Economic Shock and Gender Specific Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from Young Lawyers

Studies have shown that the great recession of 2007-2009 had huge impact on labor market in the United States. Studies also show that the gender gaps in the US continues to be serious problem. In this thesis, we test if the great recession had gendered effect on labor market outcomes among the highly educated, professional group of people---young lawyer who graduated and admitted to the bar in 2000s. Using individual level panel data, we estimate a difference-in-difference model and find that female lawyers more likely to drop out of the labor market and less likely to leave the practicing lawyer profession during and immediately after economic recession despite contraction in law profession. Our result also provides evidence in the support of Bambauer and Rahman (2019)’s theory of asymmetric cultural acceptance female underemployment as one of the explanations of gender gaps in the labor markets of lawyers.

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