Does culture affect female labor supply? In this paper, we address this question using
a recent approach to measuring the effects of culture on economic outcomes, i.e. the
epidemiological approach. This approach focuses on first- and second-generation immigrant
females to quantify the effects of culture and the proxy for culture is female labor supply in
countries of origin. We extend this approach and apply it to an environment of widespread
internal migration. Turkey provides a suitable setting for this exercise as (i) female labor
force participation rates are low compared to similar countries and structural factors cannot
explain the difference (ii) regional differences are acute and persistent (iii) there has been
significant internal migration in the past couple of decades.
Our results reveal that culture plays an important role in the labor force participation
decisions of women even after controlling for various individual and household characteristics.
We find that women who come from provinces where the female employment rates
were high, are more likely to participate in the labor force after they migrate to different
provinces. Our findings are robust to inclusion of parental human capital and various
characteristics of current economic environment.