Influence of Personal Features on the Change of Individual\'s Decision about Presence or Absence in the Labor Force (A Gender Analysis on the Basis of Panel Data of Iran)

One of the factors which influence individual's decision for presence or absence in the labor force is their personal features. In order to take appropriate policies to create employment and remove its obstacles in the countries labor market, we need to know the factors mentioned above and determine the amount and direction in which each factor influences the probability of individual's presence in the labor force. The objective of this study is to determine how personal features influence persons' decision on entering or leaving the labor market, during a one year period, for whole working age population, males and females. To achieve such objectives, using the panel data corresponding to spring 2005 and 2006 of the labor force survey conducted by the Statistical Centre of Iran, we distinguished the two subpopulation: active and inactive people in working age in 2005 and followed their economic activity status in 2006. To determine the effective factors on the change of individuals activity status during a one-year period, we used a logit model and took advantage of the odds ratios to interpret the results of the model. The results of the study shows that substantial differences exist between men and women in terms of the stability of presence or absence in the labor force in a one-year period, however the amount of stability is also influenced by the individual features in both groups. The important finding of this paper is that not only the probability of inactive females entering the labor market is less than that for males, but also for women who are already in the labor market, the probability of leaving the market is more than that for men. However, the probability of returning to the labor market for women is also larger than that for men.