We estimate the e§ect of household appliance ownership on the labor force participation
rate of married women using micro-level data from the 1960 and 1970 U.S.
Censuses. In order to identify the causal e§ect of home appliance ownership on married
womenís labor force participation rates, our empirical strategy exploits both time-series
and cross-sectional variation in these two variables. To control for endogeneity, we instrument
a married womanís ownership of an appliance by the average ownership rate
for that appliance among single women living in the same U.S. state. Single womenís
labor force participation rates did not increase between 1960 and 1970. By our estimation,
the di§usion of household appliances accounts for about forty percent of the
observed increase in married womenís labor force participation rates during the 1960ís.