Economic and demographic effects on working women in Latin America
Psaharopoulos, G.; Tzannatos, Z.
Journal of Population Economics 6(4): 293-315
1993
ISSN/ISBN: 0933-1433 PMID: 12286863 DOI: 10.1007/bf00599040Document Number: 332831
This analysis of women's work conditions in Latin America includes a description of general trends in female labor force participation in 15 Latin American countries based on census data between 1950 and 1990. Also examined are pay differentials by gender and whether gender alone or individual characteristics of women workers accounted for the sex-wage gap. More extensive treatment is available in the author's other 1992 publications. Trends indicate that marriage and children were important factors determining whether women were in the labor force or not. The probability of being in the labor force was reduced by 50% for married women, and each child reduced the probability by 5%. When marriage and children were controlled for, age had a positive effect on probability of participation. Urban female heads of household had a positive effect on women's labor force participation. The higher a woman's educational qualification, the greater the probability of being in the work force. Earnings increased with increased educational level. An increase of 1 year of schooling for women contributed to an increase in female earnings of 13.1. Investment in education for women has a higher yield for women than for men. Policies that directly or indirectly improve women's employment opportunities, particularly when families are being formed, can have wide distributional effects. Also unresolved was an explanation for why female participation increased during periods of recession and why women are rewarded more for educational effort than men. The suggestion was that public sector employment, which included many women in the labor force, is distorting results.
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