The Degree Of Reponsiveness Of TheTennessee Labor Force 1970: A Cross-Sectional Analysis By Cauntry

Sudarsono, -

1977 | Disertasi | S3 Economics

Many articles have been written to analyze the labor force participation rate function. However, more often than not those studies used a limited number of variables toward which labor force participation rate responds. Patterned after the studies by Bowen and Finegan this study attempts to establish labor force participation rate functions involving a rather comprehensive set of variables. It is also patterned after a study by Barth in that it analyzes labor force participation rate at a state level, in this case Tennessee.

This study measured the effects of changes in the independent variables on the labor force participation rate. For this purpose Tennessee's labor force was broken down into males and females and within this sex classification

it is broken down further into three age groups, 16-24 years, 25-64 years, and 65 years and older.

The analysis rests heavily on the 1970 population census data published by the Bureau of the Census, u.s. Department of Commerce. The unit of observation is one county. Data from the previous decades, especially those of 1960, are used to support the arguments. The variables used are median earnings, poverty, education, unemployment, industrial composition, marital status, race, home ownership, immigrants, group's population, and the labor force participation rate of 95 counties in Tennessee.

To obtain an accurate projection of the future size and composition of the state's labor force the variations of the variables which are statistically significant must be taken into account.

The evidence suggests that differences in age and sex influence the degree of responsiveness of a labor force group toward a certain variable. Age-sex differences may also result in differences in the number and kind of variables toward which a group's participation rate responds. The magnitude and direction of the response of a labor force group toward a certain independent variable may depend upon whether the group belongs to the young, the prime-age, the elderly, and whether male or female.

Kata Kunci : Labor force