Unobserved Variables and the Elusive Added Worker Effect

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9727992
AutoresTim Maloney (0000-0002-1167-4743, autor de correspondencia)
Año1991
Volumen58
Número230
Páginas173
Fecha de publicación1991-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEconomica (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0013-0427 • E-ISSN: 1468-0335
EditorialJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2554650
OpenAlexW2089110669
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas20
Referencias citadas11

Consistent with recent empirical work, this study finds no evidence of the "added worker effect" among married couples in the U.S. It is hypothesized that unobserved variables may be obscuring this added worker behavior. This hypothesis is rejected. The labor supply behavior of married women is influenced by the permanent, and not the transitory, nature of their spouses' unemployment. Wives with frequently unemployed husbands have lower reservation wages. Yet, apart from their measured human capital, these same women face persistently lower wage rates and higher unemployment propensities in the labor market. As a result, married women with unemployed spouses are no more likely to be in the labor force, and are actually less likely to be employed than observationally equivalent married women with employed spouses. Copyright 1991 by The London School of Economics and Political Science

Demographic economics · Economics · Human capital · Labour economics · Reservation · Reservation wage · Unemployment · Wage · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality · Taxation and Compliance Studies