Labor Market Competition among Youths, White Women and Others

Abstract

This paper examines labor market effects of increased labor force participation Of youths and women. Using 1969 cross-section data for manufacturing, substitution elasticities for pairs of inputs from agerace-sex aggregates of labor and c?pital are estimated. Findings include strong substitution between youths and white females, and complementarity between many of the remaining inputs. Then, allowing either rigid or flexible youth wages, a ten percent increase in white female participation is simulated. Findings are respectively: either a large decrease in youth employment and mode~ate wage decreases of other labor, or moderate decreases in wages of youths and white women.

Labour force substitution and the effects of an ageing population

“…The third female age group is also a q-substitute for the first female group, although complementary with the second, and the second female age group is a q-substitute for the first male group, with an elasticity of complementarity equal to that between F3 and Ml. These results support the Grant and Hamermesh (1981) finding of a high degree of substitutability between adult (white) women and young labour, and the elasticity of complementarity they find between these groups is of the same order of magnitude as the elasticity we find between F3 and Ml.3…”

“…The differences between Merrilees' results and those surveyed by Hamermesh and Grant (1979) do not appear to be due to the broad groupings Merrilees uses, since Grant and Hamermesh (1981) use similarly broad groupings and find a significant degree of substitutability. It may be due to the approach Merrilees takes to estimating the degree of substitutability, which will be referred to in the following section.…”

“…He finds that the number of female workers has a slight positive effect on the earnings of younger men and a slight negative effect on the earnings of older men, but argues that the magnitudes of these effects are so small that male and female workers apparently operate in what are essentially separate production processes. In a later study, Grant and Hamermesh (1981) find a high degree of substitutability between youths and adult women in US manufacturing in 1969, and suggest that the recent rapid growth in the female labour force hurt the earnings prospects of younger workers. Grant and Hamermesh also find that they are unable to reject the hypothesis of weak separability between youth labour (not differentiated by sex) and adult white women (aged 25 and over).…”

Heterogeneity of household structures and income: Evidence from Zimbabwe and South Africa

“…The role of children in income generation is well documented and the child labor literature has identified linkages between adult and child labor. For example, in some economies, children and women are found to be substitute sources of labor, while children and men are found to be complements in production (Grant & Hamermesh, 1981). But such investigations have not explored whether and how the productive role of children may vary among household headship types.…”

The measurement of pay discrimination between job assignments

“…A number of empirical studies have confirmed that white and nonwhite labour are imperfect substitutes: Grant and Hamermesh (1981) find that black adults are imperfect substitutes for white men and complements to white women and youths; Borjas (1983) provides evidence indicating that black males are imperfect substitutes for white males, but that Hispanics and white males are complementary; Borjas (1987) shows that black natives are imperfect substitutes for white natives, whilst Kahanec (2006) finds that non-whites are complementary to whites.…”