Skip to main content

Labour Supply of Women

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
  • 301 Accesses

Abstract

This article reviews theoretical and empirical work on the labour supply of women in modern times, with special reference to women in Western economies, primarily the United States.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   6,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   8,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Allen, R.G.D. 1938. Mathematical analysis for economists. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashenfelter, O. 1980. Unemployment as disequilibrium in a model of aggregate labor supply. Econometrica 48: 547–564.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ashenfelter, O., and J.J. Heckman. 1974. The estimation of income and substitution effects in a model of family labor supply. Econometrica 42: 73–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ashworth, J.S., and D.T. Ulph. 1981. Household models. In Taxation and labour supply, ed. C.V. Brown, 117–133. London: Allen & Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atrostic, B.K. 1982. The demand for leisure and nonpecuniary job characteristics. American Economic Review 72: 428–440.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, G. 1965. A theory of the allocation of time. Economic Journal 75: 493–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beneria, L. 1977. Reproduction, production and the sexual division of labour. Cambridge Journal of Economics 1: 203–225.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blau, F.D., and M.A. Ferber. 1986. The economics of women, men, and work. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourguignon, F. 1984. Rationalité individuelle ou rationalité stratégique: le cas de l’office familiale de travail. Revue Economique 35: 147–162.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourguignon, F. 1985. Women’s participation and taxation in France. In Unemployment, job search and labour supply, ed. R. Blundell and I. Walker, 243–266. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowen, W., and T.A. Finegan. 1969. The economics of labor force participation. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, K.B., and L.H. Summers. 1981. Demographic differences in cyclical employment variation. Journal of Human Resources 16: 61–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, K.B., and L.H. Summers. 1982. Labour force participation: Timing and persistence. Review of Economic Studies 49(Supplement): 825–844.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cogan, J. 1980. Labour supply with costs of labor market entry. In Female labor supply, ed. J.P. Smith, 327–364. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cowan, R.S. 1983. More work for mother. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deaton, A. 1986. Demand analysis. In Handbook of econometrics, vol. 3, ed. Z. Griliches and M. Intriligator. New York: North-Holland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dooley, M.D. 1982. Labor supply and fertility of married women: An analysis with grouped and individual data from the 1970 U.S. Census. Journal of Human Resources 17: 499–532.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Franz, W. 1981. Schatzung regionaler Arbeitsangebotsfunktionen mit Hilfe der Tobit-Methode und des Probit-verfahrens unter Berucksichtigung des sog. ‘Sample Selection Bias’. Discussion Paper No. 171–81, Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre und Statistik, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Federal Republic of Germany.

    Google Scholar 

  • Franz, W., and S. Kawasaki. 1981. Labor supply of married women in the Federal Republic of Germany: Theory and empirical results from a new estimation procedure. Empirical Economics 6: 129–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuchs, V. 1984. His and hers: Gender differences in work and income, 1959–1979. Working Paper No. 1501, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldin, C. 1980. The work and wages of single women, 1970 to 1920. Journal of Economic History 40: 81–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldin, C. 1983a. The changing economic role of women: A quantitative approach. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 13(4): 707–733.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldin, C. 1983b. Life cycle labor force participation of married women: Historical evidence and implications. Working Paper No. 1251, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldin, C. 1984. The historical evolution of female earnings functions and occupations. Explorations in Economic History 21: 1–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldin, C. 1986. Monitoring costs and occupational segregation by sex: A historical analysis. Journal of Labor Economics 4: 1–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldin, C., and K. Sokoloff. 1982. Women, children, and industrialization in the early Republic: Evidence from the manufacturing censuses. Journal of Economic History 42: 741–774.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graham, J., and C. Green. 1984. Estimating the parameters of a household production function with joint products. Review of Economics and Statistics 66: 277–282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gronau, R. 1973a. The effect of children on the housewife’s value of time. Journal of Political Economy 81(Supplement): S168–S199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gronau, R. 1973b. The intrafamily allocation of time: The value of the housewives’ time. American Economic Review 63: 634–651.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gronau, R. 1973c. The measurement of output in the non-market sector – The evaluation of housewives’ time. In The measurement of economic and social performance, ed. M. Moss, 163–199. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gronau, R. 1977. Leisure, production and work – The theory of the allocation of time revisited. Journal of Political Economy 85: 1099–1124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann, H.I. 1981. The family as the locus of gender, class and political struggle: The example of housework. Signs 6: 366–394.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hausman, J., and P. Ruud. 1984. Family labor supply with taxes. American Economic Review 74(2): 242–248.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heckman, J. 1974. Effects of child care programs on women’s work effort. Journal of Political Economy 82: 136–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heckman, J. 1976. A life cycle model of earnings, learning and consumption. Journal of Political Economy 84(Supplement): S11–S44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heckman, J. 1978. A partial survey of recent research on the labor supply of women. American Economic Review 68(Supplement): 200–207.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heckman, J. 1980. Sample selection bias as a specification error. In Female labor supply, ed. J. Smith, 206–248. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heckman, J., and T. MaCurdy. 1986. Labor econometrics. In Handbook of econometrics, vol. 3, ed. Z. Griliches and M. Intriligator. New York: North-Holland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heckman, J., M.R. Killingsworth, and T. MaCurdy. 1981. Empirical evidence on static labour supply models: A survey of recent developments. In The economics of the labour market, ed. Z. Hornstein, J. Grice, and A. Webb. London: HMSO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hicks, J.R. 1946. Value and capital, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hicks, J.R. 1965. The theory of wages, 2nd ed. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, M.A. 1983. Female labor force participation in developing and developed countries: Consideration of the informal sector. Review of Economics and Statistics 65: 459–468.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill, M.A. 1984. Female labor force participation in Japan: An aggregate model. Journal of Human Resources 19: 280–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Himmelweit, S., and S. Mohun. 1977. Domestic labour and capital. Cambridge Journal of Economics 1: 15–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Humphries, J. 1977. Class struggle and the persistence of the working-class family. Cambridge Journal of Economics 1: 241–258.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joshi, H. 1985. Participation in paid work: Multiple regression analysis of the women and employment survey. In Unemployment, job search and labour supply, ed. R. Blundell and I. Walker, 217–246. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joshi, H., and S. Owen 1985. Does elastic retract? The effect of recession on women’s labour force participation. Discussion Paper No. 64, Centre for Economic Policy Research, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joshi, H., and S. Owen. 1984. How long is a piece of elastic? The measurement of female activity rates in British Censuses 1951–1981. Discussion Paper No. 31, Centre for Economic Policy Research, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Killingsworth, M.R. 1983. Labor supply. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Killingsworth, M.R. 1985. A simple structural model of heterogeneous preferences and compensating wage differentials. In Unemployment, job search and labour supply, ed. R. Blundell and I. Walker. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Killingsworth, M.R., and J.J. Heckman. 1986. Female labor supply: A survey. In Handbook of labor economics, ed. O. Ashenfelter and R. Layard, 103–204. New York: North-Holland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kniesner, T. 1976. An indirect test of complementarity in a family labor supply model. Econometrica 44: 651–659.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kooreman, P., and A. Kapteyn. 1984. Estimation of rationed and unrationed household labor supply functions using flexible functional forms, Research Memorandum, vol. 157. Tilburg: Department of Econometrics, Tilburg University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kooreman, P., and A. Kapteyn. 1985. Estimation of a game theoretic model of household labor supply, Research Memorandum, vol. 180. Tilburg: Department of Econometrics, Tilburg University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Layard, R., and J. Mincer (eds.). 1985. Trends in women’s work, education, and family building. Special edition of Journal of Labor Economics 3(1): S1–S396.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leibowitz, A. 1974. Production within the household. American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 62(2): 243–250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leuthold, J. 1968. An empirical study of formula income transfers and the work decision of the poor. Journal of Human Resources 3: 312–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Long, C.D. 1958. The labor force under changing income and employment. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lundberg, S. 1985. The added worker effect. Journal of Labor Economics 3: 11–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manser, M., and M. Brown. 1979. Bargaining analyses of household decisions. In Women in the labor market, ed. C.B. Lloyd, E. Andrews, and C. Gilroy, 3–26. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manser, M., and M. Brown. 1980. Marriage and household decision-making: A bargaining analysis. International Economic Review 21: 31–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, A. 1920. Principles of economics, 8th ed. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, J., and C. Roberts. 1984. Women and employment: A lifetime perspective. London: HMSO.

    Google Scholar 

  • McElroy, M., and M. Horney. 1981. Nash-bargained household decisions: Toward a generalization of the theory of demand. International Economic Review 22: 333–349.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mincer, J. 1962. Labor force participation of married women: A study of labor supply. In Aspects of labor economics, ed. National Bureau of Economic Research, 63–97. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mincer, J. 1963. Market prices, opportunity costs and income effects. In Measurement in economics, ed. C.F. Christ, 67–82. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mincer, J. 1966. Labor force participation and unemployment: A review of recent evidence. In Prosperity and unemployment, ed. R.A. Gordon and M.S. Gordon, 73–112. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mincer, J. 1985. Intercountry comparisons of labor force trends and of related developments: An overview. Journal of Labor Economics 3(Supplement): S1–S32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mincer, J., and H. Ofek. 1982. Interrupted work careers: Depreciation and restoration of human capital. Journal of Human Resources 17: 358–370.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mincer, J., and S. Polachek. 1974. Family investments in human capital: Earnings of women. In Economics of the family: Marriage, children and human capital, ed. T.W. Schultz, 397–429. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mincer, J., and S. Polachek. 1978. Women’s earnings reexamined. Journal of Human Resources 13: 118–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moffitt, R., and K.C. Kehrer. 1981. The effect of tax and transfer programs on labor supply: The evidence from the income maintenance programs. In Research in Labor Economics, vol. 4, ed. R.G. Ehrenberg, 103–150. Greenwich: JAI Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moffitt, R., and K.C. Kehrer. 1983. Correction. In Research in labor economics, vol. 6, ed. R.G. Ehrenberg, 452. Greenwich: JAI Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mroz, T.A. (forthcoming). The sensitivity of an empirical model of married women’s hours of work to economic and statistical assumptions. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Economics, University of Chicago, Chicago. Forthcoming in Econometrica.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nakamura, A., and M. Nakamura. 1981. A comparison of the labor force behavior of married women in the United States and Canada, with special attention to the impact of income taxes. Econometrica 49: 451–490.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nakamura, A., M. Nakamura, and D. Cullen. 1979. Job opportunities, the offered wage, and the labor supply of married women. American Economic Review 69: 787–805.

    Google Scholar 

  • Owen, J. 1986. Working lives: The American work force since 1920. Lexington: D.C. Heath.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pencavel, J. 1986. The labor supply of men. In Handbook of labor economics, ed. O. Ashenfelter and R. Layard. New York: North-Holland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pigou, A.C. 1946. The economics of welfare, 4th ed. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polachek, S. 1979. Occupational segregation among women: Theory, evidence and a prognosis. In Women in the labor market, ed. C.B. Lloyd, E.S. Andrews, and C.L. Gilroy, 137–157. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polachek, S. 1981. Occupational self-selection: A human capital approach to differences in occupational structure. Review of Economics and Statistics 63: 60–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Renaud, P.S.A., and J.J. Siegers. 1984. Income and substitution effects in family labour supply. De Economist 132: 350–366.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robbins, L. 1930. Note on the elasticity of demand for income in terms of effort. Economica 10: 123–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, J.P. 1977. Changes in Americans’ use of time: 1965–1975, a progress report. Cleveland: Communication Research Center, Cleveland State University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, J.P., and P.E. Converse. 1967. 66 basic tables of time budget research data for the United States. Ann Arbor: Survey Research Center, University of Michigan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, C., and N. Tomes. 1985. More on the labour supply of Canadian women. Canadian Journal of Economics 18: 156–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, R.E. (ed.). 1979. The subtle revolution. Washington, DC: Urban Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, S. 1983. Estimating annual hours of labor force activity. Monthly Labor Review 106(2): 13–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, J.B., and M. Stelcner 1985. Labor supply of married women in Canada, 1980. Working Paper No. 1985–7, Department of Economics, Concordia University, Montreal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, J.P., and M. Ward 1984. Women’s wages and work in the twentieth century. Report R–3119–HICHD. Santa Monica: Rand Corporation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, J.P., and M. Ward. 1985. Time-series growth in the female labor force. Journal of Labor Economics 3(Supplement): S59–S90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sorrentino, C. 1983. International comparisons of labor force participation, 1960–81. Monthly Labor Review 106(2): 23–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stelcner, M., and J. Breslaw. 1985. Income taxes and the labor supply of married women in Quebec. Southern Economic Journal 51: 1053–1072.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stelcner, M., and J.B. Smith 1985. Labour supply of married women in Canada: Non-convex budget constraints and the CES utility function. Working Paper No. 1985–9, Department of Economics, Concordia University, Montreal.

    Google Scholar 

  • van der Veen, A., and G.H.M. Evers. 1984. A labour-supply function for females in the Netherlands. De Economist 132: 367–376.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanek, J. 1974. Time spent in housework. Scientific American 231(November): 116–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wales, T., and A.D. Woodland. 1980. Sample selectivity and the estimation of labor supply functions. International Economic Review 21: 437–468.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wales, T., and A.D. Woodland. 1983. Estimation of consumer demand systems with binding nonnegativity constraints. Journal of Econometrics 21: 263–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yamada, T., and T. Yamada 1984. Part-time employment of married women and fertility in urban Japan. Working Paper No. 1474, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yamada, T., and T. Yamada 1985. Part-time work vs. full-time work of married women in Japan. Working Paper No. 1608, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yamada, T., T. Yamada, and F. Chaloupka 1985. A multinomial logistic approach to the labor force behavior of Japanese married women. Working Paper No. 1783, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Copyright information

© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Killingsworth, M.R. (2018). Labour Supply of Women. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1160

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics