Simultaneously Modelling the Supply of Weeks and Hours of Work Among Female Household Heads

Abstract

The labor supply of female household heads is distributed across a wide variety of hours and weeks choices. This papers explores the differential nature of the weeks per year and hours per week decisions among female heads. A model of labor supply which separates the weeks/hours decision is presented and several forms of this model are estimated, allowing for simultaneity in the weeks/hours decision, as well as for the presence of either fixed costs or minimum constraints on low levels of hours and weeks of work. The results indicate that these two decisions are separate, although not completely unrelated Like previous researchers, I also find strong evidence of the need to separate the labor force participation decision from the weeks and hours of work decision. The paper ends with a discussion of the evidence on labor rationing among these women, either through un- or underemployment.