Labour force participation and development

This monograph is concerned with the economic determinants of labour force participation in low-income industrialising economies. It concentrates largely on the factors influencing the changing economic role of women, since it is they whose labour force participation has been most sensitive to economic and social influences. But to a lesser extent it also considers the factors influencing the participation of children, male youths and the elderly.
In recent years economists as well as other social scientists have been attempting to develop a framework for the analysis of human behaviour. At present much of that analysis has been based on what is known as the neo-classical household decision-making model, or more popularly, the "new home economics". This is a controversial approach, but as a framework it provides a point of departure for the analysis of labour force participation, if only because most of the present economic research has used that framework. Accordingly in each of the chapters concerned with individual, household, or labour market factors influencing the extent and pattern of participation the basic reasoning underlying the neo-classical model is critically examined in the light of the available evidence and competing theoretical considerations. In each case a crucial question is whether or not the neo-classical framework succeeds in explaining patterns of participation, rather than merely rationalising them.