The thesis examines the changes in the labour market behaviour and welfare participation of women in the UK. Over recent decades the UK has seen a dramatic rise in women's labour force participation. This growth led to remarkable shifts in the families employment structure. The UK has seen a rapid decline in the male breadwinner model of employment due to rising dual-earner and single-adult households over the years. In spite of this, the employment rate of single mothers is one of the lowest amongst other mothers and other OECD countries. While Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 evaluate two of the largest welfare transfers in the UK in search for potential explanations for it, Chapter 3 traces the factors behind the rise in dual-earner households. More precisely Chapter 1 investigates the impact of the automatic withdrawal of Income Support on labour supply decisions of single mothers with no qualifications. Consistent with a simple labour supply model, a substantial rise in mothers employment rate and an increase in job search effort are reported. Indeed 20% of single mothers who were initially on Income Support enter work following the benefit withdrawal. Chapter 2 studies the potential causal relationship between the benefit withdrawal and the availability of disability transfers. It is observed that 25% of single mothers with no qualifications who lose Income Support transit into disability benefits rather than work, in line with the predictions of a model of benefits choice. Finally, Chapter 3 uses a decomposition exercise à-la-DiNardo-Fortin-Lemieux (1996) to pin down the rise in dual-earner households to changes in: (1) returns to female characteristics conditional on female labour force participation; (2) returns to male characteristics; (3) assortative mating; and (4) female characteristics. Female labour force participation appears to be the primary factor while assortative mating plays a modest role.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:509606 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Soobedar, Zeenat |
| Publisher | Queen Mary, University of London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/425 |
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