A Comparative Study of Labor Force Participation of Married Native and Immigrant Women

In recent years, studies on immigrants in the labor force have relied heavily on econometric techniques. As a result, our knowledge has increased enormously concerning the wages of immigrant men and women and the transfer payments received by immigrants. Our study adds to this body of knowledge by examining the labor force participation rate of immigrant married women using native women as a reference group. To assess the economic impact of immigrants, it is helpful to know how the characteristics of immigrants and natives differ and whether responses to changes in these variables are significantly different for the two groups. We are particularly interested in determining the impact of the husband's time in the U.S., the wife's time in the U.S., the inability to speak and understand English, and the levels of education and experience on the wife's probability of participation. We examine both the indirect effect (acting through the wage which in turn affects participation rates) as well as the direct effect (influencing the participation rate controlling for the wife's wage) of each of these variables. We employ probit analysis using data from the 1976 Survey of Income and Education.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Economics

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Stregevsky, Barry Michael

• Economics, Labor

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8521887

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/70760