Labor force participation of black and white married women: Evidence from urban labor markets

The study theoretically argues that differential economic conditions constitute an important rationale for structural differences in labor force participation (LFP) between black and white married women. Empirical evidence based on 1980 census data for metropolitan statistical areas provides support for the concomitant hypotheses. Not only is the LFP propensity for black wives larger, but also it is relatively insensitive to the arguments of the LFP function. Thus policies designed to influence the LFP of these two racial groups must internalize the differential economic conditions between them.     

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.     

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.     

Actual experience,potential experience or age,and labor force participation by married women

In this paper, the limitations of potential experience and age as proxies for market experience are discussed. Results from a conditional logit model estimating the probability of participation by married women are sensitive to the measure of experience used in the empirical specification. Married women usually have noncontinuous labor market histories so age and potential experience will fall short of actual experience. Direct information about a woman's labor market history is necessary in empirical studies of the market behavior of married women.     

Dynamic model of childbearing and labor force participation of married women: Empirical evidence from Korea and Japan

The purpose of this study is the empirical investigation of childbirth behavior and labor-force participation of married women in South Korea and Japan. A dynamic discrete choice model is estimated using microdata from household surveys in South Korea and Japan. Estimation results suggest that: (1) only a second child is beneficial and others are not in the case of Korea, although any child is beneficial in the case of Japan; (2) nursing a newborn is considerably costly; (3) without considering an earnings effect, low-earnings jobs are costly in both countries, although high-earnings jobs are beneficial in Japan; and (4) the probability of finding a full-time position for married women after career interruption is estimated as 5–28%.     

The effect of increased labor force participation of married women on the distribution of family income in the Netherlands

Summary In this article we analyse the income equalizing effect of wives' income on the combined income of husband and wife in The Netherlands. We will use the Theil coefficient as a measure of inequality. After some preliminary remarks have been made and relevant data have been presented, the Theil coefficient is decomposed into a number of components. Whereas theory concludes that the effect of wives' income on the distribution of family income should be less equalizing after about 1970, it appears that this does not hold true for the whole period under investigation.The research was carried out in the framework of the project entitled Problems relating to the distribution of social security. The author wishes to thank Professor A. Kapteyn and two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Unemployment and labor force participation in urban China

This paper serves to document and analyze the employment and the labor market changes in urban China since the late 1980s. High and sustained GDP growth rates in China have paradoxically been accompanied by increasing unemployment rates and decreasing labor force participation rates. Using national representative micro data, estimations from logit models show that age, education, communist-party membership and marital status are significantly associated with participation in the labor force and employment opportunities, and the impacts of education and party membership have increased over time. An extension of the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition finds little of the observed male–female differentials attributable to differences in characteristics such as age or education but to coefficient effects, a possible reflection of discrimination.     

Job characteristics and the labor force participation behavior of black and white male youth

Previous work regarding the labor force participation of black and white youth has ignored the fact that they may face jobs with different characteristics, such as socioeconomic status or degree of danger. This article examines the effects that such characteristics have on the probability of participation for a sample of black and white males from the National Longitudinal Survey Youth Cohort. The results suggest that some job characteristics have a significant impact on participation, particularly socioeconomic status. The estimates presented here suggest, however, that racial differences in socioeconomic status probably explain only a small portion of the black-white male youth participation rate differential.     

Derksen's study of labour force participation of married women in the netherlands: Some comments and a further analysis

Summary Derksen's study, which was published in 1975, is the first multiple regression analysis of Dutch data on the labour force participation of married women. After commenting on the theoretical model used by Derksen, this article has challenged his estimation procedures. It is shown that in the case under consideration weighted least squares is to be preferred to ordinary least squares and logit analysis seems to be an even more appropriate method.All computations were made on the computer of the Academic Computer Centre Utrecht. The author is indebted to L. Hammiriga and A. Kapteyn for valuable comments.     

Women's labor force participation and marriage: The case of Korea

In this paper, we examine the relationship between marital status and female labor force participation in Korea, and argue that marriage remains a major obstacle to young Korean women's employment. We find that an average married woman is much less likely (by 40–60%) to participate in the labor force than a single woman in urban Korea. Further investigation into the participation patterns among married women reveals that labor force participation rate (LFPR) varies with husband's occupation and her own age. Lower LFPR among the young married women is explained by demand-side factors, while relatively higher LFPR among the middle-aged married women is mostly explained by the supply-side factors.     

Import competition and the gender gap in labor force participation: Evidence from China

Does import competition explain the gender gap in labor force participation? The distributional consequences of trade liberalization have fascinated decades of economists and policy makers. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that import competition enlarges the gender gap in labor force participation in China during 1990 and 2005. The results are robust to various identification challenges, including contemporaneous confounders, treatment effect heterogeneity, and spatial correlations in standard errors. The magnitude of the gender-differential effects of import competition on labor force participation grows by age, and peaks for people aged 46–50. The household division of labor appears to explain the gender-differential effects. Import competition also leads to a relative contraction of female-intensive industries, and reduces the share of female employees in each industry.     

A simultaneous analysis of the labour force participation of married women and the presence of young children in the family

Summary The labour force participation of married women and the presence of young children in the family show a strongly negative correlation. In this article it is investigated whether this correlation is a reflection of a causal relationship between these two variables. To answer this question, a simultaneous logit analysis, following Mallax, is applied to data of the Dutch census of 1971 that are grouped by COROP region. The results suggest that there exists an asymmetric causal relationship between both variables with the causality running from the labour force participation of married women to the presence of young children in the family.The authors are indebted to Professors C. de Galan and C.K.F. Nieuwenburg and Mr. F.A.A.M. van Winden for valuable comments.     

Racial differences in the unemployment response to structural changes in local labor markets

This analysis uses establishment-level data on job creation and destruction to examine the unemployment rate responses of black, Hispanic and white workers to shifts in demand across firms and industries during the period 1980–84. Black unemployment rates are significantly more responsive to differences in aggregate demand growth and wage flexibility than are white and Hispanic unemployment rates, and they are also more severely impacted by structural changes in labor demand than are white and Hispanic unemployment rates. Additional research using the measures and focus of the present analysis that cover other time periods can assist in developing a clearer picture of the contemporary dynamics of urban labor markets and can provide guidance for public policy.     

The link between unemployment and labor force participation rates in Japan: A regional perspective

This paper explores the co-integrating relationship between unemployment and the labor force participation rate in Japan from a regional perspective. The univariate co-integration tests indicate that the “no co-integration” hypothesis cannot be rejected in Northern-Kanto, Hokuriku and Kyusyu. Because the univariate co-integration approach might suffer from low power we employed a panel version of the co-integration test recently developed by Westerlund (2006) that also considers the possibility of multiple structural breaks in the level of individual co-integrating equations. The test results lend support for an overwhelmingly long-run relationship between the two variables across regions. Accordingly, this finding is not in line with the unemployment invariance hypothesis. As a result a nationally orientated employment policy aimed at improving the unemployment and labor force participation rates might be preferred over a region-specific employment policy in Japan.     

Cointegration and causality between fertility and female labor participation in Taiwan: A multivariate approach

Applying Hsiao's version of Granger causality, this paper uncovers no causality from fertility to female labor participation and fails to find the expected relationship that female labor participation negatively predicts fertility in Taiwan. This indicates that working women in Taiwan do not necessarily have fewer children. The finding of this study contradicts the results obtained when using the conventional regression method which finds bidirectional relationship between fertility and female labor participation. In addition, this study detects that education exerts a great influence on female labor participation but not on fertility.     

Race and the discouraged female worker: A question of labor force attachment

This article presents an empirical examination of female attachment to the labor market. An econometric model of the discouragement process is built to determine how strongly women exhibit the inclination to remain labor force participants over the course of the business cycle. The estimated results imply that women, as a group, have a stronger response to changes in short-run cyclical fluctuations and therefore will sever their attachment to the labor force significantly sooner than their male counterparts. However, when the analysis is broken down by race, minority females are discovered to demonstrate only a modest response to short-run fluctuations and a very pronounced long-run sensitivity to cyclical swings. Thus, the results suggest that while females as a whole do not exhibit the same degree of labor force attachment as males, minority females respond in a manner similar to that of male workers. Such a conclusion is in agreement with the growing literature on the labor market behavior of minority females who are increasingly playing the same economic role in society as men.