Evaluating the pin money hypothesis: The relationship between women`s labour market activity, family income and poverty in Britain

Jane Waldfogel (), Susan Harkness and Stephen Machin
Additional contact information
Jane Waldfogel: School of Social Work, Columbia University, 622 W. 113th Street, New York, NY 10025, USA
Susan Harkness: Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK (Fax:

Journal of Population Economics, 1997, vol. 10, issue 2, 137-158

Abstract: In this paper we evaluate the hypothesis that the over-representation of women amongst the low paid is of little importance because women`s earnings account for only a small proportion of total family income. Data from the General Household Survey (GHS), together with attitudinal evidence from three cross-sectional data sources, indicate that women`s earnings are in fact an important and growing component of family income. The majority of the growth in the share of women`s earnings occurs as a result of changing family labour structures; women`s earnings are playing an increasingly important role in keeping their families out of poverty. JEL classification: J16; J31.

Keywords: Women`s; earnings; ·; poverty; ·; family; income (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1997
Note: Received April 9, 1996/Accepted August 22, 1996
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/00148/papers/7010002/70100137.pdf (application/pdf)
http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/0014 ... 10002/70100137.ps.gz (application/postscript)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:10:y:1997:i:2:p:137-158

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... tion/journal/148/PS2

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Population Economics is currently edited by K.F. Zimmermann

More articles in Journal of Population Economics from Springer, European Society for Population Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().