Gender segregation and earnings differences in the Spanish labour market

This article analyses the effects of different types of gender segregation on the gender wage differential for the Spanish labour market. Matched employer–employee data from a sample of 226,535 workers are used. These workers are employed in 61 occupations within 26,492 establishments in 51 different industries. Workers belonging to the same industry, establishment or job share common factors which cannot be observed and these factors affect wages. If these unobservable variables are correlated with the explanatory variables, their estimated effects will be biased. For this reason, we estimate the effects of each type of gender segregation on the wage gap using a robust specification to these possible correlations. We obtain that industrial segregation by gender explains a lower part of the wage gap between men and women than previous researches found using standard regressions, while the contributions of establishment segregation and occupational segregation within each establishment are greater.     

Asymmetric labour force participation decisions

This article finds compelling evidence of asymmetric labour force participation decisions across demographic groups in response to changes in labour market conditions. This behaviour is consistent with predictions from the standard labour-leisure choice model and suggests that asymmetry in individual behaviour plays some role in the observed asymmetry of the aggregate unemployment rate. It is estimated that the weighted average difference in response to a one percentage point change in unemployment rates is sizeable when compared to the average monthly change in the aggregate labour force.     

Unemployment and labour force participation in Spain

This article examines the relationship between the unemployment rate and the labour force participation rate in Spain. Cointegration analysis is performed for aggregate, male and female time-series. Results suggest that there is no a long-run relationship between the two variables for the aggregate and male cases. However, the findings support a long-run relationship between the two variables for the female time-series. Thus, the unemployment invariance hypothesis is supported in the two former cases but not in the latter.     

Unemployment and labour force participation in Turkey

This article investigates the relationship between labour force participation rate and unemployment rate in Turkey a developing country. Cointegration analysis is carried out for the aggregate and gender-specific series. The findings indicate that there is no long-run relationship between labour force participation and unemployment rates in Turkey. Thus, unlike in the case of the developed countries, the unemployment invariance hypothesis is supported in Turkey.     

Dynamics of female labour force participation in France

This article formulates and estimates a structural intertemporal model of labour force participation. Relying on theoretical characterizations derived from an economic model of lifetime behaviour, we estimate a dynamic probit model with correlated random effects using longitudinal data to allow for a dynamic structure. The model is applied to a panel of married women drawn from the 1997–2002 French Labour Force surveys in order to represent their participation behaviour. It is estimated by maximum simulated likelihood. Our results show that women’s decisions to go out to work are characterized by significant state dependence, unobserved heterogeneity and negative serial correlation in the transitory error component. In addition, we find that the presence of young children in a woman’s household reduces her labour participation, but unequally according to their age and number. As expected, educational level has a positive impact on women’s participation. Last, a rise in the husband’s wage is found to raise female participation initially and to lower it subsequently. This empirical finding suggests that leisure may not systematically be a normal good, contrary to what is frequently assumed in the literature.     

Family labour force participation: Multinomial logit estimates

Studies of labour force participation choices are mostly aimed at explaining determinants of participation for individuals. The objective of this study is the empirical estimation of the parameters of family participation decisions.

Family participation decisions can be analysed as a choice problem of a family between a finite number of distinct alternatives. The appropriate estimation procedure for a model involving choice among multiple discrete alternatives requires a statistical technique different from ordinary least squares. In this study I use the multinomial logit model. A logit model allows me to explain the probability that a particular participation alternative will be chosen by a family as a function of a set of independent variables.

It is found that economic variables such as wage rates and wealth, play a significant role in affecting the probabilities of choosing a particular labour force participation alternative. This study shows that an increase in the market wage for a family member not only increases the probability of labour force participation for that family member, but at the same time also reduces the probability of participation for his or her partner. Hence there is both a pure and a cross-substitution effect in participation. There is also an income effect. As wealth increases families will, in some sense, buy more leisure. Furthermore, they will allocate the extra leisure in a certain order: it is found in this study that the wife's probability of participation reduces sooner and faster than the husband's probability, as wealth increases.     

Work experience,earnings and participation: evidence from the women and employment survey

This paper presents a probit model of labour force participation and a set of earnings equations estimated using data from the 1980 Women and Employment Survey. The results of the participation model compare with previous findings and the earnings models give typical results of human capital and job characteristics variables. Exclusion of the sample selection effect appears to be of importance and a linear piecewise experience variable outperforms the quadratic specification.     

Dynamics of fertility and labour force participation of Canadian women in 1971 and 1981: a cohort approach

The authors analyze the relationship between labor force participation and fertility in Canada using data from the Public Use Sample Tapes from the 1971 and 1981 censuses. Factors considered include age, religion, educational status, and marital status. The authors conclude that "labour force participation of women seems to have less influence on fertility compared to [the] fertility effect on labour force participation."     

How house price appreciation affects homeowners' labour force participation

This paper investigates the effects of house price appreciation on homeowners' labour force participation (LFP). Although economic theories predict that housing capital gains will reduce labour supply, empirical evidence from urban China revealed that house price appreciation significantly boosts homeowners' LFP. Heterogeneous analyses indicate that LFP behaviour is more likely to be affected by house price appreciation for female and younger homeowners. Furthermore, homeowners living in provinces with greater house price appreciation tend to be more active in job participation than those living in provinces with lower price appreciation.     

The evolution of female labour force participation in urban China

Starting from the late 1980s, despite rapid economic growth, female labour force participation in urban China has shown a general declining trend. Using repeated cross‐sections from the Chinese Household Income Project Series (CHIP), this paper attempts to systematically relate the decrease in the labour force participation of married women to the socio‐economic changes happening in urban China during the same period of time. Adopting both linear and nonlinear decomposition techniques, the results indicate that the changes in married women's labour force participation during the periods 1995–2002 and 2007–2013 can be explained by the concurrent changes in the distribution of socio‐economic variables, while the changes during the periods 1988–1995 and 2002–2007 are mostly driven by the leftward shift of married women's participation function.     

The impact of trade openness on labour force participation rate

In this article, we investigate the impact of trade openness on labour force participation rate. We use tariff rate as the main indicator of trade openness and we employ the number of regional trade agreements and the average tariff rate in the neighbours’ countries as instrumental variables to diminish the endogeneity problem of the tariff rate. We find that trade openness increases the participation rate which is economically and statistically significant. The results show that this correlation is robust under controlling for different variables and using various specifications. We find that 10 percentage point increase in tariff rate lowers the participation rate by 4–6 percentage point and this relationship is more severe in the long run. Finally, we show that changes in labour force population accounts for about 27% of changes in the unemployment rate following a trade liberalization.     

The causality between fertility and female labour force participation in Japan

This study examines the correlation and reverse correlation between fertility and female labor force participation in Japan during 1950-93. The model is logarithmic and follows earlier studies by Cheng (1996) and Hsiao's (1981) version of the Granger causality method. Data were obtained from the Japan Statistical Yearbook on total fertility rates and female labor force participation rates. Tests for cointegration revealed no cointegration between measures of fertility and employment. Findings indicate that the presence of children had a strong negative effect on labor force participation. Findings are consistent with the study by Yamada and Yamada (1986) and inconsistent with the study by Hamilton (1984), who found that fertility was positive and not significantly related to female labor force participation in Japan. Findings indicate that female labor force participation had a negative and insignificant effect on fertility. These findings support findings from studies by Sprague (1988) and Maddavi (1990) and contest findings of Hamilton (1984) and Yamada and Yamada (1986) that showed negativity and significance. The authors view their findings as correctly specified and supportive of a causality that favors fertility affecting labor force participation without feedback. Findings indicate that employment does not prevent or reduce the probability of having more children. Having young children at home does strongly discourage women from seeking employment outside the home.     

Female labour force participation in an era of organizational and technological change

Abstract The supply of skilled female labour increased significantly at the beginning of the twentieth century as women assumed positions in the newly created clerical workforce. Evidence suggests that despite this increase in labour supply, the wage paid to female clerical workers increased over the period and that the ratio of female clerical wages to male manufacturing wages was roughly constant. These labour market facts can be accounted for in a dynamic general equilibrium model in which an exogenous increase in human capital induces an increase in demand for skilled clerical workers. While induced technological change that favours skilled workers may account for the observed increase in female real wages, explaining the stagnate relative weekly wages paid to female clerical workers requires a framework that includes organizational change.     

An investigation of cointegration and causality between fertility and female labour force participation

Both economists and demographers have long been interested in the nature of the relationship between fertility rate (BR) and female labor force participation (FR). Earlier work suggests an inverse relationship between BR and FR, except in preindustrial countries. The author applies Hsiao's version of the Granger causality method to examine the causality between BR and FR using transformed US data for the period 1948-93. An unidirectional causality is found to run from BR to FR with no feedback. These results confirm the hypothesis that the presence of small children discourages women from seeking employment outside of the home. Employment does not, however, affect a woman's decision to have children.     

Young children and women's labour force participation in Russia, 1992–20041

We document the changing labour force participation patterns of women with young children in Russia during 1992–2004. In this period maternity leave benefits became less generous, and childcare was privatized and became increasingly scarce. Using nationally representative household survey data it is shown that in 1992, there was essentially no association between the probability of a woman being a labour force participant and her having a child under age 3. However, by 2004, having children under age 3 had become associated with significantly reduced participation and employment probabilities, conditional on other observable characteristics of women and their households, and local factors. Several potential explanations for these findings are discussed.     

The effect of fertility on labour force participation: The Spanish evidence

Abstract. The aim of this paper is to estimate the effect of fertility on the decision of labour force participation of married females in Spain, allowing for the existence of unobserved characteristics that affect both fertility and participation. We use a pooling of five waves of the European Household Panel for Spain (1994–1998). Results indicate that not taking into account the unobserved characteristics that affect both variables imposes on average a strong downward bias on the true effect of fertility on participation. This bias is especially strong for highly educated females. We are grateful to Raquel Carrasco and an anonymous referee for helpful comments. Financial support from Gobierno Vasco (PI-1999-160)), Ministry of Education and Science (BE2000-1394), Instituto de la Mujer and Universidad del País Vasco (UPV 00035.321-13511/2001) is gratefully acknowledged.     

Female labour force intermittency and current earnings: switching regression model with unknown sample selection

Using the Health and Retirement Survey from the USA, this paper finds a 16% selectivity-corrected wage penalty among women who engage in intermittent labour market activity. This penalty is experienced at a low level of intermittent activity, but appears to not play an important role in a woman's decision to undertake such activity. In addition, employer preferences appear to play a larger role than human capital atrophy in the determination of the wage penalty.     

Contribution to unemployment of insurance-induced labour force participation: Canada - 1972

The 1971 Unemployment Insurance Act is found to raise labour force participation in Canada, accounting for between a third to two-thirds of the alleged Act's effect on unemployment in 1972. Policy implications are considered.