IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/metroe/v61y2010i4p665-675.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Complete Characterization Of The Inverted S‐Shaped Labor Supply Curve

Author

Listed:
  • Tamotsu Nakamura
  • Yu Murayama

Abstract

Empirical evidence suggests that labor supply curves are downward sloping at low wage levels, i.e. ‘forward‐falling labor supply’. In contrast, the supply curve is only downward sloping at high wage levels in the canonical labor supply model, i.e. ‘backward‐bending’. This paper derives a labor supply curve with both forward‐falling and backward‐bending segments, or an ‘inverted S‐shape’ by incorporating two elements into a standard utility function: a subsistence level of consumption and a decreasing elasticity of substitution. It is also shown that the subsistence level of consumption plays a key role in determining the shape of the labor supply curve.

Suggested Citation

  • Tamotsu Nakamura & Yu Murayama, 2010. "A Complete Characterization Of The Inverted S‐Shaped Labor Supply Curve," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 665-675, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:metroe:v:61:y:2010:i:4:p:665-675
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-999X.2009.04086.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-999X.2009.04086.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-999X.2009.04086.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dessing, Maryke, 2002. "Labor supply, the family and poverty: the S-shaped labor supply curve," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 433-458, December.
    2. John W. Mellor, 1963. "The Use and Productivity of Farm Family Labor in Early Stages of Agricultural Development," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 45(3), pages 517-534.
    3. Elliot J. Berg, 1961. "Backward-Sloping Labor Supply Functions in Dual Economies — the Africa Case," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 75(3), pages 468-492.
    4. Dunn, L F, 1978. "An Empirical Indifference Function for Income and Leisure," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 60(4), pages 533-540, November.
    5. Maryke Dessing, 2008. "The S‐shaped labor supply schedule: evidence from industrialized countries," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(6), pages 444-485, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ranjini L. Thaver, 2013. "Integrating The Output And Substitution Effects Of Production Into The Intermediate Microeconomics Textbook," Business Education and Accreditation, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 5(1), pages 81-90.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mohammed SHARIF, 2000. "Inverted “S”—The complete neoclassical labour-supply function," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 139(4), pages 409-435, December.
    2. Rosales-Salas, Jorge & Jara-Díaz, Sergio R., 2017. "A time allocation model considering external providers," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 175-195.
    3. Benjamin, Catherine & Gallic, Ewen, 2018. "Does climate change influence demand ? Indian household behavior with imperfect labor markets," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274185, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Pascual, Unai & Barbier, Edward B., 2005. "On- And Off-Farm Labor Decisions By Slash-And-Burn Farmers In Yucatan (Mexico)," Environmental Economy and Policy Research Discussion Papers 31926, University of Cambridge, Department of Land Economy.
    5. Gärtner, Dennis L. & Gärtner, Manfred, 2011. "Wage traps as a cause of illiteracy, child labor, and extreme poverty," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 232-242, September.
    6. Masekesa, Faith & Munro, Alistair, 2020. "Intra-household inequality, fairness and productivity. Evidence from a real effort experiment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    7. Piras, Simone & Vittuari, Matteo & Möllers, Judith & Herzfeld, Thomas, 2018. "Remittance inflow and smallholder farming practices. The case of Moldova," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 654-665.
    8. Codrina Rada, 2007. "A growth model for a two-sector economy with endogenous productivity," Working Papers 44, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    9. Jessica S. Bean, 2015. "‘To help keep the home going’: female labour supply in interwar London," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(2), pages 441-470, May.
    10. Mduma, John K. & Wobst, Peter, 2005. "Village Level Labor Market Development in Tanzania: Evidence from Spatial Econometrics," Discussion Papers 276260, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    11. Narayanamoorthy, A. & Suresh, R. & Sujitha, K.S., 2020. "Is Labour Productivity of Irrigated Crops Better than Rainfed Crops?: A Meta-Data Analysis," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), December.
    12. Lusi Liao & Sasiwimon Warunsiri Paweenawat, 2021. "The inversion of married women's labour supply and wage: Evidence from Thailand," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 35(1), pages 82-98, May.
    13. Alma Espino & Fernando Isabella & Martí­n Leites & Alina Machado, 2012. "Elasticidad intertemporal y no compensada de la oferta laboral. Evidencia para el caso uruguayo," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 12-18, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    14. D. E. Ault & G. L. Rutman*, 1985. "The Rural African and Gold Mining in Southern Africa 1976–1980," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 53(1), pages 1-16, March.
    15. Jean-Louis Combes & Christian Hubert Ebeke & Mathilde Maurel & Urbain Thierry Yogo, 2011. "Remittances and the prevalence of working poor," Post-Print halshs-00587797, HAL.
    16. Liu, Zhongyuan & Chen, Huiguang, 2017. "Can Migration Decisions Be Affected by Land Resource Endowment? A Heterogeneity View," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258248, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Paul Scanlon, 2018. "Why Do People Work So Hard?," 2018 Meeting Papers 1206, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    18. Allgood, Sam, 2001. "Grade targets and teaching innovations," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 485-493, October.
    19. Wei-Bin Zhang, 2017. "Discrimination and Inequality in an Integrated Walrasian-General-Equilibrium and Neoclassical-Growth Theory," Asian Journal of Economic Modelling, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 5(1), pages 57-76, March.
    20. Altman, Morris, 2014. "Insights from behavioral economics on how labor markets work," Working Paper Series 3466, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:metroe:v:61:y:2010:i:4:p:665-675. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0026-1386 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.