Married Women's Labor Research Articles

Weak identification in discrete choice models

We study the impact of weak identification in discrete choice models, and provide insights into the determinants of identification strength in these models. Using these insights, we propose a novel test that can consistently detect weak identification in commonly applied discrete choice models, such as probit, logit, and many of their extensions. Furthermore, we demonstrate that when the null hypothesis of weak identification is rejected, Wald-based inference can be carried out using standard formulas and critical values. A Monte Carlo study compares our proposed testing approach against commonly applied weak identification tests. The results simultaneously demonstrate the good performance of our approach and the fundamental failure of using conventional weak identification tests for linear models in the discrete choice model context. Lastly, we apply our approach in two empirical examples: married women labor force participation, and US food aid and civil conflicts.

The Effect of the Spouse's Income on Employment Decisions - a Study Based on Gender Disparities Perspective

Abstract This research employs the Probit model and mediating effect models to investigate the effects and mechanism of the spouse's income on individual employment decisions from the perspective of gender disparities, drawing on data from the 2010- 2018 China Household Tracking Survey (CFPS). Findings suggest that the impact of absolute spouse’s income on employment decisions varies by gender, with higher husband income inhibiting the wife's labor force participation and vice versa. In terms of the mechanism of influence, the time spent on doing housework and wife's socioeconomic status can explain the cause. It is also discovered that the "independent side" of the family has a negative impact on the labor force participation rate of the "dependent" side, regardless of gender. Thus, the emphasis on narrowing the income gap among genders in the labor market is crucial to increase its labor force participation rate and promoting labor market equity in China. Keywords: The spouse’s income, Labor force participation, Gender disparities, Employment decisions.

Husbands' wages and married women's labor supply in urban China

In this study, we examine the impact of husbands' wages on married women's labor force participation (extensive margin) and hours worked (intensive margin) in urban China from 1995 to 2018. We emphasize that changes in a husband's wages alter each spouse's relative contribution to the household, thus highlighting the important role of gender identity norms in the association between husbands' wages and married women's labor supply. We find that a 1% increase in husbands' wages is associated with a 0.018 percentage point decrease in married women's labor force participation and a decrease of 1.45 h worked annually. When gender identity norms are controlled, these numbers increase to 0.024 and 1.94, respectively. Additionally, we observe significant heterogeneous effects for wives of different ages and education levels and with varying numbers of children. The negative association between husbands' wages and women's hours worked has become stronger over time.

Whose unemployment hurts more? Joblessness and subjective well-being in U.S. married couples

While heterosexually married women's labor force participation has increased, their careers may still take a back seat to their husbands' careers. This article examines the effects of unemployment on the subjective well-being of husbands and wives in the U.S., including effects of one spouse's unemployment on the other spouse's well-being. I use 21st century longitudinal data with well-validated measures of subjective well-being capturing negative affect (psychological distress) and cognitive well-being (life satisfaction). Consistent with theories of gender deviation, the results of this analysis indicate that men's unemployment negatively affects their wives' affective and cognitive well-being, but women's unemployment has no significant effects on their husbands' well-being. Additionally, own unemployment has a larger negative effect on men's than on women's subjective well-being. These findings indicate that the male breadwinner model and its associated conditionings continue to shape men's and women's subjective, internal responses to unemployment.

The Effect of Alimony Reform on Married Women's Labor Supply: Evidence from the American Time Use Survey

The Effect of Alimony Reform on Married Women's Labor Supply: Evidence from the American Time Use Survey

The marriage age U-shape

AbstractIn this paper, I address the U-shaped dynamics (a decrease followed by an increase) in the age at first marriage during the twentieth century. First, I show that the U-shaped dynamics have been steeper in Western that in other countries. Second, I find that these dynamics in the West are strongly related to the post-World War II (WWII) economic growth. By contrast, in the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries age of marriage was much less correlated across Western countries. I propose a simple model where age of marriage is a function of search frictions and married women's labor force participation. Both factors put together generate U-shaped dynamics as a result of an industrial boom that mimics the post-WWII Western economic development.

Analysis of social welfare program and married women labor participation in West Sumatra

Social welfare program from the government has a role in reducing poverty rates and improving the welfare of poor households. Through social assistance, it can increase household income and indirectly alleviate the need for women to work. This study aims to analyze the effect of government social assistance on the probability of married women participating in the labor market. This study uses secondary data from the National Socio-Economic Survey (SUSENAS) in 2019 in West Sumatra. Using the logit model, the results of this study show that married women who are receiving social assistance have a greater opportunity to participate in the labor market.

FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG BERHUBUNGAN DENGAN PENDAMPINGAN SUAMI DALAM PROSES PERSALINAN

The Mother's Care Movement (GSI) is a joint movement between the government and the community to improve the quality of life for women with the main objective of reducing the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in order to improve the quality of Human Resources (HR). Maternal Care (ASI) is born in the context of reducing maternal mortality during childbirth, where one of the important elements in it is providing emotional support by presenting the husband in the delivery process. With the birth attendant, it is hoped that during the labor process a mother will feel confident and not afraid to face the labor process, this refers to the needs of the mother during labor, including the presence of a companion to go through the labor process. Research Objectives To find out the factors related to accompanying husbands in the delivery process.This type of research is analytic with a cross sectional study design which aims to determine the factors associated with accompanying husbands in the delivery process. This research will be conducted in Anduring Village in August-December. Sampling was carried out using a non-probability sampling technique, namely Quota Sampling, where the number of samples was determined based on a quota. The sample of this research is husbands who have wives who are pregnant in trimester II - III in Anduring Village. Data were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed quantitatively. More than half of the respondents had good husband's assistance, high level of knowledge, positive attitude, casual work, high education level in the process of wife's delivery. There is a significant relationship between the level of knowledge and attitudes in the wife's labor. There is no significant relationship between work and education level in the process of giving birth to a wife. It is hoped that health workers, especially midwives, to prepare husbands to face the wife's labor, this can be done and prepared when the wife is at the antenatal visit and improves programs on counseling or providing information and counseling about knowledge, attitudes and actions to the husband who acts as a companion in the delivery process. .

A dynamic behavioral model of Korean saving, work, and benefit claiming decisions

The Republic of Korea faces a rapidly aging population that is more reliant on public pension support but pension contributions are insufficient to support its long-term obligations. As a result, there is a growing debate on what type of reforms to the current defined-pension system could balance the long-term funding of the system with insuring benefit levels for old and new beneficiaries. In this paper, we develop and estimate a dynamic behavioral model that captures essential elements of the National Pension Scheme (NPS) and behavioral responses in labor supply, savings and benefit claiming to changes in the public pension system using a nationally-representative sample of married couples nearing retirement from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA). We use the model estimates to evaluate the effect of counterfactual policy experiments such as increases in the contribution rate and the extension of normal retirement age on the decision to work or not work, savings and benefit claiming among individuals near retirement. While these policies are aimed at shoring up the NPS, our model demonstrates that changes to the contribution rate could discourage work and savings in married households near retirement. In particular, a 2 percentage point immediate increase in the contribution rate would reduce household savings by 2 percent among poor households, as well as reduce labor participation among wives by 3 percent and among husbands by less than a percent. When we simulate the same increase in the contribution rate in even increments over five years, households anticipate the policy change and increase their savings to compensate for the future fall in income, dissipating undesirable behavioral responses such as decreased work and savings. In contrast, an increase of 2 years in the normal retirement age leads to a 3 percent increase in household savings, and to an increase in both husband and wife labor force participation (less than 1 percent and 3 percent respectively). These finding suggest policy design, such as phase-in periods, can be leveraged to minimize undesirable behavioral responses of households near retirement. Despite their potential detrimental effects in labor supply and savings, findings from a benefit-cost analysis suggest that the costs of undesired behavioral responses to an increase in contribution rates are orders of magnitude smaller than the revenue benefits to the NPS's finances.

International labor market competition and wives’ labor supply responses

We examine how the 2004 European Union (EU) enlargement to Eastern European countries affected the employment, earnings and share of home production among workers employed in the Building and Construction industry and their wives. We use licensing requirements to divide workers into two groups who are more and less exposed to labor market competition. We find that exposed workers experience a fall in labor earnings relative to sheltered workers after the EU enlargement. Increased wife labor supply and earnings compensate around one third of the loss. We do not find a similar change in the division of labor in home production measured by the share of parental leave. Having small children does not constrain the labor market responses of the wives.

The inversion of married women's labour supply and wage: Evidence from Thailand

This study investigates the labour supply behaviour of married Thai women with reference to their own and their spouse's wages. Controlling for spousal education and number of children, the main findings indicate an inverse relationship between married women's labour supply and wages, contrary to the evidence from developed countries. The estimated own wage elasticity ranges from −1.70 to −2.40 and the cross elasticity ranges from −0.16 to −0.17, indicating that the impact of own wage on labour supplied is much larger than spouse's wage. The results from disaggregation classified according to different socioeconomic backgrounds also show negative elasticities between own and spouses' wage across all subgroups, except for those with university degrees and higher income.

Psychedelic Birth: Bodies, Boundaries and the Perception of Pain in the 1970s

Psychedelic Birth: Bodies, Boundaries and the Perception of Pain in the 1970s

The Impact of Unilateral Divorce in Mexico: Bargaining Power and Labor Supply

From 2008 to 2018, Mexican states introduced unilateral no-fault divorce. Using state-level variation in the timing and adoption of these divorce laws, we study how the legislation affected married women's labor supply. Our results suggest that married women did not increase their labor force participation. Among employed married women, hours worked increased, but the effect is not large enough to be observed in the full sample of women. We find suggestive evidence that social norms against female labor supply and lack of access to formal work may explain the limited labor supply response. Our results highlight the importance of the cultural context in studying the consequences of divorce legislation.

International Labor Market Competition and Spousal Labor Supply Responses

We study how the 2004 EU enlargement to Eastern European countries has affected employment, earnings and the sharing of home production among workers employed in the Building and Construction industry, and their wives. We use license requirements to divide workers into two groups who are more and less exposed to labor market competition. We find that non-licensed workers experience a fall in labor earnings relative to licensed workers after the EU enlargement. Increased wife's labor supply and earnings compensate almost 40 percent of the loss. We do not find a similar change in the division of labor in home production.

Food Insecurity: Does It Push Married Women to Participate in Labor Force?

Women's labor force participation in Indonesia tends to be lower than men. In married women, decisions to participate in labor force are more complicated related to their duties at home. Economic difficulties is one of the reason for their participation. This research aims to look the relationship of household food insecurity that illustrates the economic difficulties and material hardship of the family to the woman labor force participation. Using 2017 Susenas survey, this paper assesed food insecurity from Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). The results show that labor force participation in married women is 50,05 percent where most of the married women work in informal sector (60,31 percent). However, probit regression shows that tendencies of married women to participate into labor market higher with the severity of the food insecurity. Married women who experience severe food insecurity 6,3 point percent more likely to participate in the labor force than the one who has food security. But overall, education, husband’s working status and type of residence are the strongest determinant of married women labor force participation.

Married women's labor supply and economic development: Evidence from Sri Lankan household data

AbstractWomen's labor supply in Sri Lanka has increased steadily since the early 1990s following economic reforms, but remains well below the level predicted by national income, a feature shared by a number of Asian and Latin American countries that have undergone similar reforms and economic growth. To understand the microeconomic determinants of women's work in Sri Lanka's growing economy, this paper estimates a binary‐choice model of married women's labor supply using household survey data spanning a 23‐year period. Decomposition and cohort analysis reveal that women have been drawn into the workforce through falling fertility rates, rising tertiary education, and declining income effects among younger generations, but other factors have undermined this positive trend. Educational attainment reduces married women's labor supply except at the tertiary level, consistent with social stigmas associated with married women in non‐white‐collar employment. The strict sectoral segregation of married women by education level supports this hypothesis. In addition, growth has been concentrated in low‐skilled sectors with self‐employment more prevalent, reducing employment prospects of educated women and prompting their labor force withdrawal. This suggests it is the structure of economic development, rather than speed, that matters for women's labor force activity.

Gender Identity and Wives' Labor Market Outcomes in West and East Germany between 1984 and 2016

We exploit the natural experiment of German reunification in 1990 to investigate if the institutional regimes of the formerly socialist (rather gender-equal) East Germany and the capitalist (rather gender-traditional) West Germany shaped different gender identity prescriptions of family breadwinning. We use data for three periods between 1984 and 2016 from the representative German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Density discontinuity tests and fixed-effects regressions suggest that married couples in West (but not East) Germany diminished the wife's labor market outcomes in order to avoid situations where she would earn more than him. However, the significance of the male breadwinner prescription seems to decline in West Germany since reunification, converging to the more gender-egalitarian East Germany. Our work emphasizes the view that political and institutional frameworks can shape fairly persistent gender identity prescriptions that influence house-hold economic decisions for some time, even when these frameworks change.

An empirical analysis of the effects of wife labor supply and assortative marriage on change in household income in Japan

An empirical analysis of the effects of wife labor supply and assortative marriage on change in household income in Japan

Why Did Indian Female Labor Force Participation Decline?: Evidence From a Model of Household Labor Supply

Between 1983 and 2011, Indian married women's labor force participation (LFP) declined from 35% to 24%, even while the economy grew, educational attainment rose, and fertility fell. To study this decline in LFP, I use India's National Sample Survey to construct a unique sample of matched husband-wife pairs. The economics of household labor supply suggests that the explanation may lie in husbands' incomes that exert a negative income effect on wives' LFP. Two-stage least squares estimates of a model of household labor supply reveal positive wives' own-wage elasticities, from 0.25 in 1983 to 0.67 in 2011, and negative cross-wage elasticities, rising from -0.54 in 1983 to -0.75 in 2011. Estimating the model for the period as a whole, trends in wives' wages imply an increase in women's LFP of 8.6 percentage points, and trends in husbands' wages imply a decrease of 20.8 percentage points, for an overall decline of 12.2 percentage points.

A theoretical and empirical review of Korean married women's labor market participation : Class difference and its policy implication

A theoretical and empirical review of Korean married women's labor market participation : Class difference and its policy implication