Abstract
The purpose of this study is to survey the empirical literature concerning the labor supply of married women in Taiwan by focusing on the comparison of the econometric methods, and then to estimate the labor supply function for married women in Taiwan from the year 1979 to 2001 based on the data from the Manpower Utilization Survey and the Women's Marriage, Fertility, and Employment Survey. The survey of the empirical literature indicates that the study of the female labor supply in Taiwan has expanded its diversity in research area and research focus. This development is of great help in understanding the labor supply decision for women in Taiwan. Moreover, the empirical analysis of the labor supply behavior for Taiwanese women from 1979 to 2001 suggests that the estimation results are more sensitive to the choice of the econometric method than the difference in data sets. It is also found that the potential multicollinearity problem of using the proxy work experience variable is non-negligible. We conclude this analysis by pointing out that the non-parametric estimation approach and the application of the average treatment effect to study the policy effect are two worthwhile directions for future research on female labor supply.