The supply of labor time for mature females

Conclusions Overall, the evidence indicates that women view their leisure time as a normal good. The responsiveness in supply to changes in asset income is small.For females with spouse present, their time is a gross complement with respect to their spouse's time if the spouse's labor supply curve has negative slope. Simultaneously, the spouses' times appear to be net substitutes.There is evidence in both survey years of a backward bending labor supply curve for females. While most females remain on that part of their supply curve which has positive slope, females, particularly those with no spouse present, seem to be moving toward the backward bending segment of that curve over time. It seems that both females with and without spouse present will be behaving more like their male counterparts over time.This study evolved from a Department of Labor grant (Contract No. J-9-E-7-0180) made to Copley International Corporation, La Jolla, California. I am grateful for the assistance provided by Steven Alan Eich in working with the massive data sets utilized for this study.