An economic analysis of fertility and female labour force participation in New Zealand

This paper focusses on the regional variation in female labour force participation rates and fertility in New Zealand. The paper progresses beyond earlier work by pooling regional cross-sections of three censuses, by addressing causality in the linkage between fertility and labour force participation explicitly and by testing for structural change in the behavioural equations. The empirical results provide suppon for the neoclassical demand system approach to fertility and labour force participation, in which both are influenced, but in opposite ways, by income and prices (primarily the real wage) and a range of socio-economic controls, which account for regional composition and demand-side effects. It is also found that female labour force participation and fertility became less elastic with respect to male income and the female hourly wage over the 1976-86 decade. This phenomenon is attributed to sharply rising female labour force participation, a decline in the 1FR, a greater time input of males in non-market work and changes in the home production technology

The Macroeconomics of Fertility in Small Open Economies: A Test of the Becker-Barro Model for the Netherlands and New Zealand

Becker and Barro (1988) formulated a theoretical model which identified a range of macroeconomic variables which can temporarily or permanently affect fertility in small open economies. While they suggested that their model provided a plausible explanation for the large shifts in fertility in western economies during this century, no formal econometric investigation was carried out. This paper tests the Becker-Barro model with relevant data which covers most of the 20th century for two small open economies, namely The Netherlands and New Zealand. The results show that government subsidies for having children have a strongly positive effect on fertility, while the provision of public pensions has a strongly negative effect. The degree of intergenerational altruism appears to have been declining. Moreover, there is some - albeit weak-support for the hypothesis that real interest rates positively influence fertility. The empirical analysis of the Dutch data is generally more conclusive than the analysis of the New Zealand data

Societal Change and the Economics of Fertility and Female Labour Force Participation

This paper reports the results of a New Zealand study of one aspect of household economics: the relationship between fertility behaviour and labour supply. Empirical research has shown that the presence of young children affects labour supply of the mother. New Zealand examples are Hyman (1979) and Harris and Raney (1991). However, Hockey and Khawaja (1984) found that a woman's labour force participation negatively affects fertility. In this paper we argue that fertility and labour force participation decisions are determined jointly rather than that there is a one-way causal relationship. We test this hypothesis by means of a simple regression model of fertility and female labour force participation using grouped data from 22 Local Government Regions (LGRs), pooled for the years 1976, 1981 and 1986. The next section discusses some of the theoretical issues. This is followed by a description of the data and a discussion of regression equations. After summing up the results, the last section provides some suggestions for further research

Societal Change and the Economics of Fertility and Female Labour Force Participation

This paper reports the results of a New Zealand study of one aspect of household economics: the relationship between fertility behaviour and labour supply. Empirical research has shown that the presence of young children affects labour supply of the mother. New Zealand examples are Hyman (1979) and Harris and Raney (1991). However, Hockey and Khawaja (1984) found that a woman's labour force participation negatively affects fertility. In this paper we argue that fertility and labour force participation decisions are determined jointly rather than that there is a one-way causal relationship. We test this hypothesis by means of a simple regression model of fertility and female labour force participation using grouped data from 22 Local Government Regions (LGRs), pooled for the years 1976, 1981 and 1986. The next section discusses some of the theoretical issues. This is followed by a description of the data and a discussion of regression equations. After summing up the results, the last section provides some suggestions for further research

SHADOW OF THE FUTURE, RISK AVERSION, AND EMPLOYEE COOPERATION

In this paper, we examine whether and how the shadow of the future and risk aversion affect employee cooperation with the employer. We distinguish, formalize and test two conflicting arguments as used in the literature, which we denote the reward argument and the relation argument. Whereas the reward argument predicts that risk aversion affects cooperation in a negative way, the relation argument predicts a positive effect of risk aversion on cooperation. We show that both arguments are consistent with the view that a longer shadow of the future increases cooperation. Hypotheses are tested against survey data obtained from two samples of Dutch employees (N = 109 and N = 213, respectively). The results suggest moderate support for the relation argument

The macroeconomics of fertility in small open economies:A test of the Becker-Barro model for the Netherlands and New Zealand

Becker and Barro (1988) formulated a theoretical model which identified a range of macroeconomic variables which can temporarily or permanently affect fertility in small open economies. This article tests the Becker-Barro model with relevant data which covers most of the 20th century for two small open economies, namely The Netherlands and New Zealand. The results show that government subsidies for having children have a strong positive effect on fertility, while the provision of public pensions has a strong negative effect. The degree of intergenerational altruism appears to have been declining. Moreover, there is only weak support for the hypothesis that real interest rates positively influence fertility

The macroeconomics of fertility in small open economies: A test of the Becker-Barro model for The Netherlands and New Zealand

Becker and Barro (1988) formulated a theoretical model which identified a range of macroeconomic variables which can temporarily or permanently affect fertility in small open economies. This article tests the Becker-Barro model with relevant data which covers most of the 20th century for two small open economies, namely The Netherlands and New Zealand. The results show that government subsidies for having children have a strong positive effect on fertility, while the provision of public pensions has a strong negative effect. The degree of intergenerational altruism appears to have been declining. Moreover, there is only weak support for the hypothesis that real interest rates positively influence fertility.Dynastic utility · altruism · fertility · social security · real interest rates