Mothers in an Insider-Outsider Economy. The Puzzle of Spain

This article analyzes married women's labour force transitions in a Male Breadwinner Regime in the context of an Insider-Outsider economy. The argument of the article is that transitions behave differently when wives are in insider rather than outsider households, and when they are long-run participating wives rather than a priori non-participant wives. In other words, the puzzle is that the standard predictions of women's behaviour in a Male Breadwinner regime may not apply if the initial conditions change: 1) mothers may not respond as expected if they are in outsider households, and 2) highly educated mothers may not respond as expected if they studied because they intend to participate in the long run. The model is a simple Transition Model that assumes a First Order Markov Process. This model is convenient because it allows us to capture mover-stayer effects in combination with effects promoting participation and promoting inactivity. Spain turns to be an ideal case to apply the analysis. The data used is the Household Income and Expenditures Survey (ECPF, 1985-90).