An empirical analysis of women’s working time, and an estimation of female labour supply in Italy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1973-2201/3642Abstract
Empirical studies show that misspecification of the married (or cohabiting) women’s labour supply equation may produce inefficient wage-elasticity estimates. In order to reduce the variability of these estimates, we suggest a new approach based on instrumental variables given by the economic value of the domestic unpaid-work of women. Using Italian micro-data on time use (ISTAT Survey on Time Use), and applying both a parametric and a semiparametric procedure, we estimate robust wage-elasticity coefficients of married women’s labour supply. Our results suggest that women’s labour supply is negatively influenced by the indirect cost of their informal activity of childcare and domestic work.References
R. AABERGE, U. COLOMBINO, S. STROM, (1999), Labour supply in Italy: an empirical analysis of joint household decisions, with taxes and quantity constraints, “Journal of Applied Econometrics”, 14, part 4, pp. 403-422.
B. ALVAREZ, D. MILES, (2003), Gender effect on housework allocation: evidence from spanish two-earner couples, “Journal of Population Economics”, 16, part 2, pp. 227-242.
T. AMEMIYA, (1979), The estimation of a simultaneous-equation Tobit model, “International Economic Review”, 20, part 1, pp. 169-181.
BANK OF ITALY, (2004), Survey on Households Income and Wealth (SHIW) in Italy, in the Year 2002.
G.S. BECKER, (1981), Treatise on the Family, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
J.R. BLEVINS, S. KHAN, (2009), Distribution-Free estimation of heteroskedastic binary response models in Stata, Duke University Working Paper.
H.G. BLOEMEN, S. PASQUA, E.G.F. STANCANELLI, (2010), An empirical analysis of the time allocation of Italian couples: are they responsive?, “Review of Economics of the Household”, 8, pp. 345-369.
R.W. BLUNDELL, T. MACURDY, (1999), Labor supply: a review of alternative approaches, in O.
ASHENFELTER, D. CARD (eds.) Handbook of Labor Economics, 3, part 1, Elsevier, pp. 1559-1695.
R.W. BLUNDELL, R.J. SMITH, (1994), Coherency and estimation in simultaneous models with censored or qualitative dependent variables, “Journal of Econometrics”, 64, pp. 355-373.
J. BONKE, (1992), Distribution of economic resources: implications of including household production, “Review of Income and Wealth”, 38, part 3, pp. 281-293.
X. CHEN, (2007), Large sample Sieve estimation of semi-nonparametric models, in J.J. HECKMAN and
E.E. LEAMER (eds.), Handbook of Econometrics, 6, part 2, Elsevier, pp. 5549-5632.
P.A. CHIAPPORI, (1988), Rational household labour supply, “Econometrica”, 56, pp. 63-90.
U. COLOMBINO, D. DEL BOCA, (1990), The effect of taxes on labour supply in Italy, “Journal of Human Resources”, 25, pp. 390-414.
D. DEL BOCA, (2002), The effect of childcare and part time opportunities on participation and fertility decisions in Italy, “Journal of Population Economics, 15, pp. 549-573.
D. DEL BOCA, D. VURI, (2007), The mismatch between employment and childcare in Italy: the impact of rationing, “Journal of Population Economics”, 20, part 4, pp. 805-832.
R. DE MOOIJ, M. EVERS, D. VAN VUUREN, (2008), The wage-elasticity of labour supply: a synthesis of empirical estimates, “De Economist”, 156, pp. 25-43.
G. DE SANTIS, (2004), The monetary cost of children. Theory and empirical estimates for Italy, “GENUS”, 61, pp. 161-183.
G. DE SANTIS, A. DI PINO, (2009), Female labour participation with concurrent demographic processes: An estimation for Italy, in H. ENGELHARDT, H.P. KOHLER and A. FÜRNKRANZ-PRSKAWETZ (eds.), Causal Analysis in Population Studies. Concepts, Methods, Applications, 23, Springer, pp. 149-165. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4020-9967-0_7.
A. DI PINO, (2004), Economic estimation of the time devoted to household chores and childcare in Italy, “GENUS”, 61, pp. 139-159.
R. GRONAU, (1986), Home production – A survey, in O. ASCHENFELTER and R. LAYARD (eds.), Handbook of Labor Economics, 1, Elsevier, pp. 273-304.
J.L. HOROWITZ, (1992), A smoothed maximum score estimator for the binary response model, “Econometrica”, 60, 505-531.
ISTAT - Italian National Institute of Statistics, (2007), The Use of Time – Multi-Purpose Survey on Italian Families in 2002-2003.
S. KHAN, (2005), Distribution free estimation of heteroskedastic binary response models using Probit/Logit criterion functions, University of Rochester Working Paper.
G.M. KALENKOSKY, D.C. RIBAR, L.S. STRATTON, (2009), The influence of wages on parents’ allocation of time to childcare and market work in the United Kingdom, “Journal of Population Economics”, 22, pp. 399-419.
M.R. KILLINGSWORTH, J.J. HECKMAN, (1986), Female labor supply: a survey, in O. ASCHENFELTER and R. LAYARD (eds.), Handbook of Labor Economics, Elsevier, pp. 103-204.
N.A. KLEVMARKEN, (2005), Estimates of a labour supply function using alternative measures of hours of work, “European Economic Review”, 49, part 1, pp. 55-73.
L.F. LEE, (1994), Semiparametric istrumental variable estimation of simultaneous equation sample selection models, “Journal of Econometrics”, 63, pp. 341-388.
L.F. LEE, (1998), Semiparametric estimation of simultaneous-equation microeconometric models with index restrictions. “Japanese Economic Review”, 49, part 4, pp. 343-380.
S. LUNDBERG, R.A. POLLAK, (1993), Separate spheres bargaining and the marriage market, “Journal of Political Economy”, 101, part 6, 988-1010.
C.F. MANSKI, (1985), Semiparametric analysis of discrete response: asymptotic properties of Maximum Score estimation, “Journal of Econometrics”, 27, pp. 313-334.
T. MROZ, (1987), The sensitivity of an empirical model of married women’s hours of work to economic and statistical assumptions, “Econometrica”, 55, part 4, pp. 765-799.
W.K. NEWEY, (1987), Efficient estimation of limited dependent variable models with endogenous explanatory variables, “Journal of Econometrics”, 36, pp. 231-250.
W.K. NEWEY, J.L. POWELL, J.R. WALKER, (1990), Semiparametric estimation of selection models: some empirical results, “American Economic Review”, 80, part 2, pp. 324-328.
J.L. POWELL, (1984), Least absolute deviations estimation for the censored regression model, “Journal of Econometrics”, 25, part 3, pp. 303-325.
J.L. POWELL, (1986), Symmetrically trimmed least squares estimation for Tobit models, “Econometrica”, 54, pp. 1435-1460.
P.R. ROSENBAUM, (2002), Observational Studies, Springer, New York.
P.R. ROSENBAUM, (2005), Sensitivity analysis in observational studies, in B.S. EVERITT and D.C. HOWELL (eds.), Encyclopedia of Statistics in Behavioral Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, pp. 1809-1814.
R.J. SMITH, R.W. BLUNDELL, (1986), An exogeneity test for a simultaneous equation Tobit model with an application to labour Supply, “Econometrica”, 54, pp. 679-685.
K.V. SRIVASTAVA, D. GILES, (1987), Seemingly Unrelated Regression Equations Models, New York, Basel, Marcel Dekker.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2012 Statistica
Copyrights and publishing rights of all the texts on this journal belong to the respective authors without restrictions.
This journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (full legal code).
See also our Open Access Policy.
