DP Number DP-2015-003

Language 英語のみ

Date September, 2015

Author Linda N. Edwards, Takuya Hasebe, Tadashi Sakai

JEL Classification codes J12

Keywords Equal Employment Opportunity Act, marriage, university education

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Abstract

Prompted by concordant upward trends in both the university advancement rate and
the unmarried rate for Japanese women, this paper investigates whether the Equal
Employment Opportunity Act (EEOA), which was passed in 1985, affected women’s
marriage decisions either directly or via their decisions to pursue university education.
To this end, we estimate a model that treats education and marriage decisions as jointly
determined using longitudinal data for Japanese women. We find little evidence that
the passage of EEOA increased the proportion of women who advance to university, but
strong support for the proposition that it increased the deterrent effect of university
education on marriage.