IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v4y2014i4p2158244014561205.html

Understanding Female Inactivity in Malta

Author

Listed:
  • Rose Marie Azzopardi
  • Frank Bezzina

Abstract

This empirical study is based in Malta, a small island state with the highest rate of economically inactive women in the European Union (EU). Using a random sample of 402 inactive female homemakers, the responses to a telephone survey revealed that (a) this inactive group is motivated by aspects of social and economic well-being and to a lesser extent by aspects of personal and professional development; (b) work hindrances include low wages, family responsibilities, and a dependency on social security contributions/benefits; (c) the intention to work in the future is significantly associated with work motives, work hindrances, and demographic variables, resulting in an overall holdout accuracy of 84.8%; and (d) the respondents would be encouraged to work if there are more supportive/flexible work structures available for working mothers, equal opportunities for women at the workplace, and employment opportunities through in-work benefits that make work pay (particularly for those aged 40+, with limited skills and with low work intensity). The findings are discussed, and the study concludes by providing four policy recommendations aimed at addressing the present shortcomings of the Maltese labor market.

Suggested Citation

  • Rose Marie Azzopardi & Frank Bezzina, 2014. "Understanding Female Inactivity in Malta," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(4), pages 21582440145, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:4:y:2014:i:4:p:2158244014561205
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244014561205
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244014561205
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2158244014561205?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. Stéphane Carcillo & David Grubb, 2006. "From Inactivity to Work: The Role of Active Labour Market Policies," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 36, OECD Publishing.
    2. Adler, Paul S. & Chen, Clara Xiaoling, 2011. "Combining creativity and control: Understanding individual motivation in large-scale collaborative creativity," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 63-85, February.
    3. Florence Jaumotte, 2004. "Labour Force Participation of Women: Empirical Evidence on The Role of Policy and Other Determinants in OECD Countries," OECD Economic Studies, OECD Publishing, vol. 2003(2), pages 51-108.
    4. Frank Bezzina & Rose Marie Azzopardi & George Vella, 2013. "Understanding and Assessing the Work Motivations of Employed Women," SAGE Open, , vol. 3(3), pages 21582440135, September.
    5. Margit Osterloh & Bruno S. Frey, 2000. "Motivation, Knowledge Transfer, and Organizational Forms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(5), pages 538-550, October.
    6. O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), 1999. "Handbook of Labor Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 3, number 3.
    7. Mourre, Gilles & Buddelmeyer, Hielke & Ward-Warmedinger, Melanie, 2005. "Part-time work in EU countries: labour market mobility, entry and exit," Working Paper Series 460, European Central Bank.
    8. Card, David, 1999. "The causal effect of education on earnings," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 30, pages 1801-1863, Elsevier.
    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. Anna M. Catania & Clarissa Sammut Scerri & Gottfried J. Catania, 2019. "Men’s experience of their partners’ breast cancer diagnosis, breast surgery and oncological treatment," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(9-10), pages 1899-1910, May.
    2. Raquel Justo & Emilio Congregado & Concepción Román, 2021. "Becoming self-employed from inactivity: an in-depth analysis of satisfaction," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 145-187, January.

    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. Tito Boeri & Jan van Ours, 2013. "The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets: Second Edition," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10142, December.
    2. Kristinn Hermannsson & Patrizio Lecca, 2016. "Human Capital in Economic Development: From Labour Productivity to Macroeconomic Impact," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 35(1), pages 24-36, March.
    3. María Arrazola & José de Hevia, 2003. "Evaluación económica de políticas educativas: Una ilustración con la Ley General de la Educación de 1970," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 164(1), pages 111-127, march.
    4. Kemptner, Daniel & Tolan, Songül, 2018. "The role of time preferences in educational decision making," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 25-39.
    5. Campos, Nauro F. & Jolliffe, Dean, 2003. "After, before and during: returns to education in Hungary (1986-1998)," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 377-390, December.
    6. Emanuela di Gropello, 2006. "Meeting the Challenges of Secondary Education in Latin America and East Asia : Improving Efficiency and Resource Mobilization," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7173, April.
    7. Bas Jacobs, 2013. "Optimal redistributive tax and education policies in general equilibrium," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 20(2), pages 312-337, April.
    8. David Campbell, 2001. "Rates of Return to Schooling and the Quality of Education in England and Wales," Studies in Economics 0115, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    9. Huong Thu Le & Ha Trong Nguyen, 2018. "The evolution of the gender test score gap through seventh grade: new insights from Australia using unconditional quantile regression and decomposition," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-42, December.
    10. Martin Schlotter & Guido Schwerdt & Ludger Woessmann, 2011. "Econometric methods for causal evaluation of education policies and practices: a non-technical guide," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 109-137.
    11. Peydró, José-Luis & Jasova, Martina & Mendicino, Caterina & Panetti, Ettore & Supera, Dominik, 2021. "Monetary Policy, Labor Income Redistribution and the Credit Channel: Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee and Credit Registe," CEPR Discussion Papers 16549, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    12. Kai Barron & Luis F. Gamboa & Paul Rodríguez-Lesmes, 2019. "Behavioural Response to a Sudden Health Risk: Dengue and Educational Outcomes in Colombia," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(4), pages 620-644, April.
    13. Carstensen Kai & Hartmann Susanne & Gundlach Erich, 2009. "The Augmented Solow Model with Mincerian Schooling and Externalities," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 10(4), pages 448-463, December.
    14. Alan B. Krueger, 2002. "Inequality, Too Much of a Good Thing," Working Papers 845, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    15. Dongshin Kim & Davin Raiha & Youngme Seo, 2026. "House Search Traffic: Does It Matter?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 72(3), pages 666-698, April.
    16. Scott Carrell & Bruce Sacerdote, 2017. "Why Do College-Going Interventions Work?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 124-151, July.
    17. Hector Espinoza & Stefan Speckesser, 2019. "A Comparison of Earnings Related to Higher Level Vocational/Technical and Academic Education," National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Discussion Papers 502, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
    18. Melissa Clark & David Jaeger, 2006. "Natives, the foreign-born and high school equivalents: new evidence on the returns to the GED," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 19(4), pages 769-793, October.
    19. Anders Hjorth-Trolle, 2018. "Beliefs, parental investments, and intergenerational persistence: A formal model," Rationality and Society, , vol. 30(1), pages 108-154, February.
    20. Bourguignon, Francois, 2005. "The Effect of Economic Growth on Social Structures," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 27, pages 1701-1747, Elsevier.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:sae:sagope:v:4:y:2014:i:4:p:2158244014561205. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.