scholarly journals Spousal effects on wages, labour supply and household production in Ghana

Author(s):  
Emmanuel Orkoh ◽  
Phillip F. Blaauw ◽  
Carike Claassen

Background: The relationship between spousal wages and hours of work, including the phenomenon of a spousal premium or penalty, is well documented in the literature. However, there is limited information on the situation in developing countries where labour market rigidities and cultural norms are factors in the division of labour between husbands and wives.Aim: This article addresses the research gap by analysing spousal wages among couples and the cross-wage effect of spousal time allocation.Setting: Households in Ghana, where sociocultural norms largely influence the role of men and women constituted the context of the study.Methods: The instrumental variable Tobit estimation regression was used to analyse pooled data from three Ghana Living Standard Surveys.Results: The results reveal elements of a working spousal wage premium (due to positive selection rather than specialisation) for both men and women regardless of their ethnic affiliations. The analysis of the effect of wage on spousal hours of work also suggested complementarity in employment and household labour decisions between couples.Conclusion: Men’s and women’s participation in household production significantly improves each other’s labour market participation and labour supply. These results corroborate the evidence of a wage premium in the literature. We recommend that government should promote equitable wage rates in the labour market and prioritise policies such as paternal leave which could encourage men to participate in household production and indirectly promote women’s labour force participation.

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 320-331
Author(s):  
Arthur Donner ◽  
Fred Lazar

This paper incorporates a role for expectations in the short-run behavior of labour supply decision, presents a theory introducing labour market expectations as a variable influencing labour supply, and discusses the relative merits of the expectations model vis-à-vis the traditional model using the empirical results derived in this work.


1988 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 1085-1102 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Baumann ◽  
M M Fischer ◽  
U Schubert

This paper contains an analysis of a multiregional labour-supply model for Austria. In the approach suggested here attempts are made to combine the advantages of random-utility-based discrete choice theory and partial reduced-form estimation. Two recursive submodels, the labour-force participation submodel, and the commuting and employment submodel, are developed. Three different types of model specifications at the mesolevel are used to analyse the consequences of choosing a spatial framework of overlapping regional labour markets upon the model parameters, to investigate the usefulness of the model approach in relation to different regionalisation variants, and to carry out a sensitivity analysis with respect to the effects of the model parameters used to delineate the labour-market regions.


Author(s):  
Manuela Stranges

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to explore the intergenerational transmission of female labor force participation from mothers to children. Using data collected by the European Social Survey from 2002 to 2018 (N = 118,219), we analyse four different samples of native and immigrant women and men in order to assess the relationship between working mothers and their daughters and sons' wives participation to the labour market. For both native and immigrant women, having had their mothers employed when the respondents were 14 was associated with higher probability they were employed at the time of survey. Similarly, for both native and immigrant men, having had their mothers employed when the respondents were 14 was associated with higher probability their wives were employed at the time of the survey. We concentrate our attention on the role of religion. We find that religiosity is negatively related to the participation of women in the labour market, with differences between those who had a working mother and those who had not. Results of some augmented models indicate that the intergenerational transmission of female labor force participation varies according to religious affiliation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Birch ◽  
Alison Preston

1 This article provides an overview of the key features of the labour market in 2019, with historical data providing insight into recent trends. In 2019, the female labour force participation rate reached an all-time high of 61.3%, 10 percentage points lower than the male rate. Disaggregated analysis shows this growth stems from rising participation amongst older women. This, in turn, is underpinned by a growth in feminised sectors of the labour market, notably the Health Care and Social Assistance sector. Since 2000 this sector has contributed 22.6% to total employment growth and at 2019 accounted for 13.5% of the Australian workforce. There has also been a growth in part-time and casual employment over recent years, with the latter now accounting for 25% of all employees. These are concerning developments, with estimates showing that 58.6% of casuals are not guaranteed a minimum number of hours of work in their job. The article notes that wages growth remains below that required to stimulate employment growth, and that a continued focus on conventional labour market indicators has the potential to lead to misguided policy formulation.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lixin Cai

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to enhance understanding labour supply dynamics of the UK workers by examining whether and to what extent there is state dependence in the labour supply at both the extensive and intensive margins.Design/methodology/approachA dynamic two-tiered Tobit model is applied to the first seven waves of Understanding Society: the UK Household Longitudinal Study. The model used accounts for observed and unobserved individual heterogeneity and serially correlated transitory shocks to labour supply to draw inferences on state dependence.FindingsThe results show that both observed and unobserved individual heterogeneity contributes to observed inter-temporal persistence of the labour supply of the UK workers, and the persistence remains after these factors are controlled for, suggesting true state dependence at both the extensive and intensive margins of the labour supply. The study also finds that at both the margins, the state dependence of labour supply is larger for females than for males and that for both genders the state dependence is larger for people with low education, mature aged workers and people with long-standing illness or impairment. The results also show that estimates from a conventional Tobit model may produce misleading inferences regarding labour supply at the extensive and intensive margins.Originality/valueThis study adds to the international literature on labour supply dynamics by providing empirical evidence for both the extensive and intensive margins of labour supply, while previous studies tend to focus on the extensive margin of labour force participation only. Also, unlike earlier studies that often focus on females, this study compares labour supply dynamics between males and females. The study also compares the estimates from the more flexible two-tiered Tobit model with that from the conventional Tobit model.


Author(s):  
P. Lynn McDonald ◽  
Richard A. Wanner

ABSTRACTIn view of the trend toward increasing early retirement observed in Canada since the 1960's, this study attempts to determine the main socioeconomic factors influencing the decision to retire before age 65 among Canadian men and women. Using data from the 1973 Canadian Mobility Study, we estimate a series of models in which retirement is measured as both the degree of involvement in the labour force and a subjective declaration of retirement status. We conclude that those Canadians who retire early tend to be single men and married women employed by others who are better educated and whose nonearned income is higher than those who retire at a later age. As anticipated, early retirement experiences are different for men and women, reflecting the more precarious position of women in the labour market.


2008 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin O'Brien ◽  
Abbas Valadkhani ◽  
Keith Townsend

Both global and domestic economic growth remained robust in 2007 resulting in historically low unemployment and high labour force participation in Australia. However, these favourable labour force statistics were overshadowed for much of the year by a number of other issues such as the continuing drought, high oil and petrol prices and associated inflation and interest rate pressures, a November federal election, and the first full year of the operation of the Work Choices legislation. This article will address each of these issues by presenting an analysis of the macroeconomy and labour market, and reviewing the labour market implications of the Work Choices legislation in Australia.


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