The Marital Status and the Female Labour Supply

In Russia, as in many other countries, women's employment is often closely linked to their marital status. Understanding the relationship between marital status and women's participation in the labor force is important for grasping the nuances of labor market dynamics and for shaping effective policies to strengthen women's positions in the labor market. Relevance: In Russia, the impact of marital status on women's labor supply is understudied compared to other countries. Most studies, including international ones, focus only on official marriage, ignoring the influence of cohabitation with a man on women's employment. Many studies consider marital status separately from important factors such as education and the age of the youngest child. This research examines the influence of marital status not in isolation but in context with these factors. Research objective: To study how marital status influences women's labor supply in Russia. Tasks: 1 Analyze existing research and methods for studying the impact of marital status on women's labor supply 2 Analyze statistical data on women's employment depending on their marital status, education, and the age of their youngest child in Russia 3 Based on the literature and database specifics, select regressors and modeling methods to estimate equations for women's participation in the labor force and the average workweek duration 4 Build models and identify factors influencing the workweek duration and women's employment decisions; assess the impact of marital status separately and in combination with education level and the age of the youngest child Hypotheses proposed: H1. Official marriage and cohabitation with a man negatively impact the likelihood of a woman's participation in the labor force and the duration of the workweek. H2. The presence of a young child aged 0-6 years negatively affects the likelihood of participation in the labor force and the workweek duration among married women. H3. Married women with higher education are more likely to participate in the labor force compared to women with lower education levels. Data: RLMS-HSE from the period 2016 to 2019 - over 120,000 observations, including repeated observations of individuals and households. Observations after 2019 were not considered due to the potential impact of COVID-19 on women's labor supply. Methodology: Used a model with the dependent variable of employment (whether the woman worked in the last 30 days) and a model of average workweek duration (natural logarithm). In the empirical analysis, the following methods were used: linear probability model OLS, probit and logit models for estimating employment probability, pooled OLS, fixed-effects linear regression panel model, wls and the Heckman two-step procedure for the workweek duration. The study has several limitations: the sample did not include the years 2019-2023, did not consider the profession and husband/partner's salary, and did not test models with instrumental variables. Further research on the influence of marital status on women's labor offers will be needed to address these limitations.