Black women and labor force participation: An analysis of sluggish growth rates

The labor force participation rate of black women has not increased as fast as that of white women in spite of the fact that black females have the characteristics economists have found most encourage participation. Also black women at all socioeconomic levels have more positive attitudes towards labor market activity. The explanation for the failure for their work rates to grow as fast as those of white women appears to be inadequate employment opportunities for black women from lower socioeconomic groups. Education in or of itself, however, is not the solution to the problem because education yields lower returns to black women with limited schooling than is true for comparable whites. Any strategy devised to solve these employment inequities must address the low relative demand for these workers.     

Capital mobility and labor market volatility

We used a dynamic two-country optimizing model featuring efficiency wages to analyze the implications of capital mobility for labor market volatility. Capital mobility magnifies the short-run effects of productivity shocks and monetary shocks on employment and the real wage, but dampens the medium-run effects. The overall effects of capital mobility on the volatility and the cyclical properties of employment and the real wage are moderate.     

Females,the elderly,and also males: Demographic aging and macroeconomy in Japan

The speed and magnitude of ongoing demographic aging in Japan are unprecedented. A rapid decline in the labor force and a rising fiscal burden to finance social security expenditures could hamper growth over a prolonged period. We build a dynamic general equilibrium model populated by overlapping generations of males and females who differ in participation rate, employment type and labor productivity as well as life expectancy. We study how changes in the labor market over the coming decades will affect the transition path of the economy and fiscal situation of Japan. We find that a rise in the labor supply of females and the elderly of both genders in an extensive margin and in labor productivity can significantly mitigate effects of demographic aging on the macroeconomy and reduce fiscal pressures, despite their negative effects on equilibrium wages during the transition. The study suggests that a combination of policies that remove obstacles hindering labor supply and that enhance a more efficient allocation of male and female workers of all age groups will be critical to keeping government deficit under control and raising income across the nation.     

Gender earnings differentials in Taiwan: A stochastic frontier approach

We examine Taiwan's male–female earnings gaps over the past three decades in order to assess the progress in assimilating women into the labor market. Two alternative methods of evaluating earnings gaps are employed in this paper: the traditional Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition method and the less well-known method of evaluating labor market efficiency. Men and women's earnings are converging during this period (1978–2003) while at the same time there is little change in the level of gender discrimination measured by the standard Oaxaca–Blinder method. Using the labor market efficiency (stochastic frontier) model we find increases in labor market efficiency over time for both males and females; however, females enjoy a much faster rate of increase in efficiency. We conclude that the relative increase in female efficiency represents a decline in discrimination against females.     

The common trend and common cycle of exports and the real exchange rate: Empirical results from Swiss data

Conclusion This paper contains an empirical analysis of the relationship of Swiss goods exports, the real exchange rate and world trade, using the common-trend-common-cycle methodology. This exercise shows that the trend and cyclical dependence of these variables are strongly different: exports and the real exchange rate exhibit a positive long-run or trend dependence of world trade whereas the short-run or cyclical relationship of exports to the real exchange rate is strongly negative with approximately a unit elasticity. These results, which differ strongly from standard dynamic regression or error correction estimates, can be interpreted as follows. In the short run we observe the strong negative cyclical relationship between exports and the real exchange rate, which we expect from short-run macroeconomic models with sticky prices. If we make the reasonable assumption that short-run real exchange rate movements are exogenous to exports and, for instance, caused by monetary policy then we come to the conclusion that cyclical real exchange rate variations lead to strong export cycles. However, in the long run, there is a completely different positive comovement of these two variables, which are both driven by the world trade trend. This common trend of exports and the real exchange rate can be understood as an equilibrium reaction of both variables, price and quantity of the exported goods, to exogenous changes in world trade given a production technology available for the country.     

Dynamic Analysis of Income and Independence Effect of African American Female Labor Force Participation on Divorce

Despite a continuous increase in dissolution of marriages among African American females over time, no researchers have documented and published dynamic linkages among factors that cause African American family disruption. Using a contemporary time-series methodology, the study explores the dynamic impacts of African American female labor force participation rates (LFPR), incomes, and birth rates on divorce rates or vice versa. The study found that African American female divorce rates increase permanently as labor force participation rates increase, documenting a dominant independence effect of African American LFPR on divorce rates. The study also found that as more African American females participate in the labor market, birth rates decline over times.      

Why Governments Should Invest More to Educate Girls

Women and men often receive the same percentage increase in their wage rates with advances in schooling. Because these returns decline with more schooling, the marginal returns for women will tend to exceed those for men, especially in countries where women are much less educated. The health and schooling of children are more closely related to their mother's education than father's. More educated women work more hours in the market labor force, broadening the tax base and thereby potentially reducing tax distortions. These three conditions, it is argued, justify the disproportionate allocation of public expenditures toward women's education.     

The supply of labor time for mature females

Conclusions Overall, the evidence indicates that women view their leisure time as a normal good. The responsiveness in supply to changes in asset income is small.For females with spouse present, their time is a gross complement with respect to their spouse's time if the spouse's labor supply curve has negative slope. Simultaneously, the spouses' times appear to be net substitutes.There is evidence in both survey years of a backward bending labor supply curve for females. While most females remain on that part of their supply curve which has positive slope, females, particularly those with no spouse present, seem to be moving toward the backward bending segment of that curve over time. It seems that both females with and without spouse present will be behaving more like their male counterparts over time.This study evolved from a Department of Labor grant (Contract No. J-9-E-7-0180) made to Copley International Corporation, La Jolla, California. I am grateful for the assistance provided by Steven Alan Eich in working with the massive data sets utilized for this study.     

What accounts for Chinese Business Cycle?

This paper investigates the sources of economic fluctuations in China since its reform that started in 1978. Using the framework of a standard neoclassical open economy model with time-varying frictions (wedge), we study the relative contribution of the efficiency, labor, investment and foreign debt wedges to the business cycles of China. The business accounting procedure suggests that productivity best explains the behavior of aggregate economic variables in China throughout the period of 1978–2006. The labor wedge plays a major role in explaining the movement of labor force. The foreign debt wedge and investment wedge primarily affect the composition of output, but their role in explaining the movement of output is modest. Our results suggest that the focus of government policies should be to combat the problems of inefficient factor utilization and labor market rigidity.     

Divorce and female labor force participation: Evidence from times-series data and cointegration

The divorce rate in the United States has increased over the last 40 years. This increase was accompanied both by growing female labor force participation and rising female income. These changes were accompanied by a significant reduction in the birth rate for married women. This article uses time-series data and cointegration techniques to determine the direction of causality between these variables. Analysis of the impulse functions show that the divorce rate will increase if either female labor force participation or income increases. Positive innovations to the divorce rate increase the labor force participation rate of married women. Rising levels of income lead to greater female participation in the labor market.     

Household and market production of families in a late nineteenth century American city

Urban families in the late nineteenth century depended upon their children as their most important source of labor income apart from the male head of house-hold. This paper explores the determinants of the labor force participation of children over 10 years old within the context of the economic theory of household and market production, using microlevel data from 1880 Philadelphia. The father's income and unemployment, the presence of the mother or father, boarders, servants, older and younger siblings, parents' literacy, and ethnicity, among other variables, are used in a probit analysis of the labor force participation of children. The results validate the economic theory of household and market production demonstrating, in particular, substitution between mothers and their daughters and the role of comparative advantage in family decisions concerning the allocation of their members' time. Ethnic differences were only important for daughters.     

Trends in relative earnings gains by black women: Implications for the future

The current article argues that the labor pattern of black women may be properly viewed within a trisectoral segmentation of the labor market. A three-phase characterization of their relative earnings behavior over the postwar period is implied. Empirical evidence lends support to the basic hypothesis of an acceleration in black female earnings growth, relative to white males and females, during the intermediate post-1964 period, but a decline thereafter. The quadratic trend model and its logistic transformation were found to fit the earnings patterns rather well. Projections based upon these models suggest that present trends do not bode well for major gains in black female median earnings relative to those of white men and women in the near future.     

Characteristics of minority members of the American Economic Association

Evidence from the data tape for the 1985 Directory of the American Economic Association indicates that blacks and women remain underrepresented compared to their numbers in the general population. Although we present some limited evidence of increased representation of these minorities, the finding of underrepresentation is robust when we look at other measures of career status such as rank achieved or status of institution of employment. A fuller understanding of the determinants of minority participation within the economics profession will require that the data presented here be combined with data from other sources on productivity, salaries, and labor market alternatives.     

Does the early bird catch the worm? Evidence and interpretation on the long-term impact of school entry age in China

The long-term impact of children's age at primary school entry on educational attainment and labor market outcomes is one of the primary concerns to families, educators, and policymakers. Using a nationally representative survey of families and individuals, this paper is among the first to explore these effects in a causal sense in the Chinese context and understand the underlying mechanisms. We use a regression discontinuity (RD) design that employs the threshold date for primary school entry set by the 1986 Compulsory Education Law of China as a source of exogenous variation in the timing of school entry. We first document a salient and robust compliance rate of school entry requirement. RD estimates indicate that being born right after the cutoff date significantly increases years of schooling and annual earnings for non-agricultural jobs for the full sample. We also observe remarkable heterogeneous effects on labor market performance by gender. Being born right after the cutoff increases the probability of being in the labor force for men, but decreases that for women. We find that the decline in female labor force participation is mainly driven by women who come from economically and socially disadvantaged families. Further evidence suggests that this decline can be explained by supply-side factors including fertility decision and childcare provisions.     

MULAN in the name: Causes and consequences of gendered Chinese names

Drawing on data from the 2005 China mini-census, this study aims to measure the genderedness of Chinese names and explore the determinants of gendered names and their impacts on labor market performance. The Gendered Name Index we constructed shows that male and female names have been converging over the past century, mainly attributed to the defeminization of female names. A regression analysis reveals that the gender characteristics of Chinese names are highly correlated with parental characteristics, the strength of kinship networks, and local socioeconomic conditions. Additionally, the genderedness of a name has mild but statistically significant effects on labor market performance. Notably, a masculine name will increase men's earnings, while a feminine name will prevent women from entering the labor market and reduce their earnings. These findings support both gender identity and gender discrimination mechanisms.     

Business cycle and wage policy

Summary This article presents a model of the business cycle and economic growth which explains the deviations of strategic macro-economic variables from their equilibrium values. It is assumed that the price mechanism will clear the goods market yearly, such that an equilibrium between effective demand and the profitable production capacity will be attained through the equilibrating price competition of entrepreneurs. However, a yearly labour market equilibrium will not be reached. Imperfect wage competition will only restore equilibrium in the very long run. Through a Koyck lag in the wage-setting function, i.e. between the rise of real labour costs per unit of product and the level of strain between supply and demand on the labour market, a lasting wage-push will generate a cyclical process that in some circumstances may take forty years. For, the lower the short-run elasticity between the real wage increase and the strain variable, the more lasting the cyclical process will be. A forty year cyclical movement shows a remarkable correspondence between the observed data in the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's and 1980's of this century and the simulations of the model.Originally published in Dutch in J.A.H Maks and E. Wester (eds.),Met het oog op de werkelijkheid, Opstellen over economie en beleid voor F. Hartog, H.E. Stenfert Kroese b.v., Leiden, 1983, pp. 191–213.     

Marginalization Revisited: Women's Market Work and Pay,and Economic Development

A substantial literature argues that women have been left out of economic development, but evidence from labor force surveys in middle-income developing countries suggests otherwise. Women's participation rates in the market labor force have been increasing, women have shifted into white-collar occupations, and certain previously male-dominated occupations have become female-dominated (clerical work in Asia, for example). Women's relative pay has risen somewhat faster in Asia and Latin America than occurred during industrialization in the United States. Although inequalities remain, there is no evidence that women on average are being marginalized.     

Women's Economic Status in Rural China: Household Contributions to Male–Female Disparities in the Wage–Labor Market

Rapid industrial growth in China coupled with economic reforms in the rural areas has created a growing demand for rural women's labor, though often at substantially lower wages than those earned by men employed in the same sector. An analysis of data collected in rural Guangdong province suggests that households may contribute to the observed male–female market wage differential through their influence in the formation of individuals' reservation wages. Under these circumstances, external employment opportunities, while no doubt serving to increase the household's overall level of income, may, on their own, be a less effective mechanism for raising the economic status of women. On the contrary, market wage signals may serve to reinforce, rather than to ameliorate, sex-based differences that arise within the household.     

Adolescent Depression and Adult Labor Market Outcomes

This article uses recently released data from a national longitudinal sample to present new evidence of the longer term effects of adolescent depression on labor market outcomes. Results suggest reductions in labor force attachment of approximately 5% and earnings reductions of approximately 15% for individuals with depressive symptoms as an adolescent. These effects are only partially reduced when controlling for channels operating through educational attainment, adult depressive symptoms, or co‐occurring illnesses. Further, the unique structure of the data allows for high‐school fixed effects as well as suggestive evidence using sibling comparisons, which allows controls for potentially important unobserved heterogeneity. Overall, the results suggest that the links between adolescent depression and labor market outcomes are quite robust and important in magnitude, suggesting the need for further investments in treatment options and opportunities during adolescence, which will likely result in long term returns.     

Rigid wages or small equilibrium adjustments? Evidence from the contraction of 1893

Contrary to the conclusions drawn from some macroeconomic studies, U.S. labor markets could exhibit considerable cyclical wage rigidity even before World War I. Using disaggregated data from Cincinnati manufacturing firms during the 1893 contraction, I estimate a threshold or friction model of wage adjustment that distinguishes between impediments to wage cuts and wage cuts that were small but possibly market clearing. The wage adjustment process exhibited friction which was both statistically and economically significant and which varied with establishment size, capital intensity, and payment method. Worker resistance to wage cuts was a factor contributing to this pattern of wage rigidity.