Labor force participation

Trends in U.S. female and male labor force participation are outlined, particularly for the post-World War II period. Potential causes of these trends are then discussed, both those that operate on the demand side and those that operate on the supply side of the labor market, along with some discussion of alternative approaches to modeling these employment changes. Effects of these trends and future direction of changes are also considered.     

Maternal full-time employment and overweight children: Parametric, semi-parametric, and non-parametric assessment

We use the matched mother-child data from the 2000 wave of the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 79 (NLSY79) to assess the impact of full-time working mothers on children’s body mass index (BMI) and the likelihood of becoming overweight. Parametric, semi-parametric and non-parametric methods are employed to correct the bias of selection on observables and unobservables. Pros and cons of various methods are discussed and specification tests are conducted. In general, we find that a mother’s full-time employment does have some impact on her children’s BMI and likelihood of becoming overweight across models and inference procedures.     

Social security and the labor supply of older married couples

This paper provides estimates of the impact of social security benefits on the labor force behavior of older married couples in the United States, with the ‘spouse benefit’ provision receiving particular attention. The empirical results using data from the Retirement History Survey show that the spouse benefit provision has a moderately small negative impact on labor force participation by older married women and a small positive impact on the labor force participation of older married men. The results are used to evaluate the potential labor supply impact of a proposal to eliminate spouse benefits and replace them with earnings sharing.     

Heterogeneous effects of child disability on maternal labor supply: Evidence from the 2000 US Census

Previous research has documented a negative relationship between child disability and maternal labor supply. Because of data limitations, most studies in this literature use broad measures of disability, which may obscure important differences among children with limiting health conditions. This paper presents new evidence on the labor supply of women with disabled children, exploiting disability information provided by 2000 US Census. This large nationally representative sample allows us to test for differences across different types of disabling conditions. We find that accounting for this heterogeneity in conditions is important. Using a broad definition of disability results in small differences between women with and without a disabled child. When we use a more detailed classification, we find larger labor supply reductions for mothers of children with physical disabilities or limitations in their ability to care for themselves. There is less evidence that having a child with either mental or emotional limitations or a sensory impairment is negatively related to employment or weekly hours. We also test for heterogeneous effects related to child age and maternal education. We find no clear pattern with respect to age and some evidence that the relationship between child disability and maternal labor supply is stronger for less educated mothers.     

From Quality Circles to Self-Managed Work Teams: Are Employee Teams Legal in the United States?

This paper focuses on the legal status of employee teams, such as quality circles, that are commonly used within organizations in the United States. At present, the National Labor Relation Act (the Act), which governs labor–management relations, also has direct implications for the types of employee teams that can be legally implemented within organizations. This paper reviews the governing sections of the Act and analyzes how they apply to the use of employee teams. Suggestions for avoiding or dealing with illegally formed employee teams are offered.     

《劳动合同法》背景下高校劳务用工人员劳动关系分析

随着高等教育大众化和全球化的不断深入发展,高校正式编制的教职工很难满足高校不断发展的用人需要,形成高校内部规模较大的编制外劳务用工队伍。在新劳动合同法背景下,如何正确处理高校劳务用工人员劳动关系,避免用工风险,已经成为高校的当务之急。本文分析了高校人员结构及劳务用工人员劳动关系的现状,指出高校在处理劳务用工人员劳动关系方面应把握的几个重要环节,为建立高校健康和谐的劳动关系提供了合理化建议。     

做好南疆富余劳动力转移就业安置工作的几点见解

为履行企业社会责任,做好南疆富余劳动力转移就业安置工作,五建党委认真落实新疆维吾尔自治区党委、政府及集团党委要求,认真谋划、精心准备、积极行动。公司党政领导亲自挂帅成立专门领导小组,召开多次专题会议落实用工单位和就业岗位,相关部门做好宣传引导、培训教育,各基层单位做好就业人员接收上岗、管理服务等工作,以保证圆满完成任务。     

Discrimination in Employment Provisions in the Mexican Federal Labor Law

The discrimination in employment provisions in employment provisions in the Mexican Federal Labor Law (FLL) are surveyed in a general overview. Employment discrimination in Mexico under the FLL is generally proscribed but is mandated in a limited number of instances. Discriminatory violations can induce various sanctions against transgressing Mexican employers.     

The effect of the public sector on private jobs: Evidence from the West Bank

This paper estimates the short run effect of creating more public jobs on private employment in the occupied West Bank. Unlike most cited research, the results provide evidence that favors crowd-in effect both at the aggregate employment level and across sectors. A main contribution of the paper is to empirically explore the underlying mechanisms that drive the results. They include positive public employment effect on local demand, lack of public wage premium, as well as no effect on private wages. It turns out that an increase in the local labor force participation is a driving factor for the latter channel. Interestingly, the increase in labor force participation exceeds that of public and private employment, leading to an increase in the number of job seekers.     

Complementary or conflictual? Formal participation,informal participation,and organizational performance

Most studies of worker participation examine either formal participatory structures or informal participation. Yet, increasingly, works councils and other formal participatory bodies are operating in parallel with collective bargaining or are filling the void left by its decline. Moreover, these bodies are sprouting in workplaces in which workers have long held a modicum of influence, authority, and production‐ or service‐related information. This study leverages a case from the health care sector to examine the interaction between formal and informal worker participation. Seeking to determine whether or not these two forces—each independently shown to benefit production or service delivery—complement or undermine one another, we find evidence for the latter. In the case of the 27 primary care departments that we study, formal structures appeared to help less‐participatory departments improve their performance. However, these same structures also appeared to impede those departments with previously high levels of informal participation. While we remain cautious with respect to generalizability, the case serves as a warning to those seeking to institute participation in an environment in which some workers have long felt they had the requisite authority, influence, and information necessary to perform their jobs effectively.     

Disentangling Treatment Effects of Active Labor Market Policies: The Role of Labor Force Status Sequences

This paper estimates treatment effects of two active labor market policies – a training program and a wage subsidy scheme – on participants' employment probabilities. The analysis is based on unique data from the 18th wave of the Polish Labor Force Survey containing detailed and extensive individual labor force status histories. We discuss two variants of an exact covariate matching procedure adapted to the specific nature of the data. Our study confirms and reinforces a point raised in recent research [Heckman, J.J., Smith, J.A. The Pre-programme Earnings Dip and the Determinants of Participation in a Social Programme: Implications for Simple Programme Evaluation Strategies. The Economic Journal 1999; 109; 313-348., Heckman, J.J., Smith, J.A. The Determinants of Participation in a Social Program: Evidence from a Prototypical Job Training Program. Journal of Labor Economics 2004; 22; 243-298.], that pre-treatment labor force status dynamics play a decisive role in determining program participation. We implement a conditional difference-in-differences estimator of treatment effects based on these individual trinomial sequences of pre-treatment labor market status. The estimator employs a “moving window” technique that nicely controls for changes in the macroeconomic environment over time. Our findings suggest that training raises individual employment probability, while wage subsidies display negative treatment effects for participants in the Polish case.     

Unfinished Business: The Persistence of Child Labor in the US

Among historians it has become customary to acknowledge that children have always worked. That is, before industrialization children worked, but their work was not deemed a social problem. With industrialization, however, child labor came to be condemned as morally repugnant, economically foolhardy, and socially destructive. Reform efforts were mobilized and, after protracted struggle, children were effectively dispelled from the mines, mills, and factories. Problem solved-or at least we wished to think so. Unfortunately, the US accommodation with child labor was incomplete, and so, child labor persists in pockets of American society. In recent years there has been a growing recognition that many children work, and do so at very young ages. Not only have children always worked, but they continue to do so today.This essay assesses residual child labor problems in the US today. It asks why, when the US made its accommodation to child labor in mines, mills, and factories, we failed to adequately address child labor in other sectors, thus paving the way for continued problems in agriculture, street trades, sweatshops, and elsewhere in our economy.