This paper considers the role of the entire marital history in labor market decisions. A distinction is made between married, remarried, single and divorced women in the estimation of standard participation and labor supply functions. In specifications controlling for unobserved individual heterogeneity, white remarried women are more likely to participate in the labor force and have higher labor supply than that of white married women. The results indicate that a substantial fraction of the total change in employment rates of all married women over time is due to the increase in the number of remarried women in the population. * Department of Economics, Social Science Center, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5C2, Canada. Correspond to [email protected]. I would like to thank Audra Bowlus, Chris Robinson, Jeff Smith and seminar participants at the University of Western Ontario for many helpful discussions and comments. Support from the Social Sciences and Humanitie..
