is expected that the husband raised by a working mother is more likely to stand by her
wife to work regardless of having a child younger than 6 or 12 while the husband with anon-working mother tends to expect her wife to stay at home, particularly after having achild. Equation (1) is estimated by restricting the dependent variable as wife with a childaged 0-6 and 0-12. If a married woman both has 0-6 year-old /0-12 year-old child(ren) andalso works, it equals 1, and if a wife with a little child does not work, it takes the value, 0.
Additionally, using the JHPS between 2011 and 20166 , the effect of a working wife on
husband’s life satisfaction with a scale of 0 referring to "completely dissatisfied" to 10
referring to "fully satisfied" in a given year is considered. Another statement "It is more
important for a wife to help her husband’s career than to pursue her own career" in thework of Kawaguchi and Miyazaki (2009) is considered as wives should sacrifice her own
career for her husband, and make her husband’s utility higher. If a husband was brought
up in a different family which mother worked, having a working wife is less likely to botherhim. Bütikofer (2013) tests the effect of wife’s income contribution on financial and generallife satisfaction of husband. In Li and Liu (2018), whether a married woman’s working
affects her husband’s happiness is tested. Li and Liu (2018) states that wife’s labor supply
is better indicator than wife’s income contribution because wife whose earning is morethan husband’s makes him unpleasant even if husband is less traditional man.
Under the endowment mechanism, linear random effect models for unpaid time allocation of couples7 are examined so as to illuminate whether husband with a working
mother is cooperative in the house or not. It is assumed that a married man brought up
by a working mother is more ready to be a part of household chores, and thus he provides
her wife extra time to invest herself. In Japan, married women spend very long time
on childcare irrespective of employment status compared to time spent by husbands sohusband taking care of their children, in particular pre-school one, gives a chance to her
6

The question related to satisfaction has been started to be asked to the respondent in 2011.
How respondents allocate their time on housework and childcare has been started to be asked in 2011
and 2010, respectively.
7—7—

wife who wants to work or works longer. Rather than using working hours of the couple8
as Li and Liu (2018), I used direct information about time spent in household chores andlittle child.

4.

Data and Sample Selection

The Japan Household Panel Survey (JHPS) has been implemented by the Panel Data
Research Center at Keio University annually since 2009 on 4,022 households in Japan.
The single and married respondents, interviewed every January, are chosen by means of
two-stage stratified random sampling. The survey collects extensive detailed information on
the respondents and their spouses, such as socioeconomic characteristics of the respondentand their spouse, their daily lives, their household’s finances, and housing. In 2011, therespondents and their spouses were asked for their families, which provides for questioning
whether mother’s employment when husband was 15 years old affects wife’s employment
or not.
The sample is selected according to the following steps. First, of those 4,022 households
in 2009, 2,888 married couples9 are chosen. Second, households whose wives are between
the ages of 25 and 60 are selected. This reduces the number of the households from 2,888
to 1,917. Last step is to drop dead mother-in-law and father-in-law when husband was 15
years old, reducing 1,917 households to 1,863 households in 2009.
Table 1 lists descriptive statistics of the main variables in terms of mother-in-law’s
employment(husband’s mother). 64% of wives whose mother-in-law worked when husband
was 15 years old work as self-employed worker, professional, full-time or part-time worker.
This is 58% for those whose mother-in-law did not work. The proportion of working hoursof wives with working mother-in-law are 2 hours higher than those with a non-working
mother-in-law. While the proportion of women graduates from at least a college withworking mother-in-law is 42 %, those with non-working mother-in-law are 48 %. Moreover,husbands with a non-working mother are more educated than those with working mother,and their incomes are higher. 15 % of working mothers-in-law have at least a college
degree, which is just 1 % higher than non-working mothers-in-law. Table 2 reports wife’s
employment status by mother-in-law and mother’s employment. As around 60 % ofmarried women with working mother-in-law are salaried employee, including part-time or
full-time worker, 56 % of wives with a non-working mother is salaried employee. Theseare very close to the percentage of wife with a working and non-working mother. The
proportion of unemployed women are 27 -28 % if mother(-in-law) worked.
8

Working hours of a married woman is used in Equation 2. The estimation results of husband’s working
hours is statistically insignificant. The possible explanation is that 80% of them is a salaried worker,
working at least 40 hours per week that the effect of mother’s employment on her son’s working hours ishighly weak.
9
Divorced is counted as single.

—8—Statistics about education level of wife’s own mother and father are reported in Table 3.
Time spent in unpaid work, consisting of housework and childcare, is listed in Table 4.
Husbands with a working mother spend 2 hours per week on housework, including preparing
meals, laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning. This is a bit lower than those with non-working
mother. Husbands with a child aged 0-12 spend 6 hours per week if their mother worked.
In addition, wives with a working mother-in-law spend 26 hours and 41 hours per week onhousework and child rearing as those with non-working mother-in-law is around 27 hours
and 42 per week, respectively. Regardless of mother-in-law’s employment, Table 4 showsthat wives spend considerably higher time on housework and childcare than husbands
spend.
Table 1: Descriptive statistics of the main variables by mother-in-law’s working
Mother-in-law
Mother-in-law
Working1
Not working 2
Obs. Mean St.Dev. Obs. Mean St.Dev
3,884 0.64
0.48
5,067 0.58
0.49
3,802 21.26
18.93 4,930 19.14
19.01
3,926 43.96
8.47
5,126 46.31
8.33

Variables

Wife’s working
Wife’s working hours
Wife’s age
Wife’s education
High school or lower
3,766 0.58
College or higher
3,766 0.42
Husband’s age
3,926 45.87
Husband’s education
High school or lower
3,800 0.54
College or higher
3,800 0.46
Husband’s income
3,810 524.86
Number of children
3,926 1.70
Presence of child aged 0-6 3,926 0.25
Mother-in-law’s education
Junior high school
4,958 0.21
High school
3,875 0.48
College and higher
3,875 0.15
Father-in-law’s education
Junior high school
3,787 0.41
High school
3,787 0.43
College and higher
3,787 0.16

0.49
0.49
9.44

5,002
5,002
5,126

0.53
0.48
48.87

0.50
0.50
9.30

0.50
0.50
292.851.00
0.43

5,043 0.44
5,043 0.56
4,976 576.48
5,126 1.74
5,126 0.19

0.50
0.50
366.44
0.96
0.39

0.41
0.50
0.36

4,964
4,964
4,964

0.37
0.49
0.14

0.48
0.50
0.35

0.49
0.50
0.37

4,958
4,958
4,958

0.40
0.39
0.21

0.49
0.49
0.41

Source: Japan Household Panel Survey (2009-2016).
Notes: Obs. and St.Dev. are the abbreviation of observation and standard deviation, respectively. 1 Working includes self-employed, professional, and wage worker. 2 Not working consistsof family worker, working at home, consigned worker, and unemployed.

5.

Estimation Results

Table 5 presents the results of random effect probit models and linear random effectmodels. At first, the effect of mother-in-law’s former employment on wife’s employment istested without control variables. The finding in column (1) shows that a married wife with
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Table 2: Descriptive statistics of wife’s employment status by mother(-in-law)’s working
Mother-in-law Mother-in-law
MotherMother1
2
1
Wife’s working
Working
Not working
Working
Not working 2
Percentage
Percentage
Percentage
Percentage
Self-employed worker
3.40
1.91
2.76
2.25
Professional
0.64
0.67
0.51
0.82
Family worker
5.30
6.71
6.64
5.80
Working at home
1.03
0.97
0.84
1.11
Full-time worker
20.55
16.76
19.45
16.88
Part-time worker
39.70
38.74
40.06
38.05
Commissioned employee
2.27
2.57
1.97
2.80
Unemployed
27.11
31.68
27.78
31.84
Number of observation
3,884
5,067
4,309
4,397
Source: Japan Household Panel Survey (2009-2016).
Notes: 1 Working includes self-employed, professional, and wage worker. 2 Not working consists of family
worker, working at home, consigned worker, and unemployed.

Table 3: Descriptive statistics of education level of wife’s family by mother’s employment
MotherMother1
Variables
Working
Not working 2
Obs. Mean St.Dev. Obs. Mean St.Dev.
Mother’s education
Junior high school 4,301 0.34
0.48
4,388 0.31
0.46High school
4,301 0.50
0.50
4,388 0.54
0.50
College and higher 4,301 0.16
0.36
4,388 0.15
0.36
Father’s education
Junior high school 4,245 0.39
0.49
4,341 0.37
0.48High school
4,245 0.43
0.49
4,341 0.37
0.48
College and higher 4,245 0.18
0.39
4,341 0.26
0.44
Source: Japan Household Panel Survey (2009-2016).
Notes: 1 Working includes self-employed, professional, and wage worker. 2 Not working
consists of family worker, working at home, consigned worker, and unemployed.

a husband raised by a working mother is more likely to work. After adding other variables,
the marginal effect of mother-in-law’s employment slightly changes but still significant at
1 %. Following to Fernández et al. (2004), the effect of own mother is also added to themodel. Tanaka (2008) states that working mother has an effect on her daughter as a rolemodel. The results listed in column (3) of Table 4 suggest that there is no relationshipbetween mother’s former employment and wife’s employment. This study also examines
how mother(-in-law)’s employment affects her daughter(-in-law)’s working hours. The
result from linear random effect model without controlling other variables reveals that thewife with a working mother-in-law works longer as seen column (4). The findings of thefull model are reported in column (6). As statistically significant and positive correlation
between mother-in-law’s working and wife’s working hours is found, the result shows norelationship between wife’s employment and mother’s employment. All specifications point— 10 —

Table 4: Descriptive statistics of time couples spend in housework and childcare bymother-in-law’s working
Variables
Housework time of husband1
Childcare time of husband having child aged 0-122
Housework time of wife1
Childcare time of wife having child aged2 0-12

Mother-in-law
Working3
Obs. Mean St.Dev.
2,683 2.08
4.04
1,469 6.20
9.91
2,710 26.25
16.65
1,382 40.67
37.36

Mother-in-law
Not working 4
Obs. Mean St.Dev
3,480 2.17
5.40
1,547 5.33
9.05
3,522 27.35 17.65
1,467 41.61 36.29

Source: 1 Japan Household Panel Survey (2011-2016). 2 Japan Household Panel Survey (2010-2016)
Notes: Obs. and St.Dev. are the abbreviation of observation and standard deviation, respectively. 3 Working includes
self-employed, professional, and wage worker. 4 Not working consists of family worker, working at home, consigned worker,
and unemployed.

out that wife’s labor supply is highly correlated with mother-in-law’s former employment.
In addition to main findings, presence of a little child leads to decrease the probability ofwife to work as well as her working hours.
The findings of preference mechanism from random effect probit models and linear
random effect models are given in Table 6. How mother-in-law’s former employment affects
her son’s attitude is examined using wife having a preschool child or 0-12 year-old child.
The findings show that mother-in-law’s working affects wife’s working positively even if amarried woman has a little child as seen in columns (1)-(4). These results suggest that thehusband with a working mother expects his wife to stay at market instead of being at home
to full-day childcare. Additionally, the relationship between husband’s life satisfaction andwife’s working is analyzed to understand how husband feels if he has a working wife. It isfound that a working wife negatively influences on husband’s life satisfaction. However,thecoefficient of interaction term of mother-in-law’s employment and wife’s employment isstatistically significant and positive. This indicates that a working wife augments her
husband’s life satisfaction if his mother worked in the past. Furthermore, household income
and a wife with at least college degree make his life better. Taken together, a working
mother brings up less traditional son, and thereby the idea about having a working wife is
not unusual for this man.
The results of time allocation of husband and wife in terms of housework and childcare
are reported in Table 7. The coefficients of housework time of husband are found negativeand statistically insignificant in columns (1) and (2). In spite of the fact that the coefficientof mother-in-law’s working in column (3) is positive and statistically significant, it becomesinsignificant and negative once controlling other variables in column (4). Accordingly,
husband with a working mother has no effect neither on housework nor childcare. Moreover,the effect of mother-in-law’s working has no impact on wife’s unpaid time in the household.
Overall, even though having a working mother affects her son’s preference and leads toincrease wife’s labor supply, being raised in a different family type is not enough to get
more household skills.

— 11 —

Table 5: Estimation results of intergenerational tranmission of employment
Outcome variables:

Mother-in-law’s working
Mother’s working
Age(W)
College degree or higher(W)
Age(H)
College degree or higher(H)Income(log)(H)
Presence of a child aged 0-6
Number of children

Wife’s working
RE Probit
(1)
(2)
(3)
∗∗∗
∗∗∗
0.148
0.130
0.159∗∗∗(0.047)(0.048)(0.050)0.033(0.048)-0.006-0.004(0.008)(0.009)0.018
0.037(0.051)(0.053)0.004
0.003(0.007)(0.008)-0.040-0.031(0.053)(0.053)0.011
0.008(0.011)(0.012)-0.264∗∗∗ -0.255∗∗∗(0.043)(0.044)
∗
0.036
0.030
(0.018)(0.019)Mother-in-law’s education
High school-

College or higher-

Father-in-law’s education
High school-

College or higher-

Mother’s education
High school

Wife’s working hours
Linear RE
(4)
(5)
(6)
∗∗∗
∗∗
2.234
2.291
2.478∗∗(0.857)(0.935)(0.978)0.969(0.951)-0.003-0.000(0.152)(0.176)1.103
1.357(0.955)(1.021)0.144
0.133(0.136)(0.158)-1.445-1.460(0.996)(1.029)0.035
0.083(0.192)(0.193)-4.981∗∗∗ -4.621∗∗∗(0.676)(0.708)0.521
0.481(0.373)(0.386)-0.001(0.061)-0.064(0.094)0.014(0.065)-0.033(0.097)--0.023(0.062)-0.027(0.080)-0.018(0.063)-0.053(0.087)---

College or higher

-

-

0.071
(0.065)-0.063(0.099)Father’s education
High school--

College or higher--

Constant

-

-

0.019
(0.061)
0.013(0.080)
-

YES
8951

YES
YES
YES
7877

YES
YES
YES
YES
7244

City size
Prefecture(H)Prefecture(W)Year
N-0.772(1.158)0.508(1.792)-0.480(1.231)
0.236( .908)-0.479(1.149)0.716(1.519)-1.143(1.226)0.077(1.655)

-

-

-

-

0.523
(1.174)0.009(1.617)

-

-

-

-

18.461∗∗∗(0.652)
YES
8732

11.058∗∗∗(3.849)
YES
YES
YES
7700

-

-

-0.142(1.145)0.119(1.449)10.591∗∗(4.325)
YES
YES
YES
YES
7100

Notes: Marginal effects of probit model are reported. Standard deviation in parentheses. ∗ p < 0.1, ∗∗ p < 0.05,
p < 0.01. H and W refer to husband and wife, respectively. Reference level of parents(-in-law)’s education isjunior high school.
∗∗∗— 12 —

Table 6: Estimation results of preference mechanism

Mother-in-law’s working (1)Wife’s working (2)Employment of wifewith a child aged 0-6
RE Probit
(1)
(2)
∗∗∗
0.326
0.281∗∗(0.122)(0.123)-

Employment of wifewith a child aged 0-12
RE Probit
(3)
(4)
∗∗
0.161
0.155∗∗(0.077)(0.079)-Husband’s life
satisfaction
Linear RE(5)(6)-0.188-0.137(0.121) (0.127)-0.178∗∗ -0.174∗(0.086) (0.094)
0.254∗∗
0.218∗(0.128) (0.132)
0.197∗∗∗(0.057)-0.018(0.014)0.237∗∗(0.107)0.010(0.013)0.222∗∗(0.108)-Interaction term(1*2)

-

-

-

-

Household income(log)

-

-

-

-

Age(W)--

College degree or higher(W)-

Age(H)-

College degree or higher(H)-Income(log)(H)-

Presence of a child aged 0-6-

0.031∗(0.018)0.052(0.128)-0.009(0.016)-0.134(0.134)0.011(0.027)-0.024∗∗(0.012)-0.058(0.083)0.004(0.011)-0.122(0.087)0.026(0.020)-

Number of children--0.133∗∗(0.055)--0.057(0.039)-Mother-in-law’s education
High school

-

-

-

0.009
(0.107)0.047(0.139)-College or higher-0.034(0.174)-0.015(0.217)

Father-in-law’s education
High school

-

-

-

-

Constant---0.099(0.098)-0.133(0.129)--College or higher-0.046(0.170)0.003(0.205)
-

YES
1913

YES
YES
YES
1591

YES
3700

YES
YES
YES
3201

City size
Prefecture(H)
Year
N

-

-

-

-

6.133∗∗∗(0.084)YES
6249-0.053(0.103)0.034(0.048)0.302∗∗(0.126)0.213(0.196)-0.054(0.122)0.145(0.166)5.070∗∗∗(0.538)
YES
YES
YES
5256

Notes: Marginal effects of probit model are reported. Standard deviation in parentheses. ∗ p < 0.1, ∗∗ p < 0.05, ∗∗∗p < 0.01. H and W refer to husband and wife, respectively. Reference level of parents-in-law’s education is junior highschool.

— 13 —

Table 7: Estimation results of endowment mechanism

Mother-in-law’s working
Age(W)
College degree or higher(W)
Age(H)
College degree or higher(H)Income(log)(H)
Presence of a child aged 0-6
Number of children

Husband
Housework timeChildcare
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
-0.088-0.2441.038∗∗-0.114(0.182)(0.186)(0.529)(0.530)-0.092∗∗-0.359∗∗∗(0.036)(0.077)0.529∗∗
0.952∗(0.225)(0.540)0.055∗-0.048(0.033)(0.062)0.412∗-0.109(0.217)(0.624)-0.325∗∗∗-0.573(0.093)(0.427)0.124(0.321)-0.061-0.146(0.086)(0.451)

Mother-in-law’s education
High school
College or higher
Father-in-law’s education
High school
College or higher
Constant
City size
Prefecture(H)YearN

2.079∗∗∗(0.163)
YES
6163

Wife
Housework time
(5)(6)
-1.040-1.168(0.761)(0.804)0.089(0.146)-1.049(0.880)-0.188(0.125)-0.724(0.868)0.235(0.191)
3.576∗∗∗(0.991)2.465∗∗∗(0.369)Childcare
(7)
(8)
1.396
-1.124(2.644)(2.293)-2.609∗∗∗(0.336)5.888∗∗(2.426)-1.083∗∗∗(0.312)3.777(2.583)0.256(0.864)8.693∗∗∗(1.641)-0.689∗∗∗(0.263)-0.032(0.399)-0.044(0.705)0.692(1.073)-1.417(0.994)-0.229(1.474)-1.164(3.089)3.499(3.916)0.134(0.262)0.330(0.343)5.604∗∗∗(1.072)
YES
YES
YES
5401

0.020
(0.658)-0.245(0.866)26.510∗∗∗(3.672)
YES
YES
YES
2627

1.257
(0.951)
1.069(1.324)28.359∗∗∗(3.645)
YES
YES
YES
5451

1.507
(2.948)0.579(3.466)178.221∗∗∗(11.230)
YES
YES
YES
2493

7.723∗∗∗(0.587)
YES
3016

27.877∗∗∗(0.594)YES
6232

60.656∗∗∗(2.151)
YES
2849

Notes: Coefficients of linear random effect models are listed. Standard deviation in parentheses. ∗ p < 0.1, ∗∗ p < 0.05, ∗∗∗ p < 0.01. H and
W refer to husband and wife, respectively. Reference level of parents-in-law’s education is junior high school.

6.

Conclusion

In this study, the intergenerational tranmission of employment in Japan is analyzed
using panel data from Japan Household Panel Survey (JHPS) taken between 2009 and2016. In random effect probit models, the positive and significant effect of mother-in-law’s
former employment on wife’s employment is found, even after controlling socioeconomic
characteristics of husband and wife as well as parents-in-law. Its effect is 14% on average;that is, husbands are influenced by a working mother. Wife’s working hours are also used
to investigate whether the husband grown up in the house where mother worked has an
impact on time wife spends outside of house. In linear random effect models, it is foundthat wife with a working mother-in-law spends 2 hours more at work.
Regarding the preference mechanism, using the same data source, how husband with aworking mother approaches to have a working wife with a little child is examined. The
positive and significant impact of mother-in-law’s employment on wife’s labor supply witha child aged 0-6 and 0-12 reinforces the operation behind the preference mechanism. In— 14 —

other words, being raised by a working mother affects wife’s employment with a little childthrough making her son less traditional. In addition, the determinants of husband’s life
satisfaction is investigated to understand the feeling of husband to have a working wife.
Even though the result shows that a working wife decreases her husband’s life satisfaction,a working wife makes husband grown up with a working mother pleasant. Accordingly,
these results point out that the preference mechanism is effective in Japan, and men withegalitarian view lead to increase labor supply of married women.
This study also attempts to test the endowment channel to understand whether husband
with a working mother is better partner. The findings related to time allocation of couples
in the house show that having a working mother does not affect time husband spends onhousework or childcare. Furthermore, housework and childcare time of wife with a working
mother-in-law is not affected. After all, the behaviors of husband and wife about doinghousehold chores or childcare does not depend on a working mother.
Overall, this study confirms the importance of one generation’s employment for the
next generation’s employment, particularly from mother-in-law to daughter-in-law. Change
in a figure of woman in a household leads children’ attitudes to alter, and thus marriage
preference in future is affected by their parents. However, having a working mother is notenough to boost man’ skills to cooperate in the house. In other words, Japanese women’dual roles have not been affected by being married with a husband raised by a working
mother.

— 15 —

Appendix
Table 8: Definitions of variables
Variable name
Wife’s working

Definition
Wife is self-employed, professional, wage worker=1
Wife is a family worker, worker at home, consigned worker, or unemployed=0
Hours wife worked
Hours of paid work (including overtime) she performed weekly are used.
Time wife spends on housework
Time wife spends on preparing meals, laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning
per week is used.
Time husband spends on house- Time husband spends on preparing meals, laundry, grocery shopping, cleanwork
ing per week is used.
Time wife spends on childcare
Time wife with a child aged 0-12 spends on childcare per week is used.
Time husband spends on childcare Time husband with a child aged 0-12 spends on childcare per week is used.
Husband’s life satisfaction
Husband’s overall life satisfaction with a scale of 0 referring to "completely
dissatisfied" to 10 referring to "fully satisfied" is used.
Mother-in-law’s working
Mother-in-law was self-employed, professional, or wage worker when her son
was 15 years old=1
Mother-in-law was family worker, worker at home, consigned worker, or
unemployed when her son was 15 years old=0
Mother’s working
Mother was self-employed, professional, or wage worker when her daughter
was 15 years old=1
Mother was family worker, worker at home, consigned worker, or unemployedwhen her daughter was 15 years old=0
Wife’s age
Wife whose age is between 25 and 60 is used.
Education level of wife
Wife has less than or equal to a high school degree, or other degree=0
Wife has a college degree or higher=1
Husband’s age
Husband’s age is used.
Educational level of husband
Husband has less than or equal to a high school degree, or other degree=0
Husband has a college degree or higher=1
Husband’s income
Annual income of husband earned from employment or working at homelast year.
Husband’s income(log)A natural logarithm of husband’s income is used.
Having a child aged 0-6
Wife has a child older than 6, or no child=0
Wife has a child aged 0-6=1
Number of children
Number of children that wife has is used.
Household income
Household income before tax is used.
Household income (log)A natural logarithm of household income before tax is used.
Mother-in-law’s education
Mother-in-law has a junior high school degree, or other degree=1
Mother-in-law has a high school degree=2
Mother-in-law has a degree from college or higher level=3
Father-in-law’s education
Father-in-law has a junior high school degree, or other degree=1
Father-in-law has a high school degree=2
Father-in-law has a degree from college or higher level=3
Mother’s education
Mother has a junior high school degree, or other degree=1
Mother has a high school degree=2
Mother has a degree from college or higher level=3
Father’s education
Father has a junior high school degree, or other degree=1
Father has a high school degree=2
Father has a degree from college or higher level=3
Prefecture husband lived in
The prefecture husband lived in when he was 15 years old is used.
Prefecture wife lived in
The prefecture wife lived in when she was 15 years old is used.
The size of city
Wife lives in one of 14 large cities=1
Wife lives in other cities=2
Wife lives in towns or villages=3— 16 —

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