The Labor Standards Law of Taiwan requires employers to offer maternity and pregnancy benefits. Because these requirements increase the cost to firms of employing young women, standard economic theory predicts that such workers will experience a relative decline in employment, wages, or both. Using data from Taiwan's Manpower Utilization Survey for the years 1978-96, the authors find that in those sectors of the economy covered by the legislation, wages and employment of young women did indeed fall relative to the wages and employment of two comparison groups, young men and older women.ince the 1960s, Taiwan has had high S economic growth, led by labor-intensive, export-oriented industries that rely heavily on cheap unskilled female labor. One reason the country was able to compete effectively in such industries was that young Taiwanese women had traditionally been willing to work for low wages for a few years before marriage. In 1984, however, responding to both external pressure (from trading partners like the United States) and internal political pressure to treat women more fairly, Taiwan adopted the Labor Standards Law (LSL).Standard economic theory predicts that workers who become more costly to employ will, barring special circumstances, experience reduced employment opportunities, or reduced wages, or both, relative to other workers. In this study we analyze data from Taiwan's Manpower Utilization Survey to investigate whether the LSL had such effects on young women in Taiwan. How the Labor Standards Law Protects Female WorkersSeveral provisions of the LSL mainly affect women. First, the LSL requires that a firm pay eight weeks' maternity leave. Full wages are paid if the worker has been employed by the firm for at least six months. In addition to paying full wages during maternity leaves, employers must pay replacement workers, who are likely to have less experience and thus lower productivity than those they replace. Employers no

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences in the effects of gender equality legislation on employment outcomes among female and male workers in industries with different intensity of foreign investment (namely, foreign direct investment (FDI)-intensive industries and non–FDI–intensive industries). The specific employment outcomes that were studied to compare the effects of the legislation are the working hours, employment opportunities, and wages of female and male workers in Taiwan. Design/methodology/approach Using data from the annual Manpower Utilization Survey, the authors applied a differences-in-differences-in-differences estimation method to test the effect of gender equality legislation on employment outcomes. By using multinomial logit, the authors measured the effect of the legislation on employment opportunities. To correct for simultaneity and selectivity problems/biases, the authors adopted Heckman two-stage selection procedures. Likewise, the authors used weighted least squares to solve heteroskedasticity in the wage and working hour equations. Further, the instrumental variable (IV) method was used to correct for simultaneity bias in the equation on working hour. The authors applied three stages estimation method following Killingsworth’s (1983) approach to measure the effect of the legislation on wages and working hours. Findings The authors found the restrictions enforced by the gender equality legislation (namely the Gender Equal Employment Act (GEEA), enacted in 2002) in Taiwan to have made certain impact on the workers’ working conditions in FDI-intensive industries. The major finding indicated that in a country like Taiwan, where the legislature tried tilling the perpetual gender gap in its labour market, by passing a law to counter inequality, could finally narrow the gender gap in wages among workers in the FDI-intensive industries. Although initially after the enactment of the GEEA (between 2002 and 2004), the gender gap in part-timers’ wages has widened, yet over a period of time the gap in their wages too has narrowed down, particularly during 2005-2006. The legislation, however, could not improve the job opportunities for full-time female workers’ in FDI-intensive industries. Besides, post 2002, the female workers were found to have worked for shorter hours than male workers, which according to us, could be largely attributed to the enforcement of the GEEA. Practical implications An in-depth analysis of the labour market effects of gender equality legislation should be useful to policymakers, especially those interested in understanding the impact of legislative measures and policy reforms on labour market and employment outcomes across industry types. If enforcement of a gender equality legislation has succeeded in reducing the gender gap more in one set of industries than the others (e.g. foreign owned instead of domestic industries), as the authors noticed in this study, then the same should have a bearing on revamping of future enactment and enforcement too. Originality/value Current study findings would not only provide the broad lessons to the policymakers in Taiwan, but the results that have emerged from a country case study could be referred by other growing economies who are enthusiastic about improving female workers’ working conditions through legislative reforms.

Purpose -To measure the effects of work-sharing arrangements on participants' subsequent labor market outcomes in Taiwan such as full-time employment rates, working hours of women and men and the difference in scale effect and effect of substitution between hours and employment for women and men. Design/methodology/approach -Using the data from Manpower Utilization Survey, we applied the differences-in-differences estimation method to test the effects of work-sharing arrangements on working hours, wage and employment. Multinomial logit was used to measure the effects of work sharing on full-time employment. In order to correct the simultaneity and selectivity problems, we followed the Heckman two-stage selection procedures to solve the selection bias, and used weighted least squares to solve heteroskedasticity in the wage and hour equations. The instrumental variable (IV) method was used to avoid simultaneity bias in the hour equation.Findings -This paper found the restrictions enforced by law on working hours have negative effects on employees' working conditions in certain industries in Taiwan. After controlling the working hours, we found the wages paid to women and men have increased subsequent to the enforcement of law. However, compared to men the net wage earned by women has increased to a lesser extent. It was further observed that with enactment of work-sharing law, the employment rate of women has considerably declined since 2001. Main findings assimilating the results for hour, wage and full-time employment suggest that a country like Taiwan (with work-sharing arrangements implemented by law) has witnessed a smaller gap between women's and men's working time and wages during

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PurposeIn this paper, the authors examined the changes in labour unrest and labour quality brought by high labour standards over a considerable period in Taiwan. Then, the authors studied the role of these changes in predicting the inflow of foreign direct investment (IFDI) in the country. To test the role, the authors measured the differences in effects of the two changes on wages, working hours and employment opportunities of skilled female and skilled male workers in FDI-intensive and non-intensive industries.Design/methodology/approachUsing a model built on pooled cross-sectional time-series data from 1999 to 2012, the authors measured the effect of changes in labour unrest and the presence of skilled workers on the net inflow of FDI. Using data from the Manpower Utilisation Survey (MUS), the authors applied differences–in–Differences-in--ddifferences- (DDD) and differences–in–Differences-in-ddifferences-in--differences- (DDDD) estimation methods to test the effect of changes in labour unrest and labour quality on three labour market outcomes, namely wages, working hours and job opportunities of skilled workforce.FindingsIncreasing labour unrest affected the employment opportunities of almost every unemployed person seeking skilled jobs in Taiwan. When the authors compared the adverse effect of high labour standards on employment opportunities and working hours, the authors found women looking for skilled jobs in foreign-owned firms to be the worst affected. Besides, foreign firms paid different wages to skilled educated men than what foreign firms' domestic counterparts paid to skilled educated men employed in Taiwanese firms.Practical implicationsAn in-depth analysis of changes in labour unrest and presence of skilled workers because of high labour standards and the extent to which such changes helped the nation to attract FDI should be useful to policymakers interested in understanding the impact of legislative measures and policy reforms on labour market outcomes across industry types, which matter to foreign investors. If changes in labour unrest and labour quality influenced the inflow of FDI more to firms in one set of industries than the others, the same should have a bearing on revamping of future enactment and enforcement in Taiwan.Originality/valueCurrent study findings would not only provide broad lessons to policymakers in Taiwan but findings of the authors' country case study should be able to guide growing economies that are equally careful whilst raising the labour standards as most fear that high labour standards can deter inflow of FDI because of increasing labour cost.