How Do Husbands Affect the Labour Market Participation of Majority and Immigrant Women?

Abstract

This study analyses the labour market participation of married immigrant and married majority women in Norway over the period 1995–2005. Panel data from several public register databases of the population of married women (N = 54,619) in Norway are used. The purpose of the present study is to examine the extent to which women's labour market participation is affected by the labour market resources of their husbands, and if these influences differ for majority women and immigrant women. The result shows that the husbands' employment status and earnings have a positive effect on the wives' employment probabilities. However, this effect gets smaller after controlling for the unobserved stable characteristics of the women. But for women of Iranian, Iraqi or Vietnamese origin, the effect holds even after controlling for the women's unobserved stable characteristics. However, for the other country groups, including women from the majority, the husbands' labour market resources seem to be a less important factor determining whether or not the women participate in paid labour.