IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cwl/cwldpp/1116.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Explaining the Labor Force Participation of Women 20-24

Author

Abstract

Between about the mid 1960s and the late 1970s there was a remarkable rise in the labor force participation of women and then a leveling off that has persisted through the mid 1990s. This paper attempts to explain the labor force participation of women 20-24 over this period. A "relative income" variable is constructed based on Easterlin's (1980) relative income hypothesis, and this is found to be an important explanatory variable. Easterlin's "cohort wage" hypothesis is also used in the analysis. The basic equation estimated does very well in various tests that were performed on it, and it appears to explain well the rapid rise and then leveling off of the labor force participation of young women.

Suggested Citation

  • Ray C. Fair & Diane J. Macunovich, 1996. "Explaining the Labor Force Participation of Women 20-24," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1116, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    • Handle: RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:1116
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cowles.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/pub/d11/d1116.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barbara Devaney, 1983. "An analysis of variations in U. S. fertility and female labor force participation trends," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 20(2), pages 147-161, May.
    2. Hansen, Lars Peter, 1982. "Large Sample Properties of Generalized Method of Moments Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 1029-1054, July.
    3. Fair, Ray C & Dominguez, Kathryn M, 1991. "Effects of the Changing U.S. Age Distribution on Macroeconomic Equations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(5), pages 1276-1294, December.
    4. Macunovich, D.J., 1996. "Relative Income and Price of Time: Exploring their effcts on U.S. Fertility and Female Labor Force Participation, 1963-1993," Department of Economics Working Papers 174, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    5. Killingsworth, Mark R. & Heckman, James J., 1987. "Female labor supply: A survey," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & R. Layard (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 2, pages 103-204, Elsevier.
    6. Schapiro, M.O., 1988. "Socio-Economic Effects Of Relative Income And Relative Cohort Size," Department of Economics Working Papers 113, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    7. Blau, Francine D & Grossberg, Adam J, 1991. "Real Wage and Employment Uncertainty and the Labor Force Participation Decisions of Married Women," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 29(4), pages 678-695, October.
    8. Welch, Finis, 1979. "Effects of Cohort Size on Earnings: The Baby Boom Babies' Financial Bust," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 65-97, October.
    9. Andrews, Donald W K & Ploberger, Werner, 1994. "Optimal Tests When a Nuisance Parameter Is Present Only under the Alternative," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(6), pages 1383-1414, November.
    10. Mroz, Thomas A, 1987. "The Sensitivity of an Empirical Model of Married Women's Hours of Work to Economic and Statistical Assumptions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(4), pages 765-799, July.
    11. Michael L. Wachter, 1977. "Intermediate Swings in Labor-Force Participation," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 8(2), pages 545-576.
    12. Butz, William P & Ward, Michael P, 1979. "The Emergence of Countercyclical U.S. Fertility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(3), pages 318-328, June.
    13. O'Neill, June A, 1981. "A Time-Series Analysis of Women's Labor Force Participation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(2), pages 76-80, May.
    14. Wachter, Michael L, 1972. "A Labor Supply Model for Secondary Workers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 54(2), pages 141-151, May.
    15. Smith, James P & Ward, Michael P, 1985. "Time-Series Growth in the Female Labor Force," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(1), pages 59-90, January.
    16. Diane J. Macunovich, 1995. "The Butz-Ward Fertility Model in the Light of More Recent Data," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 30(2), pages 229-255.
    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. Diane J. Macunovich, 1999. "The fortunes of one's birth: Relative cohort size and the youth labor market in the United States," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 12(2), pages 215-272.
    2. Macunovich, D.J., 1996. "Cohort Size Effects on US Enrollment Decisions," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-36, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    3. Diane Macunovich, 1999. "The Baby Boom As It Ages: How Has It Affected Patterns of Consumptions and Savings in the United States?," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 7, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University.

    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. Macunovich, Diane J., 1998. "Race and relative income/price of time effects on U.S. fertility," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 365-400.
    2. Diane J. Macunovich, 1999. "The fortunes of one's birth: Relative cohort size and the youth labor market in the United States," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 12(2), pages 215-272.
    3. Claudia Olivetti, 2006. "Changes in Women's Hours of Market Work: The Role of Returns to Experience," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 9(4), pages 557-587, October.
    4. Claudia Olivetti, 2000. "Change in Women's Labor Force Participation: The Effect of Changing Experience," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1572, Econometric Society.
    5. Maria Rita Testa & Stuart Gietel-Basten, 2014. "Certainty of meeting fertility intentions declines in Europe during the 'Great Recession'," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 31(23), pages 687-734.
    6. John Pencavel, 1997. "Market Work and Wages of Women: 1975-94," Working Papers 98003, Stanford University, Department of Economics.
    7. Macunovich, Diane J., 2011. "Relative Cohort Size, Relative Income, and Women's Labor Force Participation 1968-2010," IZA Discussion Papers 5913, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Blanca Zuluaga & Luis Jaramillo & Luis Gamboa, 2017. "Economic conditions and birth spacing in Colombia: a semi-parametric approach," Lecturas de Economía, Universidad de Antioquia, Departamento de Economía, issue 87, pages 97-123, Julio - D.
    9. Juhn, Chinhui & Murphy, Kevin M, 1997. "Wage Inequality and Family Labor Supply," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages 72-97, January.
    10. Jeon, Yongil & Shields, Michael P., 2008. "The Impact of Relative Cohort Size on U.S. Fertility, 1913-2001," IZA Discussion Papers 3587, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Robert McNown, 2003. "A Cointegration Model of Age‐Specific Fertility and Female Labor Supply in the United States," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 70(2), pages 344-358, October.
    12. Namkee Ahn & Pedro Mira, 1999. "A Note on the Changing Relationship Between Fertility and Female Employment Rates in Developed Countries," Working Papers wp1999_9903, CEMFI.
    13. repec:eee:labchp:v:1:y:1986:i:c:p:205-271 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Geweke, J. & Joel Horowitz & Pesaran, M.H., 2006. "Econometrics: A Bird’s Eye View," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0655, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    15. Gunnar Andersson, 2000. "The Impact of Labour-Force Participation on Childbearing Behaviour: Pro-Cyclical Fertility in Sweden during the 1980s and the 1990s," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 16(4), pages 293-333, December.
    16. Matthias Doepke & Moshe Hazan & Yishay D. Maoz, 2015. "The Baby Boom and World War II: A Macroeconomic Analysis," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 82(3), pages 1031-1073.
    17. Kenneth G. Stewart, 2019. "Suits' Watermelon Model: The Missing Simultaneous Equations Empirical Application," Journal of Economics Teaching, Journal of Economics Teaching, vol. 4(2), pages 115-139, December.
    18. Volker Grossmann, 2003. "A Note on Redistributive Taxation, Labor Supply, and National Income," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 2(1), pages 39-48, April.
    19. Syed Kanwar Abbas, 2018. "Global slack hypothesis: evidence from China, India and Pakistan," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 593-627, March.
    20. Yun, Myeong-Su, 1999. "Generalized Selection Bias and The Decomposition of Wage Differentials," IZA Discussion Papers 69, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. Ramirez, Francisco A., 2013. "Oferta de Trabajo en la República Dominicana: Tendencias y Determinantes [Labor Supply in the Dominican Republic: Trends and Determinants]," MPRA Paper 51913, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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:cwl:cwldpp:1116. 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: Brittany Ladd (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cowleus.html .

    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.