Lower Labor Force Participation Rates Research Articles

Labor force participation and secondary education of gender inequality index (GII) associated with healthy life expectancy (HLE) at birth.

BackgroundWhat is the factor that affects healthy life expectancy? Healthy life expectancy (HLE) at birth may be influenced by components of the gender inequality index (GII). Notably, this claim is not tested on the between components of the GII, such as population at least secondary education (PLSE) with ages 25 and older, labor force participation rate (LFPR) with ages 15 and older, and the HLE in the world’s countries. Thus, this study estimates the associations between the PLSE, LFPR of components of the GII and the HLE.MethodsThe data for the analysis of HLE in 148 countries were obtained from the World Health Organization. Information regarding the GII indicators for this study was obtained from the United Nations database. Associations between these factors and HLE were assessed using Pearson correlation coefficients and regression models.ResultsAlthough significant negative correlations were found between HLE and the LFPR, positive correlations were found between HLE and PLSE. Finally, the HLE predictors were used to form a model of the components of the GII, with higher PLSE as secondary education and lower LFPR as labor force (R2 = 0.552, P <0.001).ConclusionsGender inequality of the attainment secondary education and labor force participation seems to have an important latent effect on healthy life expectancy at birth. Therefore, in populations with high HLE, the gender inequalities in HLE are smaller because of a combination of a larger secondary education advantage and a smaller labor force disadvantage in male-females.

Doing it all: Women’s employment and reproductive work in Tajikistan

Central Asia has low labor force participation rates for women, despite high levels of poverty in the non-oil producing countries. Female labor force participation is related to competing uses for women’s time, especially in a context of poor infrastructure and limited availability of purchased replacements for household labor. We examine factors affecting women’s participation in employment and reproductive household work in Tajikistan, drawing on the 2003 Tajikistan Living Standards Survey. We incorporate specific conditions in Central Asia, including the prevalence of extended family households, norms about how women share household work, an absence of market substitutes for caring and reproductive labor, employment in family enterprises and poor infrastructure, especially in rural areas. We estimate the system using a Generalized Maximum Entropy (GME) approach. We find that few individual and household characteristics are related to time in employment. Time in noncare reproductive work decreases if a woman receives direct remuneration for her employment (compared to working in a family farm or enterprise but receiving no direct remuneration), but increases if the woman has less access to infrastructure. Rural women spend more time in both employment and non-care reproductive work than urban women, but less time in care work. Lack of infrastructure may leave women with few choices with respect to non-care reproductive work, while overall levels of time poverty create pressures on care time.

Economic Crises and the Added Worker Effect in the Turkish Labor Market

Turkish economic growth has been characterized by periodic crises since financial liberalization reforms were enacted in the early 1990s. Given the phenomenally low female labor force participation rate in Turkey (one of the lowest in the world) and the limited scope of the country’s unemployment insurance scheme, there appears to be ample room for a female added worker effect as a household strategy against unemployment shocks under economic crises. Using micro data from household labor force surveys for the 2004-10 period, we examine the extent to which an unemployment shock to the primary male earner instigates female members of the household to move from nonparticipant status to labor market participation. This paper differs from the earlier few studies on the added worker effect in Turkey in a number of aspects. First, rather than simply basing the analysis on a static association between women’s observed participation status and men’s observed unemployment status in the survey period, we explore whether there is a dynamic relationship between transitions of women and men across labor market states. To do this, we make use of a question introduced to the Household Labor Force Survey in 2004 regarding the survey respondent’s labor market status in the previous year. This allows us to explore transitions by female members of households from nonparticipant status in the previous year to participant status in the current year, in response to male members making a transition from employed in the previous period to unemployed in the current period. We explore whether and to what extent the primary male earner’s move from employed to unemployed status determines the probability of married or single female full-time homemakers entering the labor market. We estimate the marginal effect of the unemployment shock on labor market transition probability for the overall sample as well as for different groups of women, and hence demonstrate that the effect varies widely depending on the particular characteristics of the woman — for example, her education level, age, urban/rural residence, and marital and parental status. We find that at the micro level an unemployment shock to the household increases the probability of a female homemaker entering the labor market by 6-8 percent. The marginal effects vary substantially across different groups of women by age, rural or urban residence, and education. For instance, a household unemployment shock increases by up to 34 percent the probability that a university graduate homemaker in the 20-45 age group will enter the labor market; for a high school graduate the probability drops to 17 percent, while for her counterpart with a secondary education the marginal effect is only 7 percent.

The Role of Migration in Economic Relations between Europe and Turkey

Turkey and Europe are closely interlinked through migration, trade and investment flows. In the year 2000, the interrelationships entered a new phase. Return migration of Turkish migrants to Turkey set in, of often well-educated second-generation migrants, triggered by the fast economic growth and shortages of skilled labour in Turkey. At the same time continued family migration to Europe and Turkish business start-ups in Europe promote trade between Turkey and Europe due to preference and network channels. While economic growth in Turkey is dynamic, it is also volatile, depending on foreign capital. The major challenge for stable and sustainable economic growth is, however, the low labour force participation rate of women and the slow progress in the educational attainment level of its workforce.

Poland's Public Finance Convergence with the Euro Area

The situation of Poland's public finances has been improving. Helped by solid economic growth in 2011, Poland has reduced its budget deficit in line with the Commission's recommendations. However, contrary to earlier forecasts, in 2012 it was still well above the ceiling of 3% of GDP. As a result, the excessive deficit procedure was extended by two years, by 2014. The deficit should be further reduced to reach, in 2015, the level of 1% of GDP in terms of structural deficit. The slowdown of the economy in 2012 and probably in 2013 will not make this task easy. Public debt has risen steadily over the past few years but in recent times, the level has still been well below the 60% of GDP ceiling. The national reform program and the convergence program were adopted by Poland's Council of Ministers on 25 April 2012. The convergence program outlined in an integrated manner the fiscal consolidation efforts, the key structural reforms and the reforms that underpin macroeconomic stabilization. In the medium- to long-term, Poland is faced with a number of challenges. A very low labor force participation rate, in particular of women, and the poor quality of vocational training and education are major concerns given an ageing population. The low level of public and private R&D spending, weak links between science and industry and poor innovation performance call for improvements. Apart from the program of national reforms, crucial for future sustained economic growth and good performance of public finances, an additional factor stimulating activities towards fiscal improvement should be Poland's participation in strengthened economic governance architecture recently introduced in the EU. Euro adoption remains an important goal of the Polish government. The uncertain situation in the euro zone has, however, postponed adoption of a clear timetable of joining the euro zone. The government decided that an additional condition to join the euro zone, apart from meeting the nominal convergence criteria (and legal conditions not discussed here), is stabilization of the euro area situation.

Making Sense of Arab Labor Markets: The Enduring Legacy of Dualism

It is well-established that Arab labor markets share certain common characteristics, including an oversized public sector, high unemployment for educated youth, weak private sector dependent on government welfare for their survival, rapid growth in educational attainment, but much of it focused on the pursuit of formal credentials rather than productive skills, and low and stagnant female labor force participation rates. I argue in this paper that all of these features can be explained by the deep and persistent dualism that characterizes Arab labor markets as a result of the use of labor markets by Arab regimes as tool of political appeasement in the context of the authoritarian bargain social contract that they have struck with their citizens in the post-independence period. Even as fiscal crises have long destabilized these arrangements in most non-oil Arab countries, culminating in the dramatic political upheavals of the Arab spring revolutions, the enduring legacy of dualism will continue to strongly shape the production and deployment of human capital in Arab economies for some time. This will undoubtedly pose serious challenges to any efforts to transform these economies into dynamic, rapidly growing and more equitable globally competitive economies.

Italy's ageing workforce

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the reasons for low labour force participation rates among older workers in Italy and discuss how changing human resource management practices can improve the situation.Design/methodology/approachThe paper analyzes Italian population trends and age‐specific workforce participation rates, considering variations by industry, gender and management level. It looks at common age stereotypes and the effects of implementing human resource management policies designed for a younger workforce. It outlines initiatives undertaken by leading companies such as ENI, IBM and BMW to manage an ageing workforce.FindingsSince 1950, the proportion of the Italian population over retirement age has more than doubled. Birth rates are low and life expectancy is going up. Unless participation rates increase, Italy's labour force is likely to be 40 per cent smaller in 2050 than it was in 1995. With more people retiring and fewer potentially active workforce entrants, Italy can anticipate chronic labour shortages and a widening skills gap. How can the country increase the number of active workers available to support an older population? And how can new human resource management approaches help companies to better manage an ageing workforce?Practical implicationsThe paper provides examples describing the human resource management approaches that can help to prevent skill shortages and loss of knowledge as older workers retire.Social implicationsThe paper draws attention to social and cultural factors contributing to age discrimination and the effects of negative stereotypes on older workers' motivation and on their access to training and development opportunities.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the importance of training as a way to overcome negative age stereotypes, using older workers as a valuable resource able to pass on knowledge, skills and company history to those just starting out on their careers.

Multigenerational Living Arrangements Among Migrants

There is a significantly higher prevalence of multigenerational living arrangements among migrants than among natives in Germany which may be explained with migrants choosing this household structure in order to compensate for economic disadvantages. This hypothesis is tested by analyzing the economic conditions within multigenerational households. The results show that in multigenerational migrant households, more groups contribute significantly to the household income than in comparable native households - in particular in households below the at-risk-of-poverty line. On the individual level, the results reveal that migrant children in multigenerational households have lower labor force participation rates than native children or migrant children in other household types. Therefore, this study provides evidence for a correlation between multigenerational cohabitation and economic conditions among migrants.

Retirement and social security: the roles of self-fulfilling expectations and educational investments

Countries with higher implicit taxes on continued work are associated with lower labor force participation rates of the elderly. This paper constructs a politico-economic model that accounts for this feature based on multiple, self-fulfilling expectations of agents. In this model, agents are identical at birth and can become skilled (or remain unskilled) through educational investment. When agents hold expectations of larger social security benefits, it provides a disincentive to engage in educational investment, thereby resulting in an unskilled majority. In turn, this unskilled majority supports larger social security benefits, which induces the retirement of the elderly and thus results in a lower labor force participation rate. The opposite applies when agents have expectations of smaller social security benefits in their old age.

Disability Screening and Labor Supply: Evidence from South Africa.

Yet research that examines the poverty reduction and labor supply effects of disability programs has taken place exclu-sively in developed countries with relatively low unemployment and high labor force participa-tion rates. In developing countries with high unemployment rates, the disincentive effect of cash transfers on labor supply has often been assumed to be economically insignificant (Anne Case and Angus Deaton 1998). In this paper, I provide initial evidence on, and draw attention to, the effect of the South Africa Disability Grant (DG) program on labor supply, in the context of a policy change in disability screening. I use a difference-in-differences estimator to assess the effect of a change toward a less intensive dis-ability screening on labor force nonparticipation for older individuals.If screening for disability benefit programs were perfect, the supply of disability benefits would be independent of labor supply decisions, and only those unable to work due to health con-ditions would receive benefits. However, the dis-ability screening process is imperfect because it is, in practice, difficult to determine whether a person is able to work, which is the typical test of eligibility for disability benefit programs. Recent evidence suggests that the work disincen -tive effects of disability benefits are expected to

Targeting Fertility and Female Participation Through the Income Tax

Low female labor force participation and low fertility rates in OECD countries, especially in Southern European countries, have raised a great deal of concern in recent years. As a means to reconcile work and family, Spain (one of the countries with the lowest female participation and lowest fertility) tried to target both issues through an income tax reform in 2003. One component of the tax reform consisted of a tax credit for working mothers of young children and the other consisted of sizeable increases in households' tax deductions per child. We find that the reforms increased both fertility and participation, and that these effects were very heterogeneous across different groups of women. Fertility is estimated to have increased by between 5 and 6 births per 1,000 women (where the average fertility is 37 per 1,000), while the participation rate of mothers with children under the age of 3 years increased by about 1.6 percentage points (where the average participation is 52 percent). Both effects were stronger among lower-educated women. Moreover, we find that the simultaneous nature of the policy reform dampened down the participation effect, such that some trade-off in the policy objectives existed.

Gender Disparities

Significant gaps exist in health care regarding gender in the United States. Health status, social roles, culturally patterned behavior and access to health care can be influenced by gender. Women have been the primary users of health care and minority women usually have received poorer quality care than Non-Hispanic White (NHW) females. The objectives of this study were to identify gender, racial and ethnic disparities in access to substance abuse treatment in a Texas hospital. Secondary data collected on 1,309 subjects who underwent detoxification were studied. Gender, race/ethnicity, drug of abuse, relapse and financial classification were included in the analysis. Results indicate Hispanic females and Non-Hispanic Black (NHB) females were about 5 and 3.5 more likely than NHW females to use Medicaid services respectively (p < .05). NHW and NHB males were more likely to use Medicare than females (p < .05). NHB and Hispanic females were 5.8 and 2.1 times more likely to receive care for abuse of cocaine when compared to NHW females respectively (p < .05). Hispanic females were 2.3 times more likely to relapse than Non-Hispanic females, and uninsured NHB females were 7.1 times at a higher risk to abuse multiple drugs compare to NHW females (p < .05). Socio-economic factors, lower labor force participation rates, and less financial independence can explain females utilizing more often Medicaid regardless of their race/ethnicity. These results can be also explained by aggressive case management utilization, socio cultural barriers and/or discriminatory practices, both intentional and unintentional.

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.

Does Raising the Minimum Wage Help the Poor?*

What is the impact of raising the minimum wage on family incomes? Using data from the 1994–1995 to 2002–2003 Survey of Income and Housing, the characteristics of low‐wage workers are analysed. Those who earn near‐minimum wages are disproportionately female, unmarried and young, without postschool qualifications and overseas born. About one‐third of near‐minimum‐wage workers are the sole worker in their household. Due to low labour force participation rates in the poorest households, minimum‐wage workers are most likely to be in middle‐income households. Under plausible parameters for the effect of minimum wages on hourly wages and employment, it appears unlikely that raising the minimum wage will significantly lower family income inequality.

Public Pensions and Labor Force Participation: The Case of Greece

The pension system of Greece is a representative case of the “Mediterranean welfare state”, which is characterized by extensive segmentation, very high payroll tax rates, and yet inadequate pension benefits. In order to explain this paradox we construct an economic–demographic model. We show that in the period 1980–2000, the segmentation of the system and the very low labor force participation rates of the Greek economy have resulted in very high payroll tax rates in relation to the current level of benefits. On top of these problems, the expected adverse demographic developments in the period 2005–2050 will render the pension system completely unsustainable. Major reform proposals are suggested to remedy this situation, which threatens the public finances of the country.

Does Raising the Minimum Wage Help the Poor?

What is the impact of raising the minimum wage on family incomes? To test this, I use data from Australia, a country whose minimum wages are among the highest in the world. Analyzing the characteristics of low wage workers, I find that those who earn near-minimum wages are disproportionately female, unmarried and young, without post-school qualifications and overseas born. About one-third of near-minimum wage workers are the sole worker in their household. Due to low labor force participation rates in the poorest households, minimum wage workers are most likely to be in middle-income households. Using various plausible parameters for the effect of minimum wages on hourly wages and employment, I estimate the impact of a minimum wage rise on inequality.

Pauvreté relative et conditions de vie en France

Relative poverty and living conditions in France The French population has risen steadily in the recent period. Its birth rate remains one of the highest in Europe. Long life expectancy, especially for women, is also a French demographic characteristic. The rela- tively low labour force participation rate is due to people leaving the education system relatively late and retiring early. Unemployment has remained at around the 10% level since the early 1990s, with the exception of a lull from 1997 to 2001. Urbanisation has risen steadily with the phenomenon of periurbanisation tending to undercut the traditional divide between town and country. France’s average standard of living is one of the highest in the world and is still rising. The structure of consumption reflects this, with housing expenditure now the number one item in the household budget ahead of food and transport and telecommunication costs. France is more inegalitarian than the North European countries, but less so than Great Britain and Iberia. Although monetary poverty, which has remained stable, affects just over one in ten households, nearly one-third of these households find life hard. In France as in the other European countries, poverty is multifaceted: low monetary resources, problems balancing the budget and poor living conditions concern poor populations that are different despite their common features. The households hit by all three forms of poverty are generally made up of individuals with a low level of education who are more likely to be unemployed. Lone parent families and single people, especially single men, are the most vulnerable, as are households with health problems.

Poverty and the Macroeconomy: Estimates from U.S. Regional Data

Previous research using national‐level time‐series data has shown a breakdown in the poverty/growth nexus during the 1980s and a rehabilitation during the 1990s. This article uses census division‐level data with controls for demographic and structural variables to demonstrate that poverty rates were more responsive to macroeconomic conditions during the 1980s than prior results have shown and that conclusions regarding the rehabilitation of the relationship during the 1990s are sensitive to the time period chosen. (JEL E32, I32)

Managing an aging workforce and a tight labor market: views held by Dutch employers

Despite the strong growth in employment of the past years, the Dutch labor market faces a number of persistent problems. One such problem is the large number of people on disability benefits. Another problem is the low labor force participation of women, not so much in terms of people, but in terms of hours worked (Henkens et al. 2002). And, despite an increase since the mid-1990s, the labor force participation of people over 50 is also much lower than the European average (OECD 1996). These low labor force participation rates should be seen against the backdrop of a strong increase in labor demand in recent years. In many sectors of the Dutch economy, this has led to tightness in the labor market (CPB 2000). Given that the population of the Netherlands is aging, new imbalances are looming on the horizon. Structural changes need to be implemented to pay for the growing number of pensioners. [....]

Female Labor Force Participation in Brazil: 1977–2001

This paper has three objectives: the first is to track the changes in labor force participation behavior of women and show its evolution according to time and also according to cohorts; the second is to decompose these changes according to a group of elementary variables, such as position in the household and educational level; the last is to analyze with special care the relationship between educational levels of married women, education of their spouses, and their labor force participation behavior. This last objective is motivated by findings in the second one. We have five main results. The first is not surprising - we find both cohort and time effects at work on changes in participation behavior. The second is perhaps more surprising: position in the household has low statistical explanatory power for labor force participation - in other words, the strong increase in the percentage of female headed household holds little relation with the increase in female labor force participation. The real explanation is a massive increase in the participation rates of married women - this increase alone explains close to 70% of the increase in female labor force participation. Another surprising conclusion is that by far the most important explanatory variable is women's educational level, which alone explains about 50% of the variation in the global female participation rate. This suggests a strong price effect in the propensity to work among women. Finally, we van see that for married women of any educational level, increases in the spouse's educational level (and thus potential income) are associated with a lower labor force participation rate. This suggests an income effect to female participation behavior, although other interpretations are possible.