What caused the price of home appliances to decline?

Recent research has linked declining home appliances prices to the rise in employment of married women in the twentieth century. We propose a two-sector general equilibrium model to explore possible causes for the decline in home appliances prices. Given our assumptions for preferences and income distribution, we show that total factor productivity growth and a narrowing in the gender wage gap each contributed to the decline in home appliances prices relative to the prevailing market wage. As a result, a new mechanism for explaining the rise in employment of married women is presented where changes in market wage level affect women's decision to work. Simulations show that total factor productivity growth in the market sector has the largest impact on home appliances prices and thus women's employment rates.