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Female labour supply, human capital and welfare reform

Author Info

  • Richard Blundell

    ()

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London)

  • Monica Costa Dias

    ()

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Institute for Fiscal Studies)

  • Costas Meghir

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Yale University)

  • Jonathan Shaw

    ()

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies)

Abstract

We consider the impact of tax credits and income support programs on female education choice, employment, hours and human capital accumulation over the life-cycle. We analyse both the short run incentive effects and the longer run implications of such programs. By allowing for risk aversion and savings, we quantify the insurance value of alternative programs. We find important incentive effects on education choice and labour supply, with single mothers having the most elastic labour supply. Returns to labour market experience are found to be substantial but only for full-time employment, and especially for women with more than basic formal education. For those with lower education the welfare programs are shown to have substantial insurance value. Based on the model, marginal increases to tax credits are preferred to equally costly increases in income support and to tax cuts, except by those in the highest education group.

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Paper provided by Institute for Fiscal Studies in its series IFS Working Papers with number W13/10.

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Date of creation: May 2013
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Handle: RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:13/10
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  • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

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Cited by:

  1. Abiry, Raphael & Reuss, Karsten & Stichnoth, Holger, 2014. "Completed fertility effects of family policy measures: Evidence from a life-cycle model," ZEW Discussion Papers 14-068, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
  2. Henk-Wim de Boer & Egbert Jongen & Jan Kabatek, 2014. "The effectiveness of fiscal stimuli for working parents," CPB Discussion Paper 286, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
  3. Raquel Fernández & Joyce Cheng Wong, 2014. "Free to Leave? A Welfare Analysis of Divorce Regimes," NBER Working Papers 20251, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  4. Jeremy Lise & Nao Sudo & Michio Suzuki & Ken Yamada & Tomoaki Yamada, 2013. "Wage, Income and Consumption Inequality in Japan, 1981-2008: from Boom to Lost Decades," Working Papers 2013-011, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.

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