Inter-Temporal Labour Force Participation among Married Women in Japan

This paper investigates the components that affect inter-temporal labour force participation among married women in Japan. We estimate linear probability models and simple, dynamic probit models with a variety of specifications. We find that serially correlated transitory errors have a significant effect on the participation behaviour of married women, while the first-order lagged dependent variable has no significant effect. The result that serially correlated transitory errors influence married women’s inter-temporal labour force participation suggests that exogenous rather than endogenous causes have a significant effect on long-term economic disparity among married women.