Employment Dynamics inside Natives' and Immigrants' Households in Spain during Expansion and Crisis Periods: The Added Worker Effect

Elena Vidal-Coso, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Daniela Vono de Vilhena, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg

We aim at studying dynamic behaviours regarding female labor supply from a household perspective. Concretely, we analyze the transitions into labor force among those women whose partners lost their jobs in Spain, focusing in the differences among natives and immigrant groups. This process is studied in two different economic moments: the prosperity scenario from 2004 to 2007 and the economic crisis between 2008 and 2011. We use the Spanish Labor Force Survey data in its panel version to elaborate random-intercept logistic regression models. Our results show an added worker effect in Spain, especially during the recession period. Furthermore, although important differences among origins were found, immigrant women are more likely to commence or seek work due to their partners’ unemployment than native women. Finally, other characteristics as length of husband’s unemployment or unemployment benefits don’t have strong influences for women to enter to the labor market.