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.     

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.      

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.     

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.     

‘To help keep the home going’: female labour supply in interwar London

Most prior work on historical female labour supply has been confined to looking at the female labour force participation decision. This article uses the detailed information on weekly hours of work and wages contained in the New Survey of London Life and Labour (NSLLL) (1928–32) to provide the first estimation of both the participation and the hours‐of‐work decisions for female workers prior to the Second World War. The main finding is that the labour supply curve was negatively sloped—women worked longer hours at lower wages. It is also possible to compare the determinants of the labour force participation decision and the hours of work decision among females in the NSLLL. It appears that the labour force participation decision was more strongly related to household income level than to own wages, while the hours of work decision among working women was more strongly related to the wage level than to household income. Finally, the article also examines the differential labour market behaviour of married women, female household heads, and young single women; most striking among these results is the evident added‐worker effect on married women of the onset of the Great Depression in 1930.     

The effects of taxation on married women's labour supply across four countries

The labour force participation rate of married women variesconsiderably between European countries. There may be severalexplanations for this evidence. In this study, the effect ofthe different income tax schemes on female labour force participationis investigated and compared. A common labour supply functionis estimated on cross-section household samples for each ofthe countries Britain, Denmark, Ireland, and East and West Germany.Based on the estimated labour supply functions, we calculatefor each of the countries the hypothetical part time and fulltime participation rates of married women if the householdswere taxed by either separate or split taxation principles,as in Britain and Ireland, respectively. The results suggestthat the design of the tax scheme is highly important for theeconomic incentives that married women face and their resultinglabour supply behaviour.     

How is suicide different in Japan?

This study investigates suicide rates among OECD countries, with particular effort made to gain insight into how suicide in Japan is different from suicides in other OECD countries. Several findings emerged from fixed-effect panel regressions with country-specific time-trends. First, the impacts of socioeconomic variables vary across different gender–age groups. Second, in general, better economic conditions such as high levels of income and higher economic growth were found to reduce the suicide rate, while income inequality increases the suicide rate. Third, the suicide rate is more sensitive to economic factors captured by real GDP per capita, growth rate of real GDP per capita, and the Gini index than to social factors represented by divorce rate, birth rate, female labor force participation rate, and alcohol consumption. Fourth, female and elderly suicides are more difficult to be accounted for. Finally, in accordance with general beliefs, Japan's suicide problem is very different from those of other OECD countries. The impact of the socioeconomic variables on suicide is greater in Japan than in other OECD countries.     

Racial differences in married female labor force participation behavior: An analysis using interracial marriages

Based on data from the 1980 census, three major findings emerge from this study. First, the labor force participation rate is higher for women in black-white interracial marriages than women in endogamous marriages. Second, the labor force participation rate of wives in interracial marriages, after adjusting for differences in observed personal characteristics, is approximately halfway between that of women in white homogeneous and black homogeneous marriages. Third, interracial marriages are more likely among women who are younger, Hispanic, foreign-born, more educated, previously married, and reside in the West.     

COVID-19 and the employment gender gap in Japan

This paper examines how the COVID-19 pandemic affected female employment in Japan. Our estimates indicate that the employment rate of married women with children decreased by 3.5 percentage points, while that of those without children decreased by only 0.3 percentage points, implying that increased childcare responsibilities caused a sharp decline in mothers’ employment. Further, mothers who left or lost their jobs appear to have dropped out of the labor force even several months after school reopening. In contrast to women, the employment rate of married men with children was not affected, which hindered progress in narrowing the employment gender gap.     

Why married women's labor supply in the Netherlands has increased

Summary On the basis of cross-section data sets for 1979 and 1987 we determine: 1) the relative contribution of changes in participation and in hours of work to the increase in married women's labor supply; 2) how much of the change in participation and hours of work is determined by changes in preferences and in budget constraints; and 3) the causes of changes in market wages and reservation wages. The increase in the average unconditional hours of work is much more due to the rise in the participation rate than to the increase in conditional hours of work. Preference changes have contributed positively to the increase in married women's labor force participation over the period 1979–1987, whereas changes in market opportunities have contributed negatively. The change in the market wage and the reservation wage can be attributed mainly to changes in the population structure of married women. Changes in the model structure contributed negatively to the change in the real market and the reservation wage. The positive effect of the change in the population structure dominates the negative effect of the model structure. Finally, participants in the labor market have a comparative wage advantage over non-participants. Non-participants are a self-selecting group with a relatively high reservation wage.We like to thank Joop Hartog, Jules Theeuwes, Isolde Woittiez and two anonymous referees for their comments on a previous draft of this paper.     

When Will the Gender Gap in Retirement Income Narrow?

Among recent retirees, women receive substantially less retirement income from Social Security and private pensions than men. Increases in women's labor market attachment and earnings relative to men over the past 50 years provide some optimism for an improvement in female retirement income, particularly for married women. This study shows that women's income from Social Security and private pensions has improved only slightly relative to men over the past 25 years. Using data on people approaching retirement age over the next 20 years, prospects for future improvement are investigated. One of the main conclusions is that pension income among women (particularly married women) will rise sharply relative to men's over the next few decades, but a substantial gap could remain even if women close the gap in experience and salaries.     

Demographic consequences of maternal-leave programs in industrial countries: evidence from fixed-effects models

The authors measure the effects of paid maternity leave upon infant mortality, the labor force participation of women during their prime childbearing years, and fertility rates. To reach their conclusions, they constructed a simultaneous-equations model using the individual fixed-effects method and a data set comprising 17 OECD countries and four time periods. The extension of maternal leave programs, measured in terms of duration of paid leave, is shown to reduce infant mortality, to raise rates of labor force participation for women in the prime childbearing ages, and to increase birth rates. The direct plus indirect impacts of extending maternity leave programs, as revealed by the reduced-form parameters of the authors' models, however, produce a different picture. The total impacts upon both infant mortality and female labor force participation conform closely to the structural estimates, but the impact upon birth rates almost disappears. It seems that the indirect effects of the maternal leave variable, via infant mortality and women's labor force participation, offset the directly pronatal influence. From a policy perspective, the benefits of paid maternal leave programs would seem to be unconditionally positive with respect to lowering infant mortality, and also positive with respect to raising female labor force participation. One should not, however, expect higher birth rates from such programs. The findings also suggest that maternal leave programs can facilitate some increases in women's labor force participation without incurring the reductions in fertility which would otherwise be experienced.     

The rising child penalty in China

The falling female labor force participation rate in China has raised the attention of labor economists and policymakers. In light of this, this paper documents the changes in labor force participation of mothers relative to fathers around first births (referred as the “child penalty”) in China from 1982 to 2015 using a pseudo event study approach. Our findings show that child penalty for Chinese women has not only been steadily increasing, but also persists over years. This pattern cannot be solely explained by the lifted birth quota since the implementation of the one-child Policy. We further show that the increasing child penalty coincides with the decreasing number of public kindergartens after the state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform. Using a standard Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition approach, we also find evidence of a high percentage of child-related gender inequality in labor force participation.     

Past and future of the labor force in emerging Asian economies

In this paper we investigate the determinants of past changes in the labor force of 12 emerging Asian countries, and attempt to make projections of the labor force in those countries for the period 2010–2030. Results from our regression analysis of the labor force indicate that the wage earnings elasticity of labor supply is negative, albeit insignificant, for men and significantly positive for women, and it has a significantly positive association with educational level and a negative one with age. We also find that per capita income shows a negative relationship with the labor force in general for younger age groups and older age groups, and more capital-intensive countries have smaller female labor force. Using extrapolation, the paper predicts that the labor force will increase in all 12 countries during the first two decades of the period 2010–2030, but will eventually decline in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. The paper also makes projections of the unemployment rate and the average working hours in those countries.     

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.     

The Equal Employment Opportunity Law and labor force behavior of women in Japan

This study uses repeated cross-sectional data to investigate the impact of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) for men and women enacted in 1986 on labor force behavior of women. I find that regular employment among women, examined separately by education and marital status, did not increase after the enactment of the EEOL. Cohorts of women who graduated from university after the EEOL married later or were less likely to marry than previous cohorts.     

Changing labor-force gender composition and male-female income diversity in Singapore

This paper traces the employment trends by gender in various industries, occupational groups, and educational levels in the city-state of Singapore. Over the years, Singapore’s female labor-force participation rate has increased as a result of rising educational attainment. At the same time, income inequality among the females has increased, while male-female income inequality has decreased. This paper explores the gender wage gap at various occupational and educational levels. It is found that the gender wage gap has been reduced over the period 1975–1999. This paper also finds that because of a lack of sufficient childcare facilities and unavailability of part-time work, women who leave the labor market to start families face certain obstacles when trying to re-enter the workforce.     

Explaining the Swedish ‘housewife era’ of 1930–1970: joint utility maximisation or renewed patriarchy?

This study shows that the Swedish ‘housewife era’ roughly occurred in 1930–1970. During the 1950s, the ratio of women’s worked hours to men’s worked hours reached a low point. In the early 1970s, it rose to above 50%. We argue that models of joint utility maximisation, assuming equal gender power relations unrestrained by cultural and institutional settings, cannot alone explain this era. The two principal structural mechanisms behind the rise of the breadwinner household were the decline of the farm household and the increased proportion of married women. Both weakened the bargaining position of women. Three results in our study weaken the claims of the joint utility maximisation model. Firstly, marriage was much more important than motherhood in determining the probability of women’s labour force participation, although the age of the child is then not taken into account. Secondly, the labour force participation of married women was similar across different social strata outside of the farm and top income households, indicating a prevalent capitalist patriarchal structure. Thirdly, women’s leisure was valued less than men’s, demonstrating that the preferences of the husband were prioritised over those of the wife.     

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%.     

Impact of Foreign Maids on Female Labor Force Participation in Malaysia

Demand for foreign maids by households in Malaysia has increased rapidly and expected to affect female labor force participation. Simple comparisons of households with maids and those without suggest that maids raise the participation rate of their female employers by 26 percentage points. However, such comparisons are not directly comparable. Households employing maids differ in many ways from those that do not. When propensity score matching methods are used to estimate the treatment effect of having a foreign maid, the female labor force participation rate is estimated to be only 18 percentage points higher in 1993/1994 and 13 percentage points higher in 2004/2005. This decline over time in the treatment effect is not apparent when simpler but potentially biased methods are used. The small and declining impact of hiring maids suggests financial losses to the host households.