East–West migration and gender: Is there a differential effect for migrant women?

This paper examines whether female East–West migrants in Germany face a differential effect on their labor market outcomes after they move compared to both males and stayers. It builds on a “difference-in-difference-in-difference” approach, employs a matching procedure to define the corresponding before and after periods for movers and stayers and uses panel data techniques to difference away time-invariant unobservable confounders. I find that migrant women after migration do not experience significantly different earnings or employment prospects, compared to migrant males and female stayers. They do, however, face an additional negative effect on hours worked and on annual income. The results also suggest that for them, the income effect seems to dominate the substitution effect and they substitute some market work in the West with home production, in particular, with childcare.