Title: Female Labor Force Participation in Developing and Developed Countries-- Consideration of the Informal Sector
Abstract: T HE steady increase in the labor force participation of married women in the United States over the last few decades has stimulated considerable interest in the economic analysis of a woman's decision Pioneering work by Mincer (1962) and Cain (1966) has served as a theoretical and empirical foundation for numerous studies of female labor force participation. This research typically treats a woman's current labor force status (measured as a dummy variable for the individual and as a rate for the population) as a measure of labor supply which depends upon economic and demographic characteristics such as female earnings, male earnings, non-earnings income, schooling, work experience, age, number of children, and so on. (Notable examples are Bowen and Finegan (1969), Cogan (1975, 1978), Gronau (1973), Heckman (1974, 1980), and Schultz (1980).) While the associated theoretical models and statistical techniques have been refined considerably (especially by Lewis (1972), Ben-Porath (1973), and Heckman (1974, 1979)), the coefficients estimated using U.S. data have remained reasonably robust. Also, there is substantial agreement among micro-level and aggregate results. (See Cain (1966) and Bowen and Finegan (1969) for comparisons.) As this body of literature has grown, the economic models developed within it have been implemented analyze the labor force behavior of women in other countries. However, there is no consistent international pattern in the behavioral trends of the female labor force. Perhaps the most notable difference in the economic opportunities available women in many other countries is that they may work in the sector of the labor market. Women may be considered economically active and may be counted as being in the labor force as they produce goods at home for market sale, work on the family farm, or work in a small family-run business. The most convenient means of categorizing workers as being in the sector is by their employment status. Following Jaffe and Azumi (1960) we assume that women reported as self-employed or as family workers are engaged in the informal sector of the labor force. Almost all women in the U.S. labor force work as employees; only 6.6% worked as self-employed or family workers in 1978. Given Japan's advanced economic development, a surprisingly large fraction (38.4% in 1978) of its female labor force comprises self-employed and family workers.' Clearly, in the United States and countries with a similar distribution of the labor force by employment status, the labor force participation decision may be treated as the choice to work or not work. However, if individuals regard the decision enter the labor force as an employee as being distinct from the choice enter the labor force as a family worker, then economic models of labor force participation which treat these choices as identical will incorporate a specification bias. The labor force participation decision may differ between these two sectors for several reasons. First, the wage offers may differ by sector. Second, while entering the informal sector may be virtually frictionless, there may be fixed costs (among them commuting time and child care) associated with working in the formal sector. Third, family workers may face more flexible working schedules than paid employees; the latter group may be subject contractual working hours. In order treat the labor force decisions in coiuntiNes with significant informal sectors. this Received for publication March 16, 1981. Revision accepted for publication September 15, 1982. * Rutgers University. This paper is a revision of work begun with my doctoral dissertation. I would like thank H. Gregg Lewis and T. Dudley Wallace for their suggestions and Hideo Okamoto for providing the data set. I would also like thank David Crawford, Toshiaki Tachibanaki, two anonymous referees, and the participants of the Columbia Labor Workshop, the Japan Economic Seminar, and the Yale Labor and Population Workshop for their comments. Remaining errors are my own. This research was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. Additional funding was provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation grant the Yale Economic Demography Program. I Statistical Abstract of the U.S. and Japan Statistical Yearbook.
Publication Year: 1983
Publication Date: 1983-08-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 130
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