We develop a modeling framework to examine household labor supply decisions that includes the husbandÂ’s and wifeÂ’s choice of whether to behave cooperatively. Our model is static and, as opposed to most applications of cooperative models to household labor supply decisions, allows for corner solutions. Spouses are wage-takers, have individual utility functions defined over own leisure and (public) household consumption, and face restrictions on the minimum number of hours that either can work. Given preferences, wage offers, and the minimum labor supply levels that both spouses face, the spouses simultaneously choose labor supply levels and whether to behave cooperatively. We show that in the absence of minimum labor supply levels, all households in which at least one person works will behave cooperatively, and equilibrium outcomes would have either both spouses participating in the labor market or neither. The model is estimated using household-level data from the Bank of Italy Survey. We show that increases in the female wage offer distribution increased the participation rate of married women over the decade of the 90s both through the standard substitution effect and by increasing the proportion of households adopting cooperative modes of behavior. Using model estimates we demonstrate that increases in the wage offer distribution to women can dramatically increase the labor supply of both wives and husbands, as would reductions in minimum hours of work levels.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Society for Economic Dynamics in its series 2004 Meeting Papers with number
70.
Length: Date of creation: 2004 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:red:sed004:70
Contact details of provider: Postal: Society for Economic Dynamics Anne Stubing CV Starr Center for Applied Economics 269 Mercer Street, Room 303 New York University New York, NY 10003 Fax: 1-860-486-4463 Email: Web page: http://www.EconomicDynamics.org/society.htm More information through EDIRC
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Christian Zimmermann).
Find related papers by JEL classification: D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply C51 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Construction and Estimation
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: