Downloads
![Image representing the file: wp201603.pdf](/sites/default/files/output_url_files/wp201603.pdf_0.jpg)
wp201603.pdf
PDF | 1.55 MB
We estimate a dynamic model of employment, human capital accumulation - including education, and savings for women in the UK, exploiting tax and benefit reforms, and use it to analyze the effects of welfare policy. We find substantial elasticities for labor supply and particularly for lone mothers. Returns to experience, which are important in determining the longer-term effects of policy, increase with education, but experience mainly accumulates when in full-time employment. Tax credits are welfare improving in the UK and increase lone-mother labor supply, but the employment effects do not extend beyond the period of eligibility. Marginal increases in tax credits improve welfare more than equally costly increases in income support or tax cuts.
Authors
![Richard Blundell](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-03/Richard%20Blundell%20Head.jpg?itok=ow7e9OkA)
CPP Co-Director
Richard is Co-Director of the Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy (CPP) and Senior Research Fellow at IFS.
![Costas Meghir](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-07/Costas%20Meghir.jpg?itok=_N-Qaly5)
Research Fellow Yale University
Costas is a Research Fellow of the IFS and a Professor of Economics at Yale University and a Visiting Professor at University College London.
![Jonathan Shaw](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-07/Jonathan_Shaw.jpg?itok=G41UePIT)
Research Fellow Financial Conduct Authority
Jonathan is a Research Fellow at the IFS and a Technical Specialist in the Economics Department at the Financial Conduct Authority.
![Monica Costa Dias](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-07/Monica_Costa_Dias.jpg?itok=bX66ysrB)
Deputy Research Director
Monica is a Deputy Research Director and Professor of Economics at the University of Bristol, with an interest in Labour, Family and Public Economics.
Working Paper details
- DOI
- 10.1920/wp.ifs.2016.1603
- Publisher
- Institute for Fiscal Studies
Suggested citation
Blundell, R et al. (2016). Female labour supply, human capital and welfare reform. London: Institute for Fiscal Studies. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/female-labour-supply-human-capital-and-welfare-reform-5 (accessed: 30 June 2024).
More from IFS
Understand this issue
![Microphone](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-06/Microphone.jpg?itok=soM7Wvbz)
Election Special: Your questions answered
27 June 2024
![Tom Waters](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-06/tom%20waters.jpg?itok=faDtwS3F)
What is the two-child limit in benefits?
27 June 2024
![Kier Starmer](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-06/Lab1.jpg?itok=43eIsvgM)
Election Special: The Labour manifesto explained
14 June 2024
Policy analysis
![Shopping street](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-06/Street-scene-.jpg?itok=R39cR6Xp)
How do the last five years measure up on levelling up?
19 June 2024
![Welsh town with mountains behind](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-06/Welsh-town-feature.jpg?itok=5axb5wZn)
How would the parties’ tax and spending plans affect Scotland and Wales?
28 June 2024
![Polling station](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-06/Polling-station-school.jpg?itok=uS-l6b-1)
What are the parties’ plans for benefits and taxes?
24 June 2024
Academic research
![Working Paper Cover](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait/public/2024-06/WP202425-The-intergenerational-elasticity-of-earnings-exploring-the-mechanisms_Page_01.jpg?itok=BhqlYpqX)
The intergenerational elasticity of earnings: Exploring the mechanisms
3 June 2024
![Fiscal Studies - 2024 - June cover](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait/public/2024-06/Fiscal%20Studies%20-%202024%20-%20-%20June%20cover.jpg?itok=mQEwRc_w)
Income inequality in Ireland, 1987–2019
28 June 2024
![Fiscal Studies - 2024 - June cover](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait/public/2024-06/Fiscal%20Studies%20-%202024%20-%20-%20June%20cover.jpg?itok=mQEwRc_w)
Components of the evolution of income inequality in Sweden, 1990–2021
28 June 2024