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.