This paper examines labor force participation of women in France and its evolution over time. Cross-section estimates of a logit model measure the effects on participation of wives' wages, husbands' earnings, families' unearned income, and number of children. They are found to be in accordance with theory. Applied to historical data, these estimates overpredict actual changes. A new specification of the participation model, using as endogenous variable the fraction of lifetime after leaving school spent in the labor force, shows that the effect of the main explanatory variable, education, changed over time. This model gives accurate predictions.

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.

Feliciano Hernandez Iglesias, Michelle Riboud, Intergenerational Effects on Fertility Behavior and Earnings Mobility in Spain, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 70, No. 2 (May, 1988), pp. 253-258