Female labour force participation and unemployment in Northern Ireland: Religion and family effects

Econometric models of the incidence of economic activity and employment by religion for females in Northern Ireland are presented. Particular attention is paid to family effects. Censored bivariate probit models are estimated for single women and significant religion effects are found. In the case of married women, possible endogeneity and logical coherency problems are overcome by modelling the joint economic activity of females and their partners instead of attempting to condition on the male's economic activity. An indirect or family, rather than a direct, religion effect is found. This family effect occurs since, other things being equal, the wives of unemployed men are significantly less likely to be economically active. This may be the result of how the benefit system operates.