Factors influencing the labor force participation of married women in the United States

Abstract

This paper examines the factors that influence the labor force participation of married women in the United States during 1975-2002, using multiple regressions with log specification. The results show that women earnings and life expectancy of women are not satisfactory indicators of whether married women should join the labor force. Nonetheless, there exist strong relationships between the decisions to work and men’s income, unemployment rate, consumer durable goods to GDP ratio, women’s schooling as well as divorce rate.