Higher Labor Force Participation Rates Research Articles

Labor market participation of urban women in Southeast Asia by migration status : Evidence from microdata

Labor Market participation decisions of migrant and non-migrant women residing in urban areas of Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand are analyzed using household survey data. MIgrant women are at least as likely to work in the urban labor market as are non-migrant women, ceteris paribus. Duration of residence in the urban area was not found to be a significant determinant of ever-married women's participation decisions. Never-married women in the Philippines have higher labor force participation rates than non-migrant women with this difference being smaller for women with more years of residence in the urban area.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Policies for a smoother transition from work to retirement.

Japan has maintained a relatively high labor-force participation rate among older people. Although the rate had declined steadily until the mid-1980s, the trend has since reversed and the participation rate is expected to rise in the future. In contrast, the labor-force participation of older people has sharply declined in the United States and European countries, especially since the 1970s. This article explores why Japan's experience differs markedly from other advanced countries. Improved pensions have a strong influence toward early retirement, even in Japan. However, other factors such as a low replacement ratio, improved health, and several loopholes in the income test of the pension systems push up the participation rate of older people. The government also encourages active labor-force participation of senior citizens by introducing reformed partial working pensions and wage subsidies for workers in their second and third careers.

Food Away from Home Expenditures in the United States

This study investigates the factors affecting food away from home expenditures in the United States using county level data. Results generally indicate that counties with higher labor force participation rate of women, higher number of college graduates, higher number of employed individuals, higher number of females, and higher number of whites and AsianslPacific Islanders as well as counties with lower number of hispanics and lower number of family households spend more on food away from home than others.

The health of latino children in the United States

The Latino population in the United States is large and fast-growing, with a high proportion of children relative to other U.S. populations. These demographic trends make it imperative for policymakers to consider health issues for Latino children and families. This article provides an overview of the important health issues for Latino children in the United States. Its aim is not to set out specific policies, but rather to identify factors that are critical to consider in policy development. Factors discussed include current and projected demographic trends; the underlying diversity of the Latino population and its implications for health and health care; significant health issues in each developmental phase of maturation, from infancy through adolescence; and more global issues including limited access to medical care and high rates of uninsured children. Finally, policy implications are outlined. Although comparative data on health status for Latinos and other U.S. populations are limited, available data indicate that Latino children are particularly at risk for communicable diseases, including HIV infection and AIDS, and are especially vulnerable to the environmental risks associated with poverty. Programs aimed at prevention should receive high priority. An “epidemiological paradox” is found in some areas, such as pregnancy outcome, where health status indicators are better than would be expected considering poverty levels. The author concludes that policymakers should focus on increasing access to medical care and on mitigating factors associated with poverty. Further, effective policies should build upon existing social and cultural strengths of the Latino population, such as high labor force participation and high rates of family formation, to help ensure the health of children. — R.E.B.

The Health of Latino Children in the United States

The Latino population in the United States is large and fast-growing, with a high proportion of children relative to other U.S. populations. These demographic trends make it imperative for policymakers to consider health issues for Latino children and families. This article provides an overview of the important health issues for Latino children in the United States. Its aim is not to set out specific policies, but rather to identify factors that are critical to consider in policy development. Factors discussed include current and projected demographic trends; the underlying diversity of the Latino population and its implications for health and health care; significant health issues in each developmental phase of maturation, from infancy through adolescence; and more global issues including limited access to medical care and high rates of uninsured children. Finally, policy implications are outlined. Although comparative data on health status for Latinos and other U.S. populations are limited, available data indicate that Latino children are particularly at risk for communicable diseases, including HIV infection and AIDS, and are especially vulnerable to the environmental risks associated with poverty. Programs aimed at prevention should receive high priority. An “epidemiological paradox” is found in some areas, such as pregnancy outcome, where health status indicators are better than would be expected considering poverty levels. The author concludes that policymakers should focus on increasing access to medical care and on mitigating factors associated with poverty. Further, effective policies should build upon existing social and cultural strengths of the Latino population, such as high labor force participation and high rates of family formation, to help ensure the health of children. — R.E.B.

La dynamique de la main-d'œuvre à Koweit : un dilemme pour un pays exportateur de pétrole

The case of Kuwait illustrates that development as an economic phenomenon cannot be fully understood without reference to demographic determinants. Kuwait, like other Gulf oil-exporting states, is strongly dependent on foreign labor both qualitatively and quantitatively, but is attempting to nationalize the labor force and orient the national economy toward autonomous growth. 47% of Kuwait's population is under 15 years old, and the economic activity rate of only 19.4% is the lowest of any Arab country. Female participation increased from 2.5% in 1965 to 13.3% at present. 20 years ago, 70% of the labor force was Kuwaiti, but in 1980, 78% of workers were foreign although foreigners represented only 60% of the total population. Beginning in 1978, immigration was viewed much less favorably in Kuwait and the process of Kuwaitization, or replacing foreign workers with Kuwaiti nationals, was begun. An analysis of the labor force in terms of stocks and flows as well as of the structure of employment and productivity in the context of Kuwait's economic growth indicates that constraints in labor force growth will vary in intensity depending on the policies adopted; foreign workers could be admitted but not their family members, foreign workers could be replaced by nationals whenever possible, a higher labor force participation rate among nationals could be promoted, population growth could be encouraged, a more highly qualified native labor force could be trained, or a more capital intensive technology could be imported to reduce dependence on foreign workers. With a total fertility rate around 7.0, it is difficult to envision a significantly increased fertility level in Kuwait, and the fertility level in fact will probably decline under pressure of modernization. The crude death rate of 4.6/1000 in 1982 is also very low. Nationalization of the labor force implies a significant loss of productivity, since the government is maintaining a policy of providing jobs for all nationals regardless of their qualifications. Although development of Kuwaiti manpower is a longterm policy, the Kuwaitization of the labor force is erroneously viewed as a shortterm objective. Kuwaitis are underrepresented in technical jobs requiring university training in science and mathematics, and in skilled and semiskilled manual jobs. An educational reform permitting Kuwait to respond to future labor force needs will be required. Nonparticipation of women effectively reduces the economically active group by 1/2, and retirement at age 45 also aggravates labor shortages. Simulation exercises indicate that Kuwait must rely on foreign labor for many years to come. It appears that substitution of local for foreign workers will be at the price of lowered productivity and slower economic development. Naturalization of some foreign workers might help solve the problem, but for reasons of political stability almost no foreigners except unskilled Beduin Arabs receive Kuwaiti citizenship.

The labor-force participation of married women in the Soviet Union: A household cross-section analysis

To what extent do economic and demographic variables take part in determining the exceptionally high rates of labor-force participation of Soviet women? The article addresses this question, using conventional Western labor theory and cross-sectional household data of a sample of families who emigrated from the Soviet Union, The main findings are that the high labor-force participation rate is partly explained by high offered wages, a high level of schooling, low family income and relatively few young children, But ideological education and social pressure also play a role, There are indications that the supply of hours of work is backward-bending.

Myths and Realities of Mass Secondary Schooling in Italy

The last two decades have witnessed an unprecedented expansion in all educational sectors, to which that of secondary education has been no exception [i]. Enrolments in secondary schools more than doubled during the I960s, further increasing by about 50% in the I970s: as a result, the student population rose from 762,000 in 1960 to 2,386,00o in 1979 (see Table i). Although demographic trends, including the post-war 'baby boom' influenced this growth, especially in the first half of the I960s, most of the expansion was due to the continuously rising individual demand for longer education, clearly reflected in the enrolment rates which more than doubled between I959 and I975 (see Table II). Whereas in I959, only one fourteen-year-old in three was still at school, the corresponding proportion for I975 was three in four. And the relative increase was even larger for those aged I8, their enrolment rate rising from 12 to 36% over the same period. In less than twenty years, therefore, a situation in which only a minority of the teenage population continued secondary education after reaching the legal minimum school-leaving age [2] has given way to one in which the majority stay at school. In this article, I intend to examine the extent to which the enrolment rates are a good indicator of the extension of schooling. Admittedly, a glance at these rates suggests that there has been a transition from elite to mass secondary education, and that what was formerly the preserve of a minority is now experienced by the majority. Yet it seems pertinent to determine the extent to which this applies to all teenagers; to search for possible differences according to variables such as sex, social class and region: in short, to ascertain whether mass secondary schooling is really as homogeneous as the epithet 'mass' tends to imply. In order to answer these questions, one has to examine how far the expansion of the secondary sector has been paralleled by democratization or, in other words, by a reduction in ineqaulity in both access to, and participation in, education at this level [3]. Enrolment rates by age and sex are a first indicator of the process of democratization. According to the most recent data available (I975), sexual inequality, albeit reduced, is still substantial, with female enrolment rates five to nine points lower than those for boys of the same age (see Table III). This inequality is even more marked in a regional breakdown in which female enrolment rates in southern Italy are always the lowest (see Table IV), but in which also, somewhat surprisingly, rates for both sexes are much higher in central Italy than in the north. The main reason for this is probably the different labour market situation in the north where, with higher labour force participation rates and lower unemployment rates, teenagers have more employment opportunities than their counterparts elsewhere. At the same time, family income in central Italy is high enough to allow many to use school as a 'parking area', a far less likely tactic in the south. As a whole,

Trends in Labour Supply and Their Implications

Antecedents The development of labour supply over the next fifteen years has its roots firmly implanted in the past. This dynamic characteristic of labour supply changes extends to labour force participation rates as well as to changes in labour supply attributable to purely demographic changes, so we shall initially examine both of these components of labour force change over the post‐war period. Changes in the size of the labour force which would occur as a result of changes in the age/sex structure of the population and the propensity of women to many if age/sex/marital status‐specific labour force participation rates were constant is denoted as demographic, and Table I shows its contribution to labour force growth in the post‐war period. The primary force behind the demographically‐induced change in the male labour supply is earlier movements in fertility, but both past fertility and contemporary marriage behaviour affect the magnitude of the demographically‐induced change in the female labour supply. In particular, up to the early 1970s the increase in the proportion of women under the age of 70 who are married restrained labour force growth because of the generally higher labour force participation rates of unmarried women; the size of this negative impact did, however, decline over time.

Further comment on V. K. Oppenheimer’s “The Life-Cycle Squeeze: The Interaction of Men’s Occupational and Family Life Cycles”

Oppenheimer's paper Life-Cycle Squeeze: The Interaction of Men's Occupational and Family Life Cycles in the May 1974 issue of Demography deserves comment. She finds that, depending on their occupation, men's earnings peak at different ages. Relating this finding to the pattern of family growth over the family life cycle, she argues that the earnings of many husbands, particularly those in low status occupations, level off or decline before the child-rearing expenses of their families have peaked. Hence, she infers, there is in these families a growing gap between child-rearing expenses and the husband-father's income. This gap, she concludes, is surely an important determinant of wives' labor force participation, especially when they have children of high school or college age. She believes this argument helps account for the relatively high labor force participation rate of wive.s in their forties. In her effort to ascertain the covariation of income and expense over the family life cycle, Oppenheimer used 1960 cross-sectional data as an approximation of cohort data. In respect to the time pattern of men's earnings, this approximation is particularly questionable. The various birth cohorts in this cross-sectional analysis are of different size, and they have obtained increasing amounts of education. Both factors influence the starting level of income and the subsequent rate and pattern of income change. Carter and Glick (1970, p. 206), therefore, properly caution against an uncritical interpretation of the age pattern of median income for MSP [married spouse-present] men in 1960 as being typical of changes in relative financial status throughout the marital cycle. Although there seems to be less reason to question the approximation of family life-cycle variation with respect to the presence and age of children, it would be desirable to assemble what cohort data are available: to check this point to some extent. But whether cohort or cross-sectional data are used, the meaning of information on the presence and age of children is ambiguous in an important respect. The older the children, so long as they are dependent, the more expensive they are. Other things equal, this tends to motivate mothers to earn money. However, the older the children, the les,s child care they need. Other things equal, this tends to facilitate mothers' labor force participation. The problem, then, is how to identify the separate effects of these two determinants of the labor force participation of wives. The solution requires different measures of child-care expense and maternal child-care responsibility. Ideally, neither of these measures should consist of the data on the presence and age of children. Since, however, it would probably be difficult to measure maternal child-care responsibility without such data, it would be practical to use them but to, measure child-rearing expense differently. Other

Migration and Income Differences Between Black and White Men in the North

Blacks moving from the South to the North have had lower levels of education and have taken lower status jobs than northern-born blacks. Nevertheless, data from the 1970 census indicate that after a few years' residence in the North the southern-born blacks are able to earn higher incomes than northern-born blacks, apparently due in part to higher labor force participation rates. For these reasons, controlling for age and education reduces the income difference between blacks and whites, but controlling for age and region of birth increases it. Southern-born whites in the North and West have tended to have lower levels of education, higher unemployment rates, and lower incomes than whites of similar age in the North and West who are not interregional migrants. Interpretations, explanations, and uses of these findings are suggested, especially with regard to past and future changes in the black-white income ratio.

Labor-Force Participation and Employment Opportunities for Women

Abstract Studies of labor-force participation have heretofore stressed the influence of earnings as a determinant of the proportion of the population that seeks employment. Low earnings are associated with high propensities to engage in the labor force. The variation in labor-force participation is greater among females than among males in the large cities of the United States. This study points out that high female labor-force participation rates are found in communities in which large numbers of jobs suitable for women are found in textile, apparel, tobacco, and electrical machinery manufacturing. Conversely, low labor-force participation among women is found in communities in which the dominant industries are iron and steel, machinery, automobile, and basic rubber manufacturing. It is the thesis of this paper that the availability of employment opportunities for women is a major factor in determining labor-force participation.