Women in the Economy
Please answer the following questions in your text The Economics of Women, Men, and Work (2010).
(Labor Force Participation Rates)
1. Suppose that you have the following information for Country X:
- Population 100,000
- Employed 60,000
- Unemployed 3,000
- Not in labor force 37,000
a. Size of labor force
b. Examples of people "not in LF"
c. What economic factors might shift a woman from "not in the labor force" to in the labor force?
d. Suppose an economic downturn occurred. How would you expect this change to affect the number employed, unemployed, and "not in the labor force"?
3. Use economic theory to explain why the LFPR for married women and never-married women might differ.
4. Suppose the government were to provide a $2-per-hour subsidy for families with an employed mother who purchases childcare.
a. Consider a mother with a preschool-age child who is currently not employed. How would this affect her decision to work for pay, all else equal?
b. Consider a mother with a preschool-age child who is currently employed. How would this affect the number of hours she chooses to work for pay (assuming she can vary them), all else equal?
5. Now suppose that the government provides a subsidy of $300 per month for all families with children. Answer parts a and b of question 4.
6. Do you expect that sometime in the future LFPR's for men and women will be equal?
Chapter 5. Questions #1, 2, 3, and 4. (Occupations and Earnings)
1. Why have women been increasingly eager to move into men's occupations? Why do you think men generally show less enthusiasm about moving into women's occupations?
2. Consider the following hypothetical information about the occupational distribution in Country Y. Assume that 100 employed men and 100 employed women work in either Occupation A or Occupation B. (See text for Table).
a. Calculate the index of occupational segregation by sex.
b. Explain what this number means.
3.Calculate the segregation index for 2007 for the 10 major occupational categories shown in Table 5-1.
Why is the figure you obtain lower than the values that are obtained when a large set of detailed occupations are considered in Table 5-5?
4. Explain why the female-male earnings ratio is likely to be higher for full-time, year-round workers than for all workers.
Academic requirements:
• Your work must be submitted as pages 4 of pages
• Student declaration must be completed.