Changes in Female Labour Supply in the Netherlands 1989–1998: The Case of Married and Cohabiting Women

It is well-known that married and cohabitingwomen differ in labour supply. But we know verylittle about the causes of this difference. Isit due to differences in characteristics, likeage, presence and ages of children, own netwage rate, and net income of the partner? Or isit a difference in behaviour that – even aftercontrolling for variation in characteristics –is the basic cause? In this article we try toanswer these questions for Dutch married andcohabiting women. We use data of nationalsurveys by Statistics Netherlands for 1989 and1998. This also allows us to investigatewhether there have been important changes inthe last decade. Because we are able to comparethe results with those of an analogous analysisthat two of the authors did on similar Dutchdata for 1981 we are able to draw conclusionsabout changes that took place over the lasttwenty years. The results show that the massivegrowth in female labour force participation isespecially due to the growth in participationby married women. A slight decrease in labourmarket participation of cohabiting women can beobserved in the last decade. This seems to bethe result of cohabitation becoming morenormal, including cohabitation when there areyoung children in the household.     

The labour supply of married and cohabiting women in the Netherlands, 1981–1989

The analysis of labour supply involves two issues: whether individuals participate in the labour market and, if they do, for how many hours. In this article we investigate the differences in labour supply of married women and cohabiting women in the Netherlands; we try to answer the question how these differences can be explained. From this study, it can be concluded that differences between both categories of women in participation and in weekly hours worked can predominantly be explained by differences in characteristics (e.g. age, net wage rate, and age of children), than by differences in behaviour. The empirical results indicate that cohabiting women are more economically independent than married women. However for married women we found evidence that there was increased economic independence during the eighties; i.e. their weekly hours work has become less affected by the income of their partners.     

Cohort size and female labour supply

Easterlin's relative income hypothesis projects for smaller cohorts: (a) increasing wages, (b) increasing fertility and (c) decreasing female labour supply. This paper reviews the literature on the substitutability of female for male labour, on relative income changes as a result of changes in cohort size and on husband's income as a determinant of female labour supply. It is concluded that own wage is a more important determinant of female labour supply than husband's income, and that policies that increase females net wages are therefore a stimulus to female labour supply. The example of Sweden shows that pronatalist policies can be combined with policies that stimulate female labour supply.     

Female labour force participation,fertility and public policy in Sweden

This paper analyzes the role of public policy for Sweden's combination of high female labour force participation and high levels of fertility in the late 1980s and early 1990s. We present the central elements in the tax and family policies and use a disaggregated approach to assess their impact on Swedish fertility and female labour force participation. We show that these policies stimulate both fertility and women's paid work by reducing the costs of having children while requiring parents to be employed to collect full benefits.     

Low Fertility and the Housing Market: Evidence from Swedish Regional Data

The long-term effect of low birth rates is a decline in the population share of children and young adults. How will such changes in age structure affect the housing market? In this article, panel data sets for Swedish municipalities from 1981 to 2006 are used to answer this question. The use of panel data makes it possible to control for the effect of national-level policy shifts and macroeconomic events through the introduction of fixed time effects. The results show that population aging could lead to less rapid house price growth in the first decades of the twenty first century, compared to the last decades of the twentieth century. These results also hold when local population growth, income growth, and educational levels are controlled for.     

Active Population Growth and Immigration Hypotheses in Western Europe

The paper examines, in respect of twelve Western European countries over a period of twenty years, the widely held view that any decline in their working population should be offset by greater reliance on immigrant labour.This research, based on demographic projections and forecasts regarding labour market participation rates by age and sex for each of the countries concerned, focuses on the two most likely scenarios. It appears that only Italy will be faced with a fall in its working population. All other western countries will either maintain the same level or, more generally, see their workforce grow substantially. Accordingly, we may safely assert that there is no risk of a shortage of workers between now and the year 2020, and that an increasing supply of labour will render reliance on a greater influx of immigrant workers unnecessary.The second part analyses changes in the structure of the demand for labour. We deal chiefly with the phenomenon of the concentration of foreign manpower in each sector, its flexibility and mobility in a context of unemployment, as well as the impact of new technologies and globalisation on the main determinants of international migration of labour.     

珠三角农业产业转型升级要素报酬变动趋势分析

通过佛山五区1992—2009年农业生产函数的估计,分析近20年来农业生产要素投入的变动规律和各要素的贡献占比,研究认为:农业要素报酬变动排序为:物质投入、科技进步、土地、劳动力;随时间变化科技进步贡献率的区域变化加大,要素投放的数量和质量变化都呈现"马太效应"。提出经济发达地区以巩固资本积累为前提大力提高农业科技投入,经济欠发达地区着力于发展报酬最高的物质要素投入实现经济增长的转型期对策。     

Heterogeneity in social change: Turkish and Moroccan women in Belgium

The data presented here pertain to 850 Turkish and 860 Moroccan women aged 17–49 currently living in Belgium, and interviewed in 1991–93 by native female interviewers. The two surveys cover short migration histories, family formation variables pertaining to nuptiality, endogamy, fertility, contraception, utility of children, gender relation attitudes, residential characteristics, education and female labour force participation, linguistic abilities and opinions concerning religion and politics. A marked heterogeneity is noticed with respect to these variables, with obvious contrasts between first and second generation, but equally striking contrasts between the second generation and the recently “imported brides” who belong to the same age group as the second generation. Furthermore, heteropraxis shows up in the sense that the tempo of the changes are markedly different depending on social domain.     

The Impact of Labour-Force Participation on Childbearing Behaviour: Pro-Cyclical Fertility in Sweden during the 1980s and the 1990s

During the last two decades, Sweden has experienced strong fluctuations both in its economy and in its level of childbearing. A period of high employment and increasing fertility has been followed by a period of lower employment and decreasing fertility since the beginning of the 1990s. In this paper, we use register data for Swedish women in order to examine how various types of attachment to the labour market affect women's propensity to give birth at different parities. Specifically, we show what impact changes in women's employment status have had on recorded fertility trends in Sweden. We find that women who have relatively low levels of income and women who are enrolled as students generally have lower fertility than other women. We also find that a rise in the number of women with such characteristics can explain part of the decrease in fertility during the 1990s. It is evident, however, that other factors, working at the macro level, also have to be considered when one wants to explain the fluctuating fertility of Sweden. Social policy is one such factor. In sum, we find a pattern of pro-cyclical fertility, where levels of female earnings are positively related to levels of childbearing.     

解决农村贫困问题需要有新的战略思路——评世界银行新的“惠及贫困人口的农村发展战略

过去50年来，世界银行和其他国际发展机构提出的农村发展战略以提高农业生产率为主要目标，侧重在改善农业生产的基础设施、农业新科技的研究、推广和农产品的市场流通等。此举对增加农产品供给、提高卡路里摄取量、改善营养做出了很大的贡献，但因农产品的收入弹性和价格弹性低，农产品增产，农民不见得增收，农村贫困问题在许多遵循这一发展战略的发展中国家尚未得到解决。本文提出，农村贫困问题的解决必须以减少农村劳动力为主要战略目标。只有这样，留在农村的劳动力才有可能增产增收。而要大量转移农村劳动力则又必须使整个国民经济在发展早期按照比较优势，多发展劳动力密集型产业，增加城市的就业吸纳能力，农村转移出来的劳动力才不会变为城市的无业贫民。只有以农村劳动力转移为发展的主要目标，传统的以提高农业生产率为着眼点的农村发展战略才能真正解决农村贫困问题。     

Son preference and educational opportunities of children in China— “I wish you were a boy!”

Gender bias in family formation, such as sex selected-abortion, imbalance of the sex ratio, child abandonment, and sibling size/order in relation to fertility is well documented in China. Much less is known about continued gender bias after birth in relation to children's status inside the family. In particular, there is a relative scarcity of research on the impact of the parental son preference in determining differential educational opportunities of male and female children. Continued and fast economic growth in China is not accompanied by the dramatic change in traditional value, and many peasants still hold son preference value. Using 1990 China census data and drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Beijing and its suburbs, I examine children's educational opportunities, and investigate the relationship between parents who hold the son preference value and their unequal treatment when rearing children. The results demonstrated that the continued son preference value, based on traditional views as well as on perceived financial returns to families, leads to a lower level of educational attainment among daughters in rural areas of China. The lower educational attainment and higher labor force participation rates of rural female adolescents reflect unequal opportunities provided by their parents in addition to social inequality in China. Children who live in urban areas with educated parents received better educational opportunities and experience less gender bias. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1993. Her research interests include social demography, social deviance, social psychology, race and ethnicity, and quantitative sociology. Her recent publications include illegal drug rehabilitation and detoxification, international migration, sociology of emotions, and gender inequality.     

Pathways to a Third Child in Sweden

The transition from two to three children is investigated, using data on Swedish women's fertility behaviour and labour force participation over a period of some 20 years ending in 1992/93. Two questions are examined: what is the relationship between working life and childbearing of two-child mothers? Are there differences in fertility between cohabiting and married couples? Several paths to the third child are identified, one of women with a university education and another of women with preference for more children, reflected by marriage after having the first or the second child or by persistent working experience followed by household work.     

The Budgetary Dilemmas of an Ageing Workforce: A Scenario Study of the Public Sector in the Netherlands

This paper studies the consequences (particularly the budgetary effects) of alternative senior-worker policies in the Dutch public sector. Special attention is paid to: the ongoing process of population ageing; the interaction between the participation in senior-worker schemes and the use of disability and unemployment schemes; and the effect of labour participation of older workers on employment opportunities for younger workers. From the scenario analysis, it appears that policies aimed at influencing the participation in senior-worker schemes will not result in substantial savings. The main conclusion of the study is that ageing of the labour force will lead to substantial cost increases anyway, whatever the early-retirement policy.     

对我国高等教育发展中出现的几个问题的探讨

近些年来,我国高等教育经历了跨越式的发展过程,但由于高等院校在发展阶段过多地关心扩张,而对内涵的提高与扩张相应的各方面的建设和改革相对落后,致使高等教育出现了教育质量下滑和大学生就业形势的不理想等令人担心的情况,并由此引发了社会上和教育界人士对当前高等教育领域中问题的关注。文章就此问题,对人才培养应对市场需求、供需矛盾、专业结构调整与课程建设、教学的改革与提高人才素质等方面阐述自己的观点。     

政府主导下的农民工公共文化服务供给困局及其路径重构——“社会化供给与多元主体参与”模式的一种设想

政府主导下的农民工公共文化服务供给模式,存在着供给不足、供给不均与供给无效等问题,未能有效满足农民工群体日益增长的复杂化、差异化文化需求。基于多元治理和参与原则,创造条件让社会力量广泛参与,构建农民工公共文化服务的多元主体参与和社会化供给模式：一是重塑政府主体性地位,转变政府职能,强化政策引领和统筹监管;二是政府与市场形成“掌舵”与“划桨”的平等合作关系,实现文化企业生产与政府购买的社会化供给;三是有效弥补“政府失灵”和“市场失灵”,鼓励“官民合作”与志愿性服务,推动社会组织与公益力量积极参与;四是激发农民工的“文化自信”,提升农民工自身文化自觉意识和文化参与能力,挖掘农民工自身文化创造潜能。     

The Impact of Family Policies on Fertility Trends in Developed Countries

We examine how strongly fertility trends respond to family policies in OECD countries. In the light of the recent fertility rebound observed in several OECD countries, we empirically test the impact of different family policy instruments on fertility, using macro panel data from 18 OECD countries that spans the years 1982–2007. Our results confirm that each instrument of the family policy package (paid leave, childcare services and financial transfers) has a positive influence on average, suggesting that the combination of these forms of support for working parents during their children’s early years is likely to facilitate parents’ choice to have children. Policy levers do not all have the same weight, however: in-cash benefits covering childhood after the year of childbirth and the provision of childcare services for children under age three have a larger potential influence on fertility than leave entitlements and benefits granted around childbirth. Moreover, we find that the influence of each policy measure varies across different family policy contexts. Our findings are robust after controlling for birth postponement, endogeneity, time-lagged fertility reactions and for different aspects of national contexts, such as female labour market participation, unemployment, labour market protection and the proportion of children born out of marriage.     

Induced Abortion in Russia: Recent Trends and Underreporting in Surveys

The abortion level in Russia has been exceptionally high for several decades, yet during the last ten years it experienced a considerable decline. There is a concern that this favourable change could be largely due to a deterioration of statistical registration in the 1990s. In this paper, we use three reproductive and health surveys for a crosscheck with provider statistics, and analyse patterns and determinants of abortions. Each survey includes questions about the history of abortions. Our data indicate that survey estimates of the crude, total, and age-specific abortion rates emerge to be very close to respective figures from provider statistics for about two years preceding each survey. Survey estimates progressively deviate downwards from provider statistics when moving further back in time due to growing under reporting. This finding suggests that provider statistics on abortion in Russia are a true reflection of the situation they monitor, that the observed declining trend in abortion is a real one, and that analyses of survey data on abortions are justified for up to two years preceding the survey. Logistic regression using the data from the survey carried out in 2000 for the period of 1998-2000 reveals that the odds for an induced abortion are lower in case of a higher educational degree, that the odds increase with the number of children and decrease with the use of more reliable contraceptive methods, and that married women are more likely to have an abortion than never-married ones but less likely when compared to cohabiting women.     

社会保险对农村留守老年人的子女养老替代效应研究——基于CHARLS的微观数据

基于中国健康与养老追踪调查(CHARLS)2011年与2015年两期平衡面板数据,运用倍差法(DID)分析了以新农保、新农合为主的农村社会保险对农村留守老年人的子女经济供养、医疗供给的替代性效果,实证研究发现:新农保、新农合对其子女提供的经济供养、医疗供给具有替代性,但替代程度均较低;新农合能够在一定程度上提高其医疗参与率,降低其医疗担忧;同时,基于异质性讨论进一步发现,个人(家庭)保障能力越低,新农保、新农合对其子女养老的替代效应越明显。因此,要加大新农保、新农合等社会保险政策为农村留守老年人带来的经济与医疗福利效应,在有效提高政策补贴标准与范围的基础上,着重关注农村留守老年人群体的养老与医疗困境,并实施具有针对性的倾斜政策。     

论我国现代教育技术的发展

我国现代教育技术的主要力量在高等院校 ,其主要任务是 :为国家培养各级教育技术专门人才 ;对教育技术学科理论进行研究和建设 ;开发及运用各类教育技术 ;对高新教育技术进行产业化的尝试。通过我国教育技术专业人员的努力 ,教育技术终将达到“优化学习效果 ,提高教学效率 ,减轻脑力劳动 ,实现素质教育和个性教育”的目的。