This thesis analysed the effect of female labor force participation rate (FLFPR) on economicgrowth and included changes in male labor force participation rate (MLFPR) to help improve thepower of the model. Here, three robust regressions were used on the sample of 16 Latin Countries(Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala,Honduras, Venezuela, RB, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, El Salvador) for theperiod of 1995-2015 in order to identify the effect of each key variable when tested separately andwhen tested together. According to the results, the coefficients of FLFPR and MLFPR are differentand also the addition of MLFPR to the model that has an explanatory variable FLFPR anddependent variable economic growth clearly improves the predicting power of the model and helpsobtain better coefficients. It was also identified that FLFPR has a strong positive relationship witheconomic growth, while MLFPR has a negative effect on the latter. Finally, the existence of u-shape relationship between FLFPR and economic growth was reaffirmed in this thesis, while itwas also shown that MLFPR does not have a u-shape relationship with the economic growth.

Thesis advisor: Christopher Maxwell / The questions that this paper intends to answer are: 1) Is there a U-shaped relationship between the female labor force participation (FLFP) rate and development in the present day? And 2) If we group countries geographically, will we see the U-shaped function outlined as development occurs over time? The U-shaped function is important because it allows us to predict the direction that the FLFP rate will move, dependent on a country's level of development. This prediction is crucial because there are endless gains of increased FLFP to both women and to society at large. Previous research has shown that in a snapshot in time (1985), there was evidence of the U-shaped function. However, there has been little research on how the function has played out throughout the past 30+ years. This paper finds that the U- shaped function remains robust to present day data. However, grouping countries geographically does not always produce results that support movement along the U-shaped function. Having a clearer understanding of the trends that FLFP follows through development will allow us to more successfully monitor and create policy to help women and society at large reap the benefits of increased women in the workforce. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Economics.

This dissertation consists of three essays studying the determination and evolution of labor supply in China. The analysis especially focuses on the labor market behavior of the wage workers with urban registration (Hukou). The first chapter outlines the dissertation by briefly discussing the motivations, methods, and main findings in each of the following chapters. Chapter two examines the evolution of female labor supply in urban China. Female labor force participation rate in China has been declining rapidly over the last three decades. Using a time series of cross-sections from the Chinese Household Income Project Series (CHIPS), this chapter attempts to systematically relate the decrease in female labor force participation to the socio-economic changes happening in China during the same period, and assess their respective contributions. Adopting both linear and non-linear decomposition techniques, the results show that during 1988-1995, changes in population age distribution and family size both contribute, during 1995-2002, age effect dominates, and during 2002-2007, non-labor income effect dominates in explaining the decreasing trend in female labor force participation. Chapter three investigates the impact of social norms on married women's labor supply decision in China. Using data from the China General Social Survey (CGSS) and the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we find a strong and robust positive correlation between the labor supply behavior of a married woman and the former work experience of her mother-in-law. Our estimation results indicate that being raised by a working mother influences both a man's attitude toward gender roles and his household productivity, and therefore married women whose mothers-in-law were not working are themselves significantly less likely to participate in the labor force. The last chapter evaluates the labor market consequence of rural-to-urban migration in China. Starting from the mid-1990s, there is a remarkable increase in the number of migrant workers in cities, from around 39 million in 1997 to 145 million by 2009 (Meng et al. 2013). Chapter four intends to explore how does this important economic event affect the labor market conditions of urban residents. Specifically, we estimate the possible employment and earnings displacement effects of rural-to-urban migration on urban residents by exploiting regional variation in the rural migrant share of education-experience cells. We use multiple sets of instrumental variable to address the potential endogeneity problems associated with the rural migrant ratio in a city. The estimation results are consistent with the predictions of the textbook model of a competitive labor market, indicating the inflow of rural migrants reduces the wage and labor supply of competing urban residents. / Ph. D.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Economics / Dong Li / This dissertation is a combination of three essays on spatial econometrics and labor economics. Essays 1 and 2 developed double length regression (DLR) tests for testing functional form and spatial dependence, which includes spatial error dependence and spatial lag dependence. More specifically, these essays derive the DLR joint, DLR one-direction, and DLR conditional tests for testing functional forms and spatial dependence. The essays also provide empirical examples and Monte Carlo simulations to examine how the DLR tests perform in the empirical work and how the power of the DLR test depends on changes in functional form and spatial dependence. The results suggested that DLR tests work similarly to its Lagrangian Multiplier (LM) counterpart for testing functional form and spatial dependence in the empirical example and simulations. The DLR tests do not require the second-order derivatives of the log-likelihood function, so they provide practitioners an easy-to-use method to test for functional forms and spatial dependence. Essay 3 investigates the effects of fertility on parental labor force participation and labor supply in Vietnam. The essay uses instrumental variable (IV) probit models to estimate the effects of fertility on parental labor force participation and the IV models to estimate the effects of fertility on parental labor supply. Using the gender of the first child and the same gender of the first two children as two instrumental variables, this essay found negative effects of fertility on maternal labor force participation and labor supply. It also found positive effects of fertility on paternal labor force participation and labor supply. The results suggest that fertility had the specialization effect on parental labor force participation and labor supply in Vietnam. The homogeneity test results indicate that the magnitude of the effects of fertility on parental labor force participation and labor supply is different among parents and locations.

This thesis seeks to explore the social, cultural, economic and political factors that influence female labor force participation rates. Specifically, this research will focus on female economic activity in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region. MENA is often understood as being monolithic in its treatment of women. This study aims to challenge this rhetoric by evaluating the factors that impact female labor in MENA. Upon considering multiple social, cultural, economic and political factors, this thesis will focus on the role of oil and religion in influencing female labor rates. Finally, this study will explore these influences on a micro-level and the role of oil and religion will be examined as to how they apply to female economic activity in both Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.

Female labor force participation varies widely across regions and cultures, typically with more working women in developed than developing countries. Because there are significant differences between developed and developing countries that go beyond GDP, this paper examines the effects of certain development indicators on female workforce participation across these countries. Using models from past literature, I include indicators that cover personal and labor market characteristics. In this analysis, I find that education and unemployment rates continue to be significant determinants of female labor force participation in both developed and developing countries, with several key differences in the effect of various types of unemployment. Furthermore, my study supports the existence of an initial tradeoff between female labor force participation and development as the economic sectors within a country shift. These results provide valuable insights on these general trends across national borders and therefore are important for policy makers.

This dissertation is divided into five chapters consisting of three short essays that concentrate on economic analysis of health, savings and labor. The first essay is aimed at investigating the influence of increased work hours on individuals’ health and how this may differ between males and females. It is expected that increased hours of work will have a negative impact on health but this impact may be stronger for females. In the second essay, the relationship between individuals’ health and savings behavior is analyzed. Healthy individuals are expected to be more productive, earn higher incomes, and have lower medical expenditures compared to unhealthy individuals. It is therefore expected that individuals’ health will have a positive influence on their saving behavior. The third paper analyzes the effect of increased work, as proxied by labor force participation, on health, as proxied by life expectancy, at the macro level. The main aim of the analysis in the third essay is to investigate whether or not increased female labor force participation is a contributing factor to the narrowing gap between the life expectancy of females and males. In the final chapter of this dissertation, I provide a summary of my findings on the relationships between work, health, and savings. I also provide directions for future research.

Over the past several decades there has been extensive research done in an attempt to determine what demographic characteristics affect economic growth, measured in GDP per capita. Understanding what influences the growth of a country will vastly help policy makers enact policies to lead the country in a positive direction. This research focuses on isolating a new variable, women in the work force. As well as isolating a new variable, this research will modify a preexisting variable that was shown to be significant in order to make the variable more robust and sensitive to recessions. The intent of this thesis is to explore the relationship between several demographic characteristics and their effect on the growth rate of GDP per capita. The first step is to reproduce the work done by Barlow (1994) to ensure that the United States follows similar rules as the countries in his research. Afterwards, we will introduce new variables into the model, comparing the goodness of fit through the methods of R-squared, AIC and BIC. There have been several models developed to answer each of the research questions independently.

The purpose of this study was to conduct an ecological examination of the relationship between social integration and dropout rates at the school and community level, and the role of career and technical education in this relationship. This paper also attempts to determine if this relationship changes depending on how urbanicity is operationalized. This study adds to the existing research concerning the ecological relationships between dropout rates, community social integration, school social integration, and urbanicity in Mississippi. Three-year averaged event dropout rates for 2005-2008, multiple community and school measures of social integration, and three different operationalizations of urbanicity were used. Some expected relationships were found to be true while others indicate that social integration at both the school and community level are so intertwined in their effects on dropout rates that no clear pattern emerges. The varying results related to the role of urbanicity in this study provide support for the need to further examine the concepts of community and location as factors that impact educational outcomes such as dropping out of school. This is particularly important when one considers that most educational policies that are implemented in a state tend to be overarching treating school districts no matter what size they are the same. This study also highlights that there are factors that impact what one would traditionally expect to find in the relationship between dropout rates and social integration that do not hold true. For example, an inverse relationship between dropout rates and local funding was expected, but in this study the relationship was found to be positive. One possible explanation for this is related to the fact that local taxes for schools are mandated by the county government and not voted on by the people. This changes the theoretical expectations of this relationship leading to possibly false assumptions.

This study adds to the existing research concerning ecological relationships between suicide rates, social integration, and urbanicity in the U.S. Age-sex-race adjusted five-year averaged suicide rates for 1993-1997 and various measures of urbanicity are used. Some proposed relationships held true, while others indicate that social integration and urbanicity are so intertwined in their effects on suicide that no clear, unidirectional pattern emerges. The religious affiliation measure captured unique variations in the role religion plays in this relationship; depending on how urbanicity was measured. Findings suggest closer attention needs to be paid to how both urbanicity and religious affiliation are measured. Overall, vast regional variation exists in suicide rates and the role of urbanization can be misunderstood if not properly specified.