Labor Supply Of Men Research Articles

Maternity leave reform and women's labor supply: Evidence from China

China has extended maternity leave to encourage childbirth. This study specifically investigates the effects of China's maternity leave reform (MLR) on women's labor supply, utilizing a difference-in-difference analysis with data from the China Family Panel Studies. Our findings show that MLR leads to a notable decrease in women's working hours, with an average reduction of 2.6 h per week. However, no corresponding impacts are observed in men's labor supply. Mechanism analysis suggests that these effects may stem from women facing more disadvantaged positions in the labor market, having increased intentions for fertility, and experiencing heightened household responsibilities. These findings hold significant implications for the future design and implementation of childbirth promotion and gender equality policies.

Uniform agricultural tax abolition and differential household labor supply: Evidence from China's urban household survey

Uniform government public policy has steadily shaped the labor supply from households in the past few decades in China with possible differential impact on each parent. This paper investigates how uniform tax policy change plays differential roles in household's labor supply through government public education spending. Utilizing the exogenous shock from China's agricultural tax abolition in 2005, we find that the abolition results in a reduction in female employment but an increase in male employment. Specifically, a 1% increase of agricultural tax to public revenue ratio in the reference year leads to a 0.485% labor supply reduction and 1.50 fewer hours of work per month for married women, whereas the married men's labor supply increases by 0.191% and their working hours by 1.06 h in a typical urban family with school-going children. The effects are greater on married women with primary school-age children and married men from high-asset households. Our mechanism analysis indicates that public education spending works as a substitute for private education spending and affects the household labor supply through investment in children's human capital. Our findings offer a new perspective on the decreasing female labor supply and the widening employment gap between (married) women and (married) men in the Chinese labor market. The findings suggest that public tax policy could lead to unintended consequences on household's labor supply decisions, and thus exacerbate the gender employment gap in the labor market.

Changing gender role attitudes and the changing gender gap in labour force participation

This paper uses micro-data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey to examine the relationship between gender role attitudes and the labour supply of men and women. Using the Wellington decomposition technique, the paper also considers how much of the change in the gender gap in labour force participation (LFP) between 2001/5 and 2015/19 may be explained by changes in the gender role attitudes of adult women and men. The results show a 6.5 percentage point convergence in the gender gap in LFP between the two periods. Nearly half the convergence arises from a change in the schooling attainment of men and women. Just over one-third is due to changes in gender role attitudes (faster adoption of egalitarian gender role attitudes by women).

Commuting time and the gender gap in labor market participation

Abstract In this article, we investigate the contribution of increasing travel times to the persistent gender gap in labor market participation. In doing so, we estimate the effect of commuting times on the labor supply of men and women in the USA using microdata from the censuses of the last two decades. To address endogeneity concerns, we adopt an instrumental variables approach that exploits the shape of cities as an exogenous source of variation for travel times. Our estimates indicate that a 10-min increase in commuting time decreases the probability of married women participating in the labor market by 4.4 percentage points. In contrast, the estimated effect on men is small and statistically insignificant. When exploring potential mechanisms behind the gender asymmetry in our results, we do not find evidence that differences in labor market productivity within couples contribute to the larger penalty of commuting times on women. However, we do find that the negative effect on women increases with the number of children and is larger among those originating from countries with more gendered social norms. Based on this evidence, we conclude that in a context of increasing commuting costs the presence of gender norms that attribute to women the role of main caregivers may prevent gender convergence.

Who Works Less When a Parent Needs Long-Term Care? Gender Disparities in Labor Market Effects in Mexico.

We use longitudinal data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study to analyze the effect of having a parent in need of long-term care on labor supply of men and women aged 50-64 in Mexico. After accounting for both individual and time fixed effects, we find that parents' need of long-term care is associated with both a significant drop in the likelihood of working (by 2.42 percentage points), and a reduction in the number of hours worked (by 7.3%) among women who remain employed. In contrast, we find no effect on the labor supply of men. In a context of rapid population aging, the increase in the need of long-term care risks to hinder the efforts to reduce gender imbalances in the labor market.

Internal migration, remittances and labour force participation in rural India: A gender perspective

AbstractThis article examines the impact of domestic remittances on the labour supply of men and women in recipient households in rural India. Applying the instrumental variable approach to data from the National Sample Survey, estimates indicate that remittances have a negative effect on the labour force participation of left‐behind household members. They do not seem to affect participation in regular salaried work but cause a decline in participation in casual wage work and unpaid family work, and an increase in self‐employment, especially among female household members. Additionally, the receipt of remittances significantly increases women's participation in household duties outside the labour market.

Does microcredit reduce the gender gap in employment? Evidence from Egypt

AbstractIn Egypt, there is a remarkable gap between men's and women's participation in the labour market. In this study, we examine the impact of microcredit on the labour supply of men and women and subsequently investigate whether microcredit can reduce the employment gap between men and women in Egypt. We find a negative effect of microcredit on men's employment, but a positive effect on the employment of women. Borrowing from a microcredit source increases the probability of women working by 8.5 percentage points and mainly affects self‐employed work. We also find a positive effect of microcredit on work in small businesses. This finding suggests that women can use microcredit to open small shops or household businesses. Finally, using decomposition analysis, we find that microcredit reduces the overall employment gap between men and women by 0.743%.

WAGE SUBSIDIES AND THE LABOR SUPPLY OF OLDER PEOPLE: EVIDENCE FROM SINGAPORE’S WORKFARE INCOME SUPPLEMENT SCHEME

An increasing body of literature considers population aging and labor markets, focusing on the dynamics of older workers’ labor market participation. Singapore introduced the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) scheme in 2007, targeting low-income, older workers. Previous studies show that labor force participation drops significantly after the age of 45. We examine whether a wage subsidy program can increase the labor supply of these older workers. Using Hong Kong as a control group in a difference-in-difference-in-difference approach, we find that this program increased labor force participation for women aged 60–64 by 3.1–5.5% points, but had no statistically significant impact on the labor supply of men.

The Effect of Child Allowances on Labor Supply: Evidence from Israel

This study estimates the effect of the sharp reduction in Israel’s child allowances in the early 2000s on labor supply. The study uses the difference-in-differences method to estimate changes in the labor supply of men and women with more children (four or five) compared to changes in the labor supply of men and women with fewer children (two or three). The results show an increase of approximately 4.3 percentage points in the labor supply of women with four or five children, and approximately 2.8 percentage points in the labor supply of men with four or five children, relative to that of women and men with two or three children. These numbers translate to an income elasticity of -0.77 for women and -0.5 for men.

Fertility at work: Children and women's labor market outcomes in urban Ghana

While it is commonly assumed that fertility decreases female labor supply, I show theoretically that fertility can increase female labor supply if returns to financial inputs in children are sufficiently high compared to returns to time investments. Using six rounds of a panel survey from urban Ghana, I find evidence of countervailing effects behind a net zero effect of young children on women's hours of work: labor supply on the extensive margin drops, but women who remain in the labor force increase their hours in response to a child. Women's labor supply particularly increases in response to a young child if there are older siblings or other adults in the household. By contrast, men's labor supply does not change in response to young children.

Women’s and men’s responses to in-work benefits: the influence of children

Abstract This study examines how the Swedish earned income tax credit (EITC) introduced in 2007 affected the labor supply of men and women living in two-adult households and the extent to which children in the household affected the outcome. Because the EITC is non-targeted in Sweden, it is difficult to form a meaningful comparison group for a regular ex-post quasi-experimental evaluation of the reform. Therefore, a structural discrete choice labor supply model for two-adult households is formulated and used in an ex ante analysis. In a first step, estimates from the structural labor supply model are used to determine the wage elasticities of the labor supply of men and women separately, both with and without children in the household. Our results correspond to those previously reported in the academic literature: somewhat larger wage elasticities are found for women than for men, while similar labor supply responses are found for men and women when there are no children in the household. In a second step, the labor supply model is used to simulate the labor supply responses to the EITC. Our results indicate that the largest response is on the extensive margin, with an increase in the labor force participation of both men and women. While the labor supply effect on the intensive margin is smaller, it is positive for both men and women working part-time. However, the presence of children affects work hours differently for men and women working part-time or not at all. For men, the percentage change in the work hours was much higher for those living in a household without children, whereas for women, the changes are almost the same for the two types of households.

The Effect of Family Structure on Female Labor Participation - Empirical Analysis based on the 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study

Using 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study baseline data, this paper examines the effects of family structure on labor force participation. In consideration of the possible endogeneity provoked by family structure, we constructed regression models with instrument variables. Intergenerational co-residence significantly decreases women's labor force participation by 14%, while it has no effect on men's labor supply. One potential reason for this result is residential circumstance. As it is custom to live with elderly parents in multi-generation families in China, adult women often share the burden of all housework and are responsible for elderly care; thus, cohabiting with parents seems to have negative effects on female labor participation. On the contrary, Chinese culture dictates that men do not spend as much time as women on housework, thus, the probability of working in the labor market is not influenced by residential circumstance. If women were freed from housework responsibilities, the implication is that their participation in the labor force would increase.

Common Law Marriage and Male/Female Convergence in Labor Supply and Time Use

Does availability of common law marriage (CLM henceforth) in the U.S help explain variation in the labor force participation, hours of work and hours of household production of men and women over time and across states? As CLM offers more legal protection to household producers at the margin between single status and marriage, we expect it to discourage labor supply and encourage household production on the part of household producers who are married or cohabit. In the context of traditional gender roles this implies a negative association between availability of CLM and the labor supply of women who are either married or cohabit. Also assuming traditional gender roles, men are then expected to work more in the labor force when CLM is available. We analyze micro data from CPS-iPums for the period 1995-2011 to investigate labor outcomes and from the ATUS for the period 2003-11 to study effects on household production and total hours of work. Labor supply effects of CLM availability are almost always negative for cohabiting and married women, and sometimes also for single women. The effects of CLM on men's labor supply tend to be negative when samples include all men aged 18-35. However, for the groups that we identified as most likely to be affected by CLM availability – the youngest white men w/o college education – we find positive effects. Married non-black men and women and work less in home production under CLM.

Remittances and labor supply in post-conflict Tajikistan

We analyze the impact of remittances on the labor supply of men and women in post-conflict Tajikistan. Individuals from remittance-receiving households are less likely to participate in the labor market and supply fewer hours when they do. The results are robust to different measures of remittances and migration. When we differentiate between regions by their exposure to the 1992-1998 armed conflict, we observe that the negative effect of remittances on the labor supply of women is primarily driven by women from the regions more exposed to fighting and destruction during the war. Remittances have a similar negative effect on the supply of labor hours worked across all regions, both for men and women. Further, in the households that do not have migrants, remittances have no effect on the labor supply by males, suggesting that migration and not remittances is the primary factor explaining male labor force participation. JEL codes: J22, Time Allocation and Labor Supply; F22, International Migration; F24, Remittances; O12, Microeconomics Analyses of Household Behavior

Migration and gender differences in the home labour market: Evidence from Albania

This paper examines the role of migration in affecting the labour market opportunities of male and female household members left behind. We address this question by analyzing the impact of international migration flows from Albania, where migration is a massive and male-dominated phenomenon. We find that the labour supply of men and women responds differently to current and past migration. Controlling for the potential endogeneity of migration, estimates show that having a migrant abroad decreases female paid labour supply while increasing unpaid work. On the other hand, women with past family migration experience are significantly more likely to engage in self-employment and less likely to supply unpaid work. The same relationships do not hold for men. These results suggest that while left-behind women in Albania may take on the extra burden associated with the migration of male family members, they gain employment opportunities upon their return.

Gender, Source Country Characteristics, and Labor Market Assimilation among Immigrants

Using 1980–2000 Census data to study the impact of source country characteristics on married adult immigrants' labor supply assimilation profiles, we find that immigrant women from countries with high female labor supply persistently work more than those from low-female-supply countries. While both groups of women work less than comparable natives on arrival, women from high-female-participation countries eventually close the gap with natives entirely, and women from low-female-labor supply countries eliminate most of it. Men's labor supply is unaffected by source country female participation, suggesting that the findings on women reflect notions of gender roles.

Remittances and Labor Supply in Post-Conflict Tajikistan

This paper analyzes the impact of remittances on the labor supply of men and women in post-conflict Tajikistan. We find that on average men and women from remittance-receiving households are less likely to participate in the labor market and supply fewer hours when they do. The negative effect of remittances on labor supply is smaller for women, which is an intriguing result as other studies on remittances and labor supply (primarily focused on Latin America) have shown that female labor supply is more responsive to remittances. The results are robust to using different measures of remittances and inclusion of variables measuring migration of household members. We estimate a joint effect of remittances and an individual’s residence in a conflict-affected area during the Tajik civil war. Remittances had a larger impact on the labor supply of men living in conflict-affected areas compared to men in less conflict-affected areas. The impact of remittances on the labor supply of women does not differ by their residence in both the more or less conflict affected area.

Does labour supply respond to a flat tax?

We exploit the exogenous change in marginal tax rates created by the Russian flat tax reform of 2001 to identify the effect of taxes on the labour supply of men and women. We apply a weighted difference-in-difference regression approach and instrumental variables to estimate labour supply functions using a panel dataset. The mean regression results indicate that the tax reform led to a statistically significant increase in hours of work for men but had no effect on work hours for women. However, we find a positive response to tax changes in both tails of the female work hour distribution. We also find that the reform increased the probability of finding a job among both men and women. Despite significant variation in individual responses, the aggregate labour supply elasticities are trivial. This suggests that reform-induced changes in labour supply are an unlikely explanation for the amplified personal income tax revenues that followed the reform.

The Effects of Sons and Daughters on Men's Labor Supply and Wages

In this paper, we estimate the effects of children and the differential effects of sons and daughters on men's labor supply and hourly wage rates. The responses to fatherhood of two cohorts of men from the PSID sample are examined separately, and we use fixed-effects estimation to control for unobserved heterogeneity. We find that fatherhood significantly increases the hourly wage rates and annual hours of work for men from both cohorts. Most notably, men's labor supply and wage rates increase more in response to the births of sons than to the births of daughters.

The Effects of Sons and Daughters on Men's Labor Supply and Wages

In this paper we estimate the effects of children and the differential effects of sons and daughters on men's labor supply and hourly wage rates. The responses to fatherhood of two cohorts of men from the PSID sample--men born in and before 1950 and men born after 1950--are examined separately, and we use fixed effects estimation to control for unobserved heterogeneity. We find that fatherhood significantly increases the hourly wage rates and annual hours of work for men from both cohorts, and that it is important to allow for heterogeneity and non-linearity in estimating these effects. Most notably, men's labor supply and wage rates increase significantly more in response to the births of sons than to the births of daughters.