Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36134 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4397
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This study investigates the extent and speed of dynamic adjustment of labour supply to changes in labour demand, government policies and autonomous trends. We estimate error-correction models (ECMs) for male and female participation rates in the Netherlands between 1969 and 2004. The results show significant short and long-run effects of labour demand as well as a negative autonomous trend for male participation. In contrast, we find no significant long-run labour-demand effects and a very strong positive autonomous trend for female participation. Including female and male participation as additional explanatory variables in the male and female ECMs, respectively, reveals significant substitution effects between female and male participation. For male participation the substitution effects from female participation account for the negative trend in the basic ECM, while for female participation the substitution effects from male participation counterbalance labour demand effects that are now significant. In addition, we find very significant breakpoints in male and female participation at 1994, which indicate the effects of exogenous participation-promoting policies by the Dutch governments after 1994. The adjustments of the participation rates to changes in labour demand, government policies and autonomous trends are moderately fast.
Subjects: 
Labour force participation
discouraged worker effect
business cycle effects
persistence
substitution effect
error-correction model
JEL: 
J21
J20
E32
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
210.85 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.