The existence and extent of cyclically-induced changes in the size of the conventionally-defined labour force is examined for women aged 20-59 in Britain, 1951-81. The method is to compare changes in the actual labour force between decennial censuses and recent biennial Labour Force Surveys with...

This paper examines the economic rationale for concern about the falling rate of growth of Europe's population. It also assembles demographic and economic time-series data for the countries of Eastern and Western Europe during the postwar period. The consequences of demographic developments for...

Women's disadvantages on the labour market leave them financially vulnerable when divorced. The number of elderly divorced women is growing, but their pension prospects are poor. The paper outlines current British arrangements for pensions and their treatment in divorce, and explains the case...

Patterns of female employment participation are compared in a variety of European countries with differing levels of child care provision. The earnings forgone over a lifetime by a woman bearing children (compared with the earnings of her childless counterpart) are simulated for four countries,...

The MRC's survey of the 1946 birth cohort recorded hourly pay at ages 26 and 32. Among those men employed, pay varied not only by the sex of the recipient but also by the existence of family responsibilities. Among women, employed mothers received lower average pay than women without children....

The dynamics of women’s labour supply are examined at a crucial stage of the life-cycle. This paper uses the longitudinal employment history records for 3,893 33-year-old mothers in the 5th sweep of the 1958 National Child Development Study cohort. Models of binary recurrent events are...

This paper emphasises some of the outstanding issues on the agenda for research on the labour force in Britain. It surveys topics but not results and does not attempt to review the literature or current research. Human resources are defined as the potential for creating economic welfare through...

In this paper we explore two econometric approaches to data on parity-specific birth rates in England and Wales during the postwar period. Both approaches can accommodate complex dynamic adjustments within birth rates and focus on adjustments of fertility behavior in response to changes in...

The opportunity costs of rearing British children, in terms of cash earnings forgone by their mother, are estimated for a typical family. Data from the 1980 Women and Employment Survey provide estimates for hourly pay as a function of work experience and current hours of work. In addition, these...

The MRC National Survey of Health and Development provides data on the hourly pay of males and females at age 26 in 1972 and in 1977. These have been subjected to regression analysis to see how far the gap between men's and women's pay is statistically explicable by (a) a "human capital" model...