The Good Daughter? Family Responses to Parental Employment Shocks
Year: 2026
Type: dataset
Abstract: We study the impact of Federal alcohol Prohibition in 1919 on workers in the alcohol industry and their families using newly linked census records that allow us to follow spouses, sons, and daughters for twenty years. Immediately after Prohibition, men previously working in alcohol-related industries were less likely to be in the labor force, and when working, were employed in lower-skilled occupations, an effect that persists through at least 1930. By 1940, 21 years after Prohibition, workers were more likely to be employed, consistent with late retirement. Daughters of these workers are more likely to remain at home, delay marriage, and be employed, even 20 years later. These effects are largest for daughters living at home in 1920. While in the short run sons are largely unaffected, sons with sisters have better long-term outcomes. They complete more schooling and have higher income in 1940. Daughters, not sons, appear to have acted as the family's safety net in this period before public provision of relief.
Source: ICPSR Data Holdings
DOI: 10.3886/icpsr311418
Authors: Anna Aizer, Santiago Pérez, Gabrielle Grafton
Institutions: Brown University, University of California, Davis
Language: English
Subfield: Gender Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7208737824