Journal of Political Economy Vol. 85 No. 1 1977

A Beta-logistic Model for the Analysis of Sequential Labor Force Participation by Married Women

James J. Heckman¹; Robert J. Willis^2,3

¹ University of Chicago · ² National Bureau of Economic Research · ³ University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss statistical problems that arise in studying sequences of quantal responses (e.g., labor force participation) in panel data on heterogeneous populations (i.e., populations in which there is unobserved variation in response probabilities). Assuming that response probabilities are governed by a beta distribution, we derive a generalization on of the cross-section logit model to enable it to deal with sequences of discrete events in panel data. This model is applied to panel data on labor force participation of married women. One of our findings is that the distribution of participation probabilities is U shaped, indicating that most women have participation probabilities near zero or near one.

DOI

10.1086/260544

Volume

85

Issue

1

Pages

27-58

Language

en

Sources

openalex crossref