Can the Crisis be an Opportunity for Women?

Female labour force participation is known to depend on the economic status of a partner. Since the current crisis hit more men, it might push more women to enter the labour market (added worker effect). On the opposite, the crisis might produce a discouraged worker effect. In this case, despite male-partner loosing a job, women would not get out of inactivity. The aim of this paper is to investigate which of the two effects dominates in Italy. Our empirical analysis utilized a bivariate probit model. The results suggest that discouraged worker effect prevailed at the start of the crisis. Afterwards some regional differences emerge with an added worker effect showing out for low-educated women in the South of Italy. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.