THE SHORT RUN LABOR SUPPLY OF REGISTERED NURSES.
Contributors: University of Michigan.
Published: 1994
Number of pages: 254
Subjects: Economics, Labor.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of the research was to investigate the supply response of male and female registered nurses to wage changes using the 1984 and 1988 National Sample Surveys of Registered Nurses. The dependent variable annual hours of work was examined with an ordinary least squares regression model; work status was examined with a logistic regression model.

Independent variables examined were: age, marital status, children, race/ethnicity, student status, whether the nurse worked two jobs, non-nurse income, mandatory continuing education (1988 only) and the wage. Age was a continuous variable. Family income was a categorical variable, but a continuous non-nurse family income variable was computed from the categorical variable for the regressions. The wage variable was computed from annual earnings and annual hours, then estimated with an instrumental variable regression method for both working and nonworking nurses. Wage categories were then computed from the instrumental variable wage to test whether the labor supply curves were backward bending.

Results demonstrated that the labor response of male and female nurses within each year was significantly different. The wage elasticity of supply for the mean female wage category in 1984 was $-$.30 and in 1988 was 1.46. There was a backward bend only in 1984 for the female nurses in the highest and lowest wage categories. The majority of female nurses in both years had a positive response to the wage, which was stronger in 1988. Male nurses did not respond significantly to the wage.

The logistic results generally supported the ordinary least squares results for both sexes, but the logistic model used assumed parallel slopes among the work status levels. The parallel slopes assumption was not supported.

There are several major implications from this research. Variables influencing the female labor supply remained relatively constant from 1984 to 1988 for female nurses, but these variables were not as predictive with male nurses. There was a more elastic response to the wage for female nurses in 1988 than 1984, which indicated that the rising wages of a shortage year may influence the wage response.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-04, Section: A, page: 1056.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, 1994.

School code: 0127.