Cohort Effects, Spousal Incomes and Female Labour Force Participation in Japan: A Panel Data Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, I estimate labour supply functions for married women in Japan. In particular, I attempt to capture the differences between three cohorts of women regarding their choice of employment status: full-time employment or part-time employment. I also consider whether there are any cohort-related differences in the choice of working or non-working status. For this purpose, Waves 1-15 (1993-2007) of the Japanese Panel Survey on Consumers (JPSC) are used. The estimation reveals that younger cohorts have higher log odds ratios of full-time employment to not working and of part-time employment to not working. The estimation also reveals that younger cohorts exhibit significantly higher log odds ratios of working to not working compared with older cohorts. For both estimations, the negative effect of having children aged three to five years on both full-time and part-time employment is weaker among the younger cohorts. On the other hand, the negative effect of having children less than two years of age on full-time and part-time employment is common to both older and younger cohorts.