1. Household production.
(a) Define household production and housework and explain the difference between them.
(b) In each of the cases listed below, state if the activity constitutes household production, housework, both or none. Explain your answers.
i. The husband building bookshelves
ii. The husband cooking hamburgers in the grill
iii. The wive feeding the baby
iv. The wive fencing the house
v. The wive working as a nurse at City Hospital
(c) Suppose you included the value of unpaid work in GDP. Do you think that this would result in higher or lower estimates of economic
growth in the period 1975 to 1995? Explain your reasoning.
2. Reproduction.
(a) Define the fertility rate and the natality (birth) rate and explain the difference between them.
(b) According to K. Bryant, an issue must satisfy three conditions to be considered an economic one (so economists have something relevant to say about the issue). State these three conditions and explain how the fertility decision satisfies these three conditions.
(c) The relation between fertility rate and income across countries is negative. Explain briefly two reasons for this phenomenon.
3. Intrahousehold distribution of resources. Before the 1950s, in the rare case in which a divorce was granted, the husband was supposed to pay alimony (spousal support) to his wife. Since then, divorce is granted more often but alimony is not automatically granted and, when granted, it is only granted for a limited period of time and usually for smaller amounts in real terms than used to be the case.
(a) Use the bargaining graph to illustrate the effects of this decrease in alimony in the bargaining power of the average husband and wife. Explain its effects on the intrahousehold distribution of resources.
(b) What is the impact of this decrease in alimony on the probability of divorce? Explain.
4. International comparisons (high income countries).
(a) Define income per capita, output per worker and the dependency ratio and explain the relation between them.
(b) Use your answer to part a) to explain why governments are interested in increasing both the fertility rate and the female labour force participation ratio.
(c) Explain paternity leave. Now use your answer to part b) to provide a rational for the European Union implementing a two-week paternity leave in 2010.
5. International comparisons (developing countries).
(a) What is the replacement fertility rate? Explain. Many of the low-income countries are young countries with high fertility ratios.
(b) What constitutes a low-income country according to the World Bank classification?
(c) What are the two components of the dependency ratio?
(d) Use you answer in part c) to explain the short- and long-term effects of a decline in the fertility rate of a low-income country on its
dependency ratio.
2 Secondpart
1. Labour force participation ratio.
(a) Define female labour force participation ratio.
(b) Suppose that you want to compare participation of women in paid work across different countries. Should you use the raw female labour force participation ratio? Why or why not? What is the appropriate measure?
2. Occupational segregation.
(a) Define occupational segregation.
(b) Explain the index (known as the Duncan index) that economists use to measure occupational segregation.
(c) Is gender occupational segregation, as far as we can tell, higher in developing or in developed countries?
(d) Explain two possible reasons for this difference.
3. Discrimination. Let Wf denote wages actually paid to women, Wm wages actually paid to men, and d the discrimination coefficient. Assume the type of (employer) discrimination analyzed by Becker where firms act as is they pay Wf(1 + d) when they hire women and Wm when they hire men.
(a) Define discrimination in the labour market.
(b) In the case where the value of the marginal products of male and female labour are the same, solve for the ratio of female to male
wages when the discrimination coefficient is 0.20.
(c) What is the wage gap, due to discrimination, in this case?
(d) Explain Becker's theory. What is meant by a discrimination coefficient that is 0.20?
4. Anti-discrimination laws
(a) Define equal employment opportunity, affirmative action and comparable worth and explain the difference between them.
(b) How effective has each of these policies been in reducing the gender gap?
5. Labour market issues. The terms economic restructuring or structural adjustment refer to the fact that, as the economy evolves, some industries (sectors) disappear while new industries are born. Why might economic restructuring (structural adjustment) have different effects on men and women?