• Journal of Families and Better Life
• /
• v.32 no.6
• /
• pp.89-107
• /
• 2014

This study analyzes how governmental financial support of child care affects the participation of married women in the labor market in Korea. This dynamic analysis used data gathered over four years via the fifth to the eighth Korea Welfare Panel Studies (KWPS). The major results are as follows. First, child care allowance has a negative effect on the participation of married women in the labour market. Providing cash for child care seems to decrease women's labour market participation by cementing the role of women as the primary child care providers in the household. Second, the support for families, used by child care facilities, is found to increase the probability of married women working either part-time or full-time, thereby decreasing the burden on household budgets caused by child care costs. In conclusion, governmental policy-based child care benefits, used by child care centers, should be continued so that married women may participate in the labour market while raising their children.

• Human Ecology Research
• /
• v.53 no.1
• /
• pp.49-66
• /
• 2015

This study analyzes the effects of women's labour force participation and work-family reconciliation support on life-cycle fertility in Korea. The analysis is based on the longitudinal data from Korean Labour and Income Panel Study (KLIPS), which include the available information on life-cycle fertility and employment history. Employing a dynamic model of fertility, we estimated the life-cycle fertility of all the 15-49 years old women considered in this study by using a duration model. The major results of this study were as follows: First, women's labour force participation had a negative effect on the first birth, second birth, and all births (transition to births starting at different parities). Women's employment tended to lengthen the interval between births. Second, the availability of maternal leave had a positive effect on the first birth and all births for working women. Providing maternal leave to working women decreased the opportunity cost of childbearing and in turn, reduced the interbirth interval of women. However, the availability of parental leave had no significant effect on the births of working women. Third, the financial support for childcare had a positive effect on the first birth and all births. The economic support for childcare led to the reduction in the interbirth interval of women by increasing the probability of births. The use of a childcare center for the first child, which substitutes for the time that women needed to take care of their children, classified as time-intensive consumption goods, did not have any effect on the second birth. Fourth, the part-time employment of women had a positive effect on the second birth. A flexible working time schedule tended to decrease the interval between the first and the second births.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.9 no.6
• /
• pp.151-158
• /
• 2022

Even after three decades of economic reforms, India's labor market is characterized by stark inter-gender differences in terms of both participation rate and working time. Identification of the causes is necessary to remove the disparity and unequal sharing of economic opportunities to make way for women's empowerment. This research attempts in that direction, examining the prevalence of these inequities in rural areas of North-East Indian states using unit-level data from the 2017-18 Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS). The methodology for the estimation here is based on Blinder- Oaxaca decomposition method after correcting for sample bias forwarded by Heckman. The analysis shows that in both labor force participation and the wage gap, the females in the region lag behind their male counterparts by a huge margin. Further, the analysis shows that one of the main factors leading to the difference is the disparities in human capital assets. On top of female educational enrollment being low, there is also a huge lack of higher educational attainment, while males have accomplished much better in both the parameters. Moreover, the presence of social stigma against women working and discrimination put the female labor outcomes in a gloomy state.

• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.129-156
• /
• 2008

This paper investigated labor force participation pattern changes of married women from 1980 to 2005. Using the micro samples of Population and Housing Census provided by the Korean National Statistical Office, the following results were obtained. The labor force participation rate of married women has substantially increased from 1980 to 2005, with some significant changes in labor supply pattern worthy of note. The most important finding concerns the highly educated women's and younger cohorts' labor supply patterns. Labor force participation rate rapidly increased among college educated married women and wives of college educated men. This is different from the stylized fact associated with married women's labor in Korea, that is, "More educated, less work." This change is more obvious among recent cohorts born from 1971-1975 and from 1976-1980. In contrast to the spouses who trigger less of an influence on married women's labor, the presence of children still proved to be a critical component.

• Korea journal of population studies
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.113-136
• /
• 2010

Low fertility has become quite commonplace worldwide, and Europe has experienced below replacement fertility for several decades. In addition, lowest-low fertility, defined as period total fertility rate below 1.3, has rapidly spread in Europe during the 1990s and is likely to expand further. After the turn of century, lowest-low fertility started spreading in Eastern Asia. Korea's TFR of 1.19 in 2008 is lower than most European countries, although it is higher than the Hongkong(1.02) and Taiwan(1.09). The purpose of this paper is to examine the socioeconomic determinants of lowest-low fertility in Korea. In doing so, this paper discusses the effects of female labour force participation, labour instability on family formation and fertility. The data includes female labour force participation rate, unemployment rate, age at first marriage, and total fertility rate from 1980 to 2008. First, the economic recession hindered young people's economic independence and propensity to marry. Married couples were also depressed with uncertainty toward the future and avoided to have children. Second, the growth in female labor force participation had a negative impact on fertility, under the low level of compatibility between women's work and childrearing. Moreover, this paper argues that the rising cost of children including public and private educational costs is thought to be the main reason of the recent low fertility in Korea. Policy implications and some comments on population policies are also presented in the final section.

• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.63-94
• /
• 2001

Based on the human capital theory, the wage differentials among laborers are generated from the discrepancy of human capital stock which depends on individual laborer's decision. Hence, the wage differentials among laborers or between male and female are not the results of discrimination, but the results of individual choice. But, if the individual choice for human capital stock would be affected by the male-female discrimination, the explanation for male-female wage differentials base on the human capital stock has a bias. Actually, women have experienced in the discrimination on labor market participation due to gravity, parturition, infant rearing. Also, it is a fact that women have been discriminated against men in labor market owing to social, traditional, and cultural discriminations. If woman or her parent will less invest on human capital than man owing to the existence of discrimination in labor market, the 'expected human capital stock' instead of human capital stock will explain male-female wage differentials better. Therefore, in this study, we set up three models; first model includes working hours, industry, occupation, etc which are in general used as explanatory variables for wage decision, second model includes the variables which reflect the traditional human capital stock together with the first model's explanatory variables, third model employes the 'expected human capital stock' instead of traditional human capital stock. From the empirical test, the estimates of discrimination in three models are .93, .60, and, .48 respectively. This result implies that the male-female wage differentials in Korea can be explained by the discrepancy of 'expected human capital stock'. Since the discrepancy in expected human capital stock depend on the disparity in life-cycle labor force participation, male-female wage differentials can largely be attributed to male-female disparity in expected lifetime labor force participation.

• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.39 no.3
• /
• pp.99-124
• /
• 2016

This study analyzed the effects of labor unions on the wages of Korean female workers using 'Korean Labor and Income Panel Study.' In the estimation we considered the self-selection bias due to the women's labor force participation decision and a plausible non-response bias from not answering the question about the company size in terms of number of employees. By fixed effect estimation we found that labor unions in Korea do not increase the wages of both the female union workers and non-union workers who work at a company in which a union is organized comparing to female workers who work at company without a union. This results indicates that female workers who work in the company with labor union tend to have unobserved characteristics that are positively correlated with both wages and the probability to enter the company with labor union. We also came to the conclusion that there is no free-rider effects of non-union workers.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
• /
• no.36
• /
• pp.55-80
• /
• 2008

Research on the welfare state or income inequality has been concerned with variations in inequality between societies or families. These studies tend to view the family as a unit of shared interests where incomes are pooled and distributed equally. This study makes a theoretical and empirical case for why it is important to look at economic dependency within the family in comparative welfare state research. Using the Luxembourg Income Study data this study examined married women's dependency on their husbands' earnings in 16 western industrialized countries. The constructed measure for married women's level of economic dependency followed the procedure of Sørensen & McLanahan(1987), which stated : "her dependency is measured by the extent to which a woman's standard of living(as determined by her share of income) is derived from a transfer from her husband." The finding suggested that married women's economic dependence was lowest in Scandinavian countries. On the contrary, in Southern Europe countries most married women were dependent on husbands' earnings. In Netherlands, Austria, Germany where the share of part-time work among married women was high, married women's economic dependence was also high. This showed the women's labor force participation did not mean that the majority of couples were equal with respect to earnings, nor that a major shift in the sexual division of labour has taken place. This paper analysed the causal relationship between the married women's economic independence and the welfare state by using Ragin(2000)'s Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. This analysis considered the various conditions of the welfare state : namely, left power, union mobilization density, women's mobilization, public service sector employment and generous support on the family. The result showed that powerful union, high level of women's mobilization and the generous support on the family were necessary conditions for 'relatively high' level of married women's economic independence.