The Economics of Women, Men, and Work

by Blau, Francine D.; Ferber, Marianne A.

• ISBN13: 9780132337274
• ISBN10: 0132337274
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1992-06-01
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction	p. 1
What Economics Is About	p. 3
Uses of Economic Theory	p. 4
The Scope of Economics	p. 5
Individuals, Families, and Households	p. 6
A Note on Terminology	p. 7
Outline of the Book	p. 8
Appendix: A Review of Supply and Demand in the Labor Market	p. 9
Women and Men: Changing Roles in a Changing Economy	p. 13
The Nature of Males and Females	p. 14
Factors Influencing Women's Relative Status	p. 18
Women's Roles and Economic Development	p. 19
The U.S. Experience	p. 22
The Preindustrial Period	p. 22
Industrialization	p. 23
Industrialization and the Evolution of the Family	p. 24
Women in the Labor Market	p. 29
Conclusions	p. 31
Suggested Readings	p. 33
The Family as an Economic Unit: The Division of Labor Between Husband and Wife	p. 34
The Simple Neoclassical Model: Specialization and Exchange	p. 36
Comparative Advantage	p. 37
Specialization and Exchange: Numerical Examples	p. 38
Gains to Specialization and Exchange	p. 41
Other Advantages of Joint Production and Consumption	p. 41
The Disadvantages of Specialization	p. 43
Sharing of Housework	p. 43
Tastes and Bargaining Power	p. 44
Life Cycle Changes	p. 46
Costs of Interdependence	p. 47
Disadvantages of Specialization: A Summary	p. 48
Transaction Cost and Bargaining Approaches	p. 49
Nonmarket Work	p. 50
Work at Home	p. 50
Volunteer Work	p. 56
Policy Issue: Specialization and Taxes	p. 59
Income Taxation Policy	p. 60
Social Security System	p. 61
Conclusion	p. 62
Appendix: Specialization and Exchange	p. 64
Suggested Readings	p. 71
The Allocation of Time Between the Household and the Labor Market	p. 72
The Labor Force: Some Definitions	p. 73
Trends in Labor Force Participation	p. 74
Trends in Labor Force Attachment	p. 78
The Labor Force Participation Decision	p. 80
The Budget Constraint	p. 82
Indifference Curves	p. 84
The Participation Decision	p. 87
The Value of Nonmarket Time (w*)	p. 89
Policy Issue: Government Subsidy of Child Care	p. 92
The Value of Market Time (w)	p. 93
Policy Issue: Taxes and the Decision to Work	p. 95
Economic Conditions	p. 95
The Hours Decision	p. 96
Analyzing Trends in Women's Participation: An Overview	p. 99
Factors Influencing the Value of Market Time (w)	p. 101
Factors Influencing the Value of Nonmarket Time (w*)	p. 103
The World War II Experience	p. 105
The Post-World War II Baby Boom	p. 107
The 1960s to the 1990s: A Period of Change	p. 108
Analyzing Trends in Men's Participation	p. 109
Black and White Participation Differentials: An Analysis	p. 110
Conclusion	p. 113
Appendix-The Income and Substitution Effects: A Closer Look	p. 116
Suggested Readings	p. 118
Differences in Occupations and Earnings: Overview	p. 119
Occupational Differences	p. 120
Occupational Segregation	p. 122
Hierarchies Within Occupations	p. 125
Evaluating the Extent of Occupational Segregation	p. 126
Trends in Occupational Segregation	p. 127
Earnings	p. 132
Conclusion	p. 137
Differences in Occupations and Earnings: The Human Capital Model	p. 139
Human Capital	p. 141
Gender Differences in Educational Attainment	p. 142
The Educational Investment Decision	p. 146
Education and Productivity	p. 148
Gender Differences in Educational Investment Decisions	p. 149
Expected Work Life	p. 150
Societal Discrimination	p. 154
On-The-Job Training	p. 161
Gender Differences in Labor Market Experience	p. 162
The On-The-Job Training Investment Decision	p. 164
General Training	p. 164
Firm-Specific Training	p. 165
Experience and Productivity	p. 167
Gender Differences in Training Investment Decisions	p. 168
Expected Work Life	p. 168
Discrimination	p. 170
Occupations and Earnings	p. 171
Other Supply-Side Factors	p. 173
The Human Capital Explanation: An Assessment	p. 174
Policy Issues: Increasing Women's Human Capital and Labor Force Attachment	p. 178
Government Training Programs	p. 178
The Role of Employers	p. 179
Conclusion	p. 187
Suggested Readings	p. 187
Differences in Occupations and Earnings: The Role of Labor Market Discrimination	p. 188
Labor Market Discrimination: A Definition	p. 189
Empirical Evidence	p. 191
Earnings Differences	p. 191
Occupational Differences	p. 195
Models of Labor Market Discrimination	p. 199
Tastes for Discrimination	p. 200
Statistical Discrimination	p. 208
The Overcrowding Model	p. 212
Institutional Models	p. 215
Feedback Effects	p. 217
Policy Issue: The Government and Equal Employment Opportunity	p. 219
Equal Employment Opportunity Laws and Regulations	p. 220
Effectiveness of the Government's Antidiscrimination Effort	p. 224
Affirmative Action	p. 225
Comparable Worth	p. 227
Policy Issue: Women and Unions	p. 231
Representation of Women in Labor Organizations	p. 231
Benefits of Union Membership	p. 231
Reasons for the Underrepresentation of Women in Unions	p. 233
Prospects for the Future	p. 234
Conclusion	p. 235
Suggested Readings	p. 236
Differences in Joblessness: Discouragement, Frictional and
Structural Unemployment	p. 238
Definition of Unemployment	p. 239
Cost of Unemployment to the Economy	p. 240
The Burden of Unemployment for Individuals	p. 240
Full Employment	p. 246
Incidence of Unemployment	p. 247
Gender and Unemployment	p. 249
Women and the Full Employment Target	p. 252
Gender Differences in the Burden of Unemployment	p. 253
Conclusion	p. 256
Suggested Readings	p. 257
Changing Work Roles and the Family	p. 258
Marriage	p. 259
Fertility	p. 261
Divorce	p. 264
Wife's Contributions to Earnings	p. 267
Satisfaction Within the Family	p. 268
Wife	p. 269
Husband	p. 273
Children	p. 276
Policy Issue: Parental Leave and Child Care Subsidies	p. 278
Female-Headed Families	p. 285
Policy Issue: Raising the Incomes of Female-Headed Families	p. 289
Conclusion	p. 292
Suggested Readings	p. 292
Gender Differences in Other Countries: What Can We Learn from International Comparisons?	p. 294
Indicators of Women's Economic Status	p. 295
Labor Force Participation	p. 295
Occupational Segregation	p. 306
The Male-Female Earnings Gap	p. 313
Government and Employer Programs for Working Families in Advanced Industrialized Countries	p. 317
Household Work	p. 318
Patterns and Interpretations	p. 320
Women in Developing Countries	p. 321
Women in the Former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: Marxist Ideology and Soviet Practice	p. 324
Sweden: Ideology Vs. Tradition	p. 327
Conclusion	p. 329
Suggested Readings	p. 330
Epilogue	p. 331
Author Index	p. 335
Subject Index	p. 341
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