Labor Participation of Married Women in Colombia

A pseudo-panel was built to estimate the determinants of the labor participation decision of married women between 1984 and 2000 in Colombia. Past participation decisions, education level, labor income taxes, children aged between 1 and 2 years old, and the presence of other people unemployed at home are the main explanatory variables of married women’s labor participation. The interest rate does not have any effect on that decision. Key words: married women, labor participation, state-dependence, fertility. JEL Classification: C21, C23, C25, J22, J13. * Economic Research Unit, Banco de la República. The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and not of the Banco de la República nor of its Board of Directors. We thank Adriana Camacho, John James Mora and two anonymous referees for comments and sug-gestions and Lina Cardona for research assistance and suggestions. Any remaining errors are solely ours