Rise In Labor Force Participation Research Articles

Three policy perspectives on Japanese female employment

With a detailed historical analysis of postwar Japanese female employment, this article presents three underlying policy perspectives that shape the fact that women have less chance for high-quality employment despite the rising labor force participation rate. The three assumptions of women's role in policy-making are as follows: (1) women as housewives—dependent on males, do not earn a living salary and are thus marginalized in the labor market; (2) women as individuals pursuing gender equality should be treated without discrimination in the workplace; and (3) women as key drivers for economic growth can contribute to the solution to labor shortages. The postwar history of Japanese female employment is full of interaction among these three policy perspectives. Generally, it passes through phases of the dominance of the housewife perspective, the reformation from the equality perspective and the counterattack from the housewife perspective, as well as the mainstreaming of the economic actor perspective.

How Marriage Policy Affects Womens LFP

With technological advancement coupled with the recent pandemic, perceptions of womens societal roles have undoubtedly evolved over the recent decades. Often, their social role is measured through their employment status, with rising labor force participation indicating an elevated social standing. While most of the previous research tends to link womens labor force participation with factors including wage rates, childbirth, and education, the correlation between their labor force participation and marriage has remained underexplored. Given the profound impact marriage can have on womens employment, it is crucial to adopt innovative research approaches that reflect modern shifts in womens social roles. This paper seeks to unravel the link between marriage and womens labor force participation in the U.S., focusing specifically on the influence of legal marriage age via a difference-in-difference design. The goal is to inform the government of better policy decisions, such as pushing for enhanced economic and marriage policies that could further facilitate womens role in the professional realm.

Never Obsolete: Private Household Workers and the Transaction of Domestic Work

Faced with the most up to date washing machine, the undocumented Rosa, newly arrived from Guatemala to Los Angeles, does what many resourceful Mayan women would: She handwashes clothes and lays them on the lawn to dry.1 Played for comic relief in the 1983 movie El Norte, this confrontation of the domestic worker with the machine represents how, presumably in the face of dirty wars in Latin America and rising labor force participation of mothers with small children in the United States, well-to-do households had it both ways: They purchased the latest appliances and relied upon the labor of immigrant women. Recent migrants appeared more tractable than the African Americans who historically had worked in other women's homes. New models superseded old Maytags, but domestic workers never became obsolete, despite the predictions of sociologists and the panicked laments of would-be employers.

Bargaining for gender equality in Aotearoa New Zealand: Flexible work arrangements in collective agreements, 2007–2019

Collective bargaining remains an important yet underexplored mechanism in the pursuit of workplace gender equality. Through gender equality bargaining efforts, unions seek to address the lack of equity for working women. Yet little is known of the extent of equality bargaining provisions, or about where provisions and the factors that influence their availability occur. Contributing to this disparity is a lack of data measuring gender equality provisions in collective agreements. This article analyses key trends in the collective regulation of flexible work provisions in Aotearoa New Zealand from 2007 to 2019. Results show modest growth in the scope and coverage of flexible work provisions, the majority of which have occurred in the public sector. Marked differences across sectors and industries suggest the influence of factors such as women’s rising labour force participation and feminisation of union membership and its leadership, particularly within industries where union density has grown. Findings underscore the need for contextualisation of collective regulation in opportunity structures and the ongoing frailty of women’s access to gender equality.

Educational Assortative Mating in Sub-Saharan Africa: Compositional Changes and Implications for Household Wealth Inequality.

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is undergoing rapid transformations in the realm of union formation in tandem with significant educational expansion and rising labor force participation rates. Concurrently, the region remains the least developed and most unequal along multiple dimensions of human and social development. In spite of this unique scenario, never has the social stratification literature examined patterns and implications of educational assortative mating for inequality in SSA. Using 126 Demographic and Health Surveys from 39 SSA countries between 1986 and 2016, this study is the first to document changing patterns of educational assortative mating by marriage cohort, subregion, and household location of residence and relate them to prevailing sociological theories on mating and development. Results show that net of shifts in educational distributions, mating has increased over marriage cohorts in all subregions except for Southern Africa, with increases driven mostly by rural areas. Trends in rural areas align with the status attainment hypothesis, whereas trends in urban areas are consistent with the inverted U-curve framework and the increasing applicability of the general openness hypothesis. The inequality analysis conducted through a combination of variance decomposition and counterfactual approaches reveals that mating accounts for a nonnegligible share (3% to 12%) of the cohort-specific inequality in household wealth, yet changes in mating over time hardly move time trends in wealth inequality, which is in line with findings from high-income societies.

The economic significance of laws relating to employment protection and different forms of employment: Analysis of a panel of 117 countries, 1990–2013

AbstractThe authors use time series econometric analysis applying non‐stationary panel data methods to estimate the relationships between employment protection legislation and legal protection of different forms of employment (part‐time, fixed‐term and agency work), and economic outcomes, with a data set based on the Centre for Business Research Labour Regulation Index (CBR–LRI), covering 117 countries from 1970 to 2013. Findings suggest that these laws have become significantly more protective over time and that strengthening worker protection is associated with an increase in labour's share of national income, rising labour force participation, rising employment, and falling unemployment, although the observed magnitudes are small when set against wider economic trends.

Hysteresis in Labor Markets? Evidence from Professional Long-Term Forecasts

We explore the long-term impact of economic booms on labor market outcomes using a novel approach based on revisions to professional forecasts over the past 30 years for 34 advanced economies. We find that when employment rises unexpectedly, forecasters typically raise their long-term forecasts of employment by more than one-for-one and also expect a strong rise in labor force participation, suggesting more persistent effects than is traditionally assumed. Economic booms associated with changes in aggregate demand, when inflation is rising and unemployment falling unexpectedly, also come with persistent long-term effects on expected employment and labor force participation, suggesting positive hysteresis. Our forecast evaluation tests indicate that forecasters are, on average, unbiased in their assessment of these positive, persistent effects.

Hysteresis in Labor Markets? Evidence from Professional Long-Term Forecasts

We explore the long-term impact of economic booms on labor market outcomes using a novel approach based on revisions to professional forecasts over the past 30 years for 34 advanced economies. We find that when employment rises unexpectedly, forecasters typically raise their long-term forecasts of employment by more than one-for-one and also expect a strong rise in labor force participation, suggesting more persistent effects than is traditionally assumed. Economic booms associated with changes in aggregate demand, when inflation is rising and unemployment falling unexpectedly, also come with persistent long-term effects on expected employment and labor force participation, suggesting positive hysteresis. Our forecast evaluation tests indicate that forecasters are, on average, unbiased in their assessment of these positive, persistent effects.

The Economic Significance of Laws Relating to Employment Protection and Different Forms of Employment: Analysis of a Panel of 117 Countries, 1990-2013

The authors use time series econometric analysis applying non‐stationary panel data methods to estimate the relationships between employment protection legislation and legal protection of different forms of employment (part‐time, fixed‐term and agency work), and economic outcomes, with a data set based on the Centre for Business Research Labour Regulation Index (CBR–LRI), covering 117 countries from 1970 to 2013. Findings suggest that these laws have become significantly more protective over time and that strengthening worker protection is associated with an increase in labour's share of national income, rising labour force participation, rising employment, and falling unemployment, although the observed magnitudes are small when set against wider economic trends.

The Economic Significance of Laws Relating to Employment Protection and Different Forms of Employment: Analysis of a Panel of 117 Countries, 1990-2013

This paper presents findings from analysis of a dataset of labour laws, based on the Centre for Business Research Labour Regulation Index (CBR-LRI), which has recently been extended to cover 117 countries and the period from 1970 to 2013. The dataset shows that laws regulating different forms of employment (DFE), including part-time work, fixed-term employment and agency work, have become significantly more protective over time, in particular since the late 1990s. Employment protection laws (EPL), covering individual dismissal, collective consultation and codetermination rights, have become steadily more protective since the 1970s. Europe has seen a decline in the level of EPL since the onset of the sovereign debt crisis in 2008, but this trend is small, on average, by comparison to earlier increases in protection beginning in the 1970s, and has not been replicated in other regions. Time-series econometric analysis using non-stationary panel data methods suggests that strengthening worker protection in relation to DFE and EPL is associated with an increase in labour’s share of national income, rising labour force participation, rising employment, and falling unemployment, although the observed magnitudes are small when set against wider economic trends.

The Distribution of the Gender Wage Gap

We analyse impacts of the rising labor force participation of women on the gender wage gap. We formulate and structurally estimate an equilibrium model of the labor market in which the elasticity of substitution between male and female labor is allowed to vary depending on the task content of occupations. We find that the elasticity of substitution is higher in high- paying occupations that are intensive in abstract and analytical tasks than in low-paying manual and routine occupations. Consistent with this we find a narrowing of the gender wage gap towards the upper end of the wage distribution and an increase in the gender wage gap at the low end. Demand side trends favoured women and this attenuated the supply-driven downward pressure on women's wages in low-paying occupations, and fully counteracted it in high-paying occupations. The paper contributes new evidence on the distribution of the gender wage gaps, and contributes to a wider literature on technological change, occupational sorting, wage inequality and polarization.

The Distribution of the Gender Wage Gap

We analyse impacts of the rising labor force participation of women on the gender wage gap. We formulate and structurally estimate an equilibrium model of the labor market in which the elasticity of substitution between male and female labor is allowed to vary depending on the task content of occupations. We find that the elasticity of substitution is higher in high- paying occupations that are intensive in abstract and analytical tasks than in low-paying manual and routine occupations. Consistent with this we find a narrowing of the gender wage gap towards the upper end of the wage distribution and an increase in the gender wage gap at the low end. Demand side trends favoured women and this attenuated the supply-driven downward pressure on women's wages in low-paying occupations, and fully counteracted it in high-paying occupations. The paper contributes new evidence on the distribution of the gender wage gaps, and contributes to a wider literature on technological change, occupational sorting, wage inequality and polarization.

Analyzing the Rising Labor Force Participation Rates Among Female Youth of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is experiencing large increases in the working age population, and proper utilization of this population can help it further develop its economy. The female laborforce participation (LFP) of Bangladesh, at 33 percent, is much lower when compared to male LFP (82 percent). However, further disaggregation indicates a spectacular growth of LFP rate among females aged 20-29 between 1999 and 2013. We thus study the reasons behind it by looking at the 1999 and 2013 Laborforce Surveys (LFS) of Bangladesh. We run logit regressions to study the factors that can affect LFP of a female youth in 1999 and 2013 respectively. We find that the 2013 cohort of female youth is much more educated than their 1999 counterpart. Marriage used to reduce LFP of women in 1999, but by 2013, we find that there is no significant difference between LFP of married and unmarried women. However, the Blinder-Oaxaca (1973) decompositions show that much of the increase can be explained by the more favorable coefficients of the regression, showing that Bangladeshi society, both in urban and rural areas, has a more favorable outlook to allow female youth to offer themselves for employment.

Working late: policy relevance for older workers in the United States

The United States has seen a sizable increase in older worker labour force participation, although how much of this is due to public policy is uncertain. In fact, outside of academic and policy research circles, there has been relatively little attention paid to older workers and the challenges of an aging workforce in that country. Public policymakers have not demonstrated the same interest in expanding employment opportunities for older workers that they have shown for other groups, or that has been seen in other countries. Still, a number of significant pieces of legislation have been enacted over the past several decades that should be making continued employment at later ages easier, more attractive, or more essential financially. This paper examines those policies. However, because of confounding and conflicting influences from elsewhere, public policy initiatives focusing on older worker employment do not appear to be major contributors to rising labour force participation rates at older ages.

Social security and two-earner households

In the past decades, elimination of the pay-as-you-go system in U.S. has been extensively discussed and studied. Such an elimination would also eliminate the intragenerational redistribution done by the following policies of social security. Due to spousal and survivor׳s benefit provisions, US Social Security system redistributes (mostly) to single-earner married households. Since retirement benefits are a concave function of past mean earnings, the system redistributes from high earners to low earners. Finally, existence of a cap on social security taxable earnings makes the system regressive. This paper quantifies redistributive, labor supply, and welfare implications of these policies using a general equilibrium life-cycle model. Agents start out as permanently married or single and with education levels and wage profiles, where the latter depend both on education and gender. The household is the decision maker and decides on labor supply of its member(s) and saving. Elimination of these policies results in a 5.5% rise in labor force participation of married females, while increasing aggregate welfare by 0.4%. A majority of households experience positive gains in welfare. Single-earner married households incur large welfare losses (as big as 1.1%), whereas two-earner households with high skilled spouses experience substantial welfare gains (as big as 1.9%).

Childcare availability, fertility and female labor force participation in Japan

This paper seeks to address the problems of childcare scarcity, declining fertility rates and work-family conflict faced by the growing female labor force in Japan. Japan’s total fertility rate has been declining since the 1970s and it fell below the replacement level of 1.3 in 2003. Since the 1990s, the Japanese government has implemented pro-natal policies such as childcare market deregulation, childcare center expansion in the Angel Plan and New Angel Plan, and provision of childbirth grants. However, these policies have failed to encourage childbirth. With rising labor force participation among Japanese women, the insufficiency of existing childcare center capacity to accommodate children of working mothers has resulted in the problem of wait-listed children. In addition, the failure of childcare centers to mitigate the conflict between women’s work and child raising duties has discouraged women from childbearing. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship and causality between childcare availability (CA), female labor force participation rate (LFPR) and fertility (TFR) in Japan for the period 1971–2009. A bounds test approach to cointegration establishes the existence of long-run equilibrium relations between CA, TFR and LFPR. Applying the Granger causality method, our results show the absence of Granger-causality running from childcare availability to fertility among females aged 30–39. In the long run, our results show that having more children at home does not discourage the female labor force participation. In addition, we find no evidence which suggests that working women tend to have fewer children. Overall, this study suggests the importance of the Japanese childcare system in supporting female employment.

Das Erwerbspersonenpotenzial zu Vollzeitäquivalenten: Messkonzept, Projektion und Anwendungsbeispiele

Abstract We propose a concept of potential labour force in full-time equivalents which can be used to measure aggregate labour supply in terms of hours worked. It is designed to calculate labour input in production function estimates of medium-run potential output. Particular attention is paid to the interdependency between labour force participation and working-time decisions. Assuming that participation in working life among older people and women will increase, and if migration surpluses remain high, the potential labour force is likely to be stabilised until 2020 despite the evident curbing impact of the age cohort effect. However, a decline is to be expected in full-time equivalents due to the negative repercussions of rising labour force participation on working hours. Zusammenfassung Mit dem Erwerbspersonenpotenzial zu Vollzeitaquivalenten wird ein Messkonzept fur das gesamtwirtschaftliche Arbeitsangebot auf Stundenbasis vorgeschlagen. Es dient zur Berechnung des Faktors Arbeit in angebotsseitigen ...

Changes in Labor Force Participation of Older Americans and Their Pension Structures: A Policy Perspective

We investigate how the shift in private pension coverage from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) retirement plans since the 1980s has contributed to the substantial rise in labor force participation of older Americans. We develop a life cycle model of retirement that captures important aspects of private (DB and DC) and public (Social Security Old-Age) pensions. We demonstrate how this novel framework can assist policy makers and researchers in analyzing the complex interrelations of labor supply decisions, retirement behavior, and wealth accumulation. We begin by illustrating important differences in the incentives for labor supply and retirement behavior provided by DB and DC pensions. We show that the timing of the exit from the labor force is closely tied to wealth accrual in DB plans, while wealth accrual in DC plans does not provide similar incentives for the timing of retirement. We then use the model to conduct a cohort-based simulation analysis of labor force participation for the period 1977 to 2010. The results illustrate the potential significance of the rise in employer-sponsored DC pensions in explaining the increase in labor force participation of older Americans. We estimate that, holding the share of individuals with employer-sponsored pensions constant, the shift from DB to DC pension coverage increased the labor force participation rate of workers age 60 to 64 by 4.9 percentage points (1.7 points for ages 65-69). Finally, we show that DC pension holders are more concentrated at the earliest take-up age for Social Security old-age retirement benefits and are less responsive to changes in Social Security retirement age policy than DB pension holders.

Dads and Daughters: The Changing Impact of Fathers on Women's Occupational Choices

Abstract:We examine whether women's rising labor force participation led to increased intergenerational transmission of occupation from fathers to daughters. We develop a model where fathers invest in human capital that is specific to their own occupations. Our model generates an empirical test where we compare the trends in the probabilities that women work in their father's versus their father-in-law's occupation. Using data from birth cohorts born between 1909 and 1977, our results indicate that the estimated difference in these trends accounts for at least 13-20 percent of the total increase in the probability that a woman enters her father's occupation.

Job-induced Commuting between Two Residences – Characteristics of a Multilocational Living Arrangement in the Late Modernity

Against the background of the ongoing flexibilisation of labour markets and a rising labour force participation of (highly) qualified women, job-related commuting between a main and secondary residence has become more important in Western capitalist countries as is the case in contemporary Germany. The limited number of recent empirical studies on this kind of multilocational living arrangement almost entirely focuses on commuters in couple/family households. The main objective of this article is, firstly, to provide data about the characteristics and formation contexts of job-related multilocational household organisations as a whole, in order to make a contribution to the discussion of the forms and causes of this currently important phenomenon. Secondly, by means of comparison analyses, the multilocational form of living is compared to the group of long-distance movers, in order to provide insights into who prefers commuting to migration with the complete household under which circumstances. The article draws on data of a field research study, which have been obtained from an individual based random sample from official registers of inhabitants of four metropolises in Germany. The sample was restricted to individuals with specific characteristics (in-movers, age 25 to 59). The fully structured postal interviews were complemented by qualitative telephone interviews with selected commuters. The results show that commuters are a heterogeneous group. Living in a partnership and the social connections established thereby play a prominent role for multilocational household organisations. Among male commuters, one can distinguish between those who are young, never married and predominantly childless, on the one hand, and a group of older married commuters with children in the household, on the other. The vast majority of female commuters, however, live childless. As men commute between two residences even if they live with a family, they significantly more often have a job-related secondary residence than women. Late modern characteristics of job-related multilocational living arrangements are dual earner households for male commuters and high occupational positions for female commuters. The commuting between two accommodations is strongly connected to the career entry, on the one hand, and is also important in a later occupational career phase as a partly longer-lasting period, on the other hand. It may be suggested that the rise of fix-term employment will further increase the importance of multilocational living arrangements in Late Modernity.