Trends in Labor Force Participation of Spanish Women: An Interpretive Essay
This paper describes trends in labor force participation of Spanish women since 1900. Earnings-generating functions and logit participation models are estimated using a 1979 survey of married women. Estimates are shown to overpredict historical changes in labor force participation rates. A new specification of the participation model using average experience of married women as endogenous variable produces estimates that fit time-series data. These results suggest an increasing effect of education on participation, which confirms Schultz's hypothesis of increasing returns to various quality components of the labor force in modernizing economies.