Effects of birth spacing and timing on mothers' labor force participation

Data from the March 1991Current Population Survey [Bureau of the Census, 1992] were used to investigate the effects of children on single and married mothers' labor force participation decisions. Logit results indicated that for both single and married mothers, an increase in education and market experience increases the probability of market participation while an increase in income has a negative effect on the likelihood of mothers' labor market participation. The number of children present in the household negatively affected participation while an increase in the age of children positively influenced the mother's labor market participation. The spacing effect in the married group and the timing effect in the single group were significant. Furthermore, an increase in the number of older children in the household (between the ages of 12 and 17 years) increased the probability of labor market participation by single mothers but decreased that of married mothers.     

Relative earnings of husbands and wives in urban China

This paper studies the relative contribution of Chinese husbands and wives to the family income in the process of economic transition. We find that the role of urban husbands as the main financial supporters of their families becomes relatively more important during economic transition. We argue that this trend may have reflected the restoration of the functions of household production and labor market in the process of economic transition. This restoration allows households to allocate time, effort and human capital investment for each household member and for each household and market activity in a more efficient way.     

The moonlighting decision of unmarried men and women: Family and labor market influences

This paper investigates the moonlighting behavior of unmarried adults. Moonlighting theory hypothesizes that individuals who face labor supply constraints may possess an enhanced incentive to work for more than one employer at a time, but previous research in moonlighting literature has not investigated the influence of labor market constraints empirically. Unmarried men and women, an increasingly prevalent demographic group, face somewhat unique familial and economic circumstances. Unlike married individuals, they do not have access to intra-household income sources and, yet, they may have children present in their household. Empirical results suggest a relationship between labor market constraints and moonlighting likelihood that is consistent with theory and suggest that a larger immediate and extended family may be associated with a lesser probability of moonlighting.This research was assisted by a grant provided by the Research Institute, University of Alabama in Huntsville. Helpful comments were provided by David Blau, Bruce Dixon, Al Wilhite, and participants in the Young Faculty Research Symposium, University of Alabama in Huntsville. A special debt of gratitude is owed to Howard Hayghe, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, for providing access to several unpublished labor force statistics. The author assumes responsibility for any errors.     

Little emperors in the workplace: Labor market consequences of China's one-child policy

What is the impact of China's One-Child Policy on the labor market outcomes of the only children that it engendered? This paper quantifies the wage income gap between only children and their peers (i.e. those with siblings), and uncovers the channels that underlie it. While only children receive higher wage income on average, we find that this only-child premium disappears completely once their superior schooling attainment and family background are accounted for. Moreover, we learn that the One-Child Policy resulted in a negative only-child effect on wage income, after conditioning on pre-determined characteristics; this may be due to only children lacking socio-emotional attributes that are valued in the labor market. Our results deliver important insights for China as only children continue to dominate its labor force at a rapid pace.     

Effects of school closure on household labor supply: Evidence from rural China

This paper studies the effects of school closure on household labor supply exploiting China's large-scale rural primary school closing during the early 2000s. Using CHNS 1991–2011 and CHIP 2007–2008 datasets and a difference-in-differences approach, we find that school closure significantly increases the total annual income of mothers of primary school-aged children, which comes virtually entirely from increases in wage income, due to more participation, more working hours, and higher wage rates. This significant positive effect can plausibly be attributed to their migration responses: mothers engage in temporary rural-urban migration to care for children following school closure. We find no effects on fathers' income and migration behavior. Our study provides the first causal estimation of the impacts of school closure on household labor supply and sheds light on the migration decision-making of rural females.     

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.     

照看子女、劳动参与和灵活就业:中国女性如何平衡家庭与工作

文章利用中国家庭收入调查2007和2008年数据研究了未成年子女对女性劳动参与和职业选择的影响。研究结果表明，家中有未成年子女显著降低了女性工作的可能性，提升了工作女性选择灵活就业的可能性；学龄前子女更有可能导致女性退出劳动力市场，而6-14岁子女更有可能导致女性选择灵活就业；不工作和选择灵活就业使女性更有可能成为学龄前子女的主要照顾者，但灵活就业并没有减少女性的工作时间；女性获得工作灵活性的代价是工资水平显著下降。上述结论在解决了女性劳动参与、职业选择和生育决策的内生性问题之后依然是稳健的。文章的结论对"全面二孩"政策背景保障女性就业有一定借鉴意义。     

The effect of universal pre-kindergarten policy on female labor force participation—A synthetic control approach

This paper examines the effect of universal pre-kindergarten (pre-k) on the labor force participation of mothers with pre-k-aged children in Oklahoma and Georgia. I apply the synthetic control method (SCM) to Current Population Survey (CPS) data to identify the causal relationship between universal pre-k and female labor market outcomes. I find that the universal pre-k policy has a positive impact on the intensive margin of the labor supply of mothers with pre-k-aged children in Georgia, which provides full-day child care services for all pre-k programs. However, Oklahoma's universal pre-k policy has little effect on the labor outcomes of mothers with 4-year-old children. The empirical results also suggest that universal pre-k has heterogeneous impacts on subsamples stratified by education level, marital status, poverty status, and the age structure of children in the household.     

Working Women in an Urban Setting: Traders,Vendors and Food Security in Accra

Data collected from a 1997 household survey carried out in Accra, Ghana are used to look at the crucial role that women play as income earners and securing access to food in urban areas. One-third of the households surveyed are headed by women. For all households, women's labor force participation is high with 75% of all households having at least one working woman. The high number of female-headed households and the large percentage of working women in the sample provide a good backdrop for looking at how women earn and spend income differently than men in an urban area. Livelihood strategies for both men and women are predominantly labor based and dependent on social networks. For all households in the sample, food is still the single most important item in the total budget. Yet, important and striking differences between men's and women's livelihoods and expenditure patterns exist. Compared to men, women are less likely to be employed as wage earners, and more likely to work as street food vendors or petty traders. Women earn lower incomes, but tend to allocate more of their budget to basic goods for themselves and their children, while men spend more on entertainment for themselves only. Despite lower incomes and additional demands on their time as housewives and mothers, female-headed households, petty traders and street food vendors have the largest percentage of food-secure households. Women may be achieving household food security, but at what cost? This paper explores differences in income, expenditure and consumption patterns in an effort to answer this question, and suggests ways that urban planners and policy makers can address special concerns to working women in urban areas.     

The impact of institutional reform from 1979 through 1987 on fertility in rural China

This empirical study brings together data on the local timing of the rural household responsibility system (HRS) reforms in China from 1979 through 1987 and assesses the association of the local reforms with individual parity-specific fertility changes as measured in the in-depth fertility survey. Fertility appears to have increased slightly in 1982 through 1984, but declined in 1985 through 1987, in the wake of these significant economic reforms. It is hypothesized that the reforms increased the private monetary and opportunity cost of childbearing and intensified market competition for the adoption of new production technologies that encouraged parents to educate their children better, while increasing the mobility of the rural labor force and thereby discouraging and delaying childbearing among rural Chinese.     

Determinants of Female Fertility in Taiwan, 1966–2001: Empirical Evidence from Cointegration and Variance Decomposition Analysis*

This study investigates the determinants of the fertility rate in Taiwan over the period 1966–2001. Consistent with theory, the key explanatory variables in Taiwan's fertility model are real income, infant mortality rate, female education and female labor force participation rate. The test for cointegration is based on the recently developed bounds testing procedure while the long‐run and short‐run elasticities are based on the autoregressive distributed lag model. Among our key results, female education and female labor force participation rate are found to be the key determinants of fertility in Taiwan in the long run. The variance decom‐position analysis indicates that in the long run approximately 45percent of the variation in fertility is explained by the combined impact of female labor force participation, mortality and income, implying that socioeconomic development played an important role in the fertility transition in Taiwan. This result is consistent with the traditional structural hypothesis.     

The aggregate gains of eliminating gender and ethnic gaps in the Malaysian labor market

We use microdata to calculate the gains of eliminating gender and ethnic labor market gaps in Malaysia for the period 2010–2017. We document significant gaps in terms of participation in the labor market and entrepreneurship, distinguishing between employers and self-employed. Female-male ratios are 64% for labor market participation, 82% for self-employment, and 32% for being employers. Across different age and ethnic groups, gender gaps in labor force participation are particularly pronounced for older workers and in entrepreneurship for Chinese workers. Our results indicate substantial income gains if gender and ethnic gaps were eliminated. Eliminating the entrepreneurship gender gaps increases income per capita by 6.54% in the long run. When we also include the employment gender gap, the long-run gains are 26.18%. The elimination of ethnic gaps could in the long run result in a smaller but still sizeable increase in income per capita of 11.5%.     

The caterpillar fungus boom on the Tibetan Plateau: Curse or blessing?

In the last two decades, the Tibetan regions of China have been experiencing a remarkable economic boom fueled by the caterpillar fungus, known in the West as the “Viagra of the Himalayas” or “Tibetan Gold.” This article examines the impacts of the caterpillar fungus boom on Tibetan pastoralists' current-day livelihood and the prospects of their future economic development. Our study is based on a household survey conducted in 2016 covering 58 villages across the Tibetan autonomous land area. Results show that the new stream of cash income from gathering and trading caterpillar fungus has had a strong short-term welfare-improving effect. Household consumption, healthcare spending, and religious charity have risen sharply with caterpillar fungus income. Unfortunately, the fungus boom has not brought about productive investment or human capital accumulation that is conducive to long-term growth. Rather, the resource windfall has created disincentives for school attendance, nonfarm labor participation, and productivity improvements in pastoralism. The resource boom-induced disinvestments, if persistent, will likely further limit the capabilities of rural Tibetans to compete in the urban labor market, reinforcing the emerging trend of socioeconomic marginalization. We contextualize these findings in terms of Tibetans' cultural and economic rationale, pointing out new directions for future research and policymaking.     

Education and productivity growth in a market economy

The purpose of this paper is to measure the impact of investment in education on U.S. economic growth. Education is treated as an investment in human capital, since benefits accrue to an educated individual over a lifetime of activities. One of the most important benefits is higher income from participation in the labor market. This is the key to understanding the link between investment in education and economic growth. The most important finding is that investment in human and nonhuman capital accounts for an overwhelming proportion of the growth of the U.S. economy during the postwar period. Educational investment will continue to predominate in the investment requirements for more rapid growth.Invited Address at the Thirty-Fourth Atlantic Economic Society Conference, October 15–18, 1992, Plymouth, Massachusetts.     

农民收入变动及影响因素的定量分析

文章通过考察20世纪90年代以来农民收入的变动情况,分析农民收入结构的变化。利用动态计量模型协整方法,得出影响农民家庭经营收入与工资性收入的主要影响因素和影响程度。即农产品生产价格和农村固定资产投资对农民家庭经营收入有很大的正效应;非农劳动力的比重对农民工资性收入具有很大的正效应,在提高农民收入上主要应从以上三方面入手。     

Labor allocation in transition: Evidence from Chinese rural households

Empirical models are developed in this paper to quantitatively analyze households' participation in decisions on hiring labor and supplying labor off the farm, hired labor demand and off-farm labor supply of rural Chinese households. Econometric estimates use micro-level data from Zhejiang province over the period 1995–2002. The main results suggest that the decisions to hire labor and participate off the farm are made jointly and are positively correlated. A household's labor demand decreases with increasing wages for hired labor, whereas the effect of the wages of off-farm workers on a household's labor supply differs significantly depending on the household's kind of labor market participation. The results also indicate that the accumulation of productive assets, the development of livestock production and agricultural prices have increasing effects on labor demand but reducing effects on a household's off-farm labor supply. Land market integration enhances participation significantly but has no significant impact on time allocation. Finally, the results suggest non-separability between hired labor demand and household characteristics, indicating the rural labor market in Zhejiang province is still functioning imperfectly.     

Development and Immigration: Experiences of Non-US Born Black Women

An exploration of inequality at the intersection of race, gender, and nationality offers a means to explore how complex economic and social forces combine to shape women??s outcomes in ways that differ from men??s. Women??s responsibility for care work and other forms of unpaid labor inhibits labor force participation, and in some cases, redounds heavily on children. Those responsibilities, coupled with labor market discrimination against black women, US or foreign born, increases the difficulties single mothers face in providing for families.     

劳动力流动城乡统筹的现状及障碍研究

本文首先回顾了劳动力流动城乡统筹的既有研究,之后由劳动力流动城乡统筹的现状切入,创新性地由计划配置、市场配置和自动配置的角度来剖析不同配置模式及其调整所引起的劳动力转移。城乡公共产品的供给严重失衡是事实上阻碍劳动力跨越城乡流动的首因,它的不对称性主要体现在户籍制度、社会保障和交易信息几方面。     

Top wage incomes in Japan, 1951–2005

Using wage income tax statistics, we construct continuous series of upper wage income shares in Japan from 1951 to 2005 to document the evolution of top wage incomes and investigate their long-run determinants. We find that, while the middle wage income class gained enormously both in absolute and relative terms during the period of high economic growth, the upper wage income class faired comparatively better after 1975. In particular, the shares of total wage accruing to the top 1% wage earners and above have risen steadily since the late 1990s. A simple time-series regression analysis indicates that marginal income tax rates, corporate performance, female labor force participation, and labor disputes are important determinants of top wage income shares in post-WWII Japan. Although not conclusive, our results suggest that much of the recent gains in wage income shares at the top can be explained by the changes in these four factors, placing a less emphasis on a story of structural change.     

Beyond Income: What Else Predicts Very Low Food Security Among Children?

We examine characteristics and correlates of households in the United States that are most likely to have children at risk of inadequate nutrition—those that report very low food security (VLFS) among their children. Using 11 years of the Current Population Survey, plus data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), we describe these households in great detail with the goal of trying to understand how these households differ from households without such severe food insecurity. While household income certainly plays an important role in determining VLFS among children, we find that even after flexibly controlling for income‐to‐poverty rates some household characteristics and patterns of program participation have important additional explanatory power. Finally, our examination of the NHANES data suggests an important role for both mental and physical health of adults in the household in determining the food security status of children.