What Moves the Labor Force Participation Rate?

The seasonally adjusted civilian labor force participation rate, the sum of employed and unemployed persons as a percentage of the civilian non-institutional population, is analysed in the general to specific modelling framework with a saturating set of step indicators from January 1977 through June 2018. The results indicate that, ceteris paribus, the rise in the ratio of women to men in the labor force in addition to positive demographic movements can largely account for the rise in the labor force participation rate up to January 2000. Subsequently, the aging population helps to explain the decline. Recessions play a transitory role.

Fragments of a Journey to Mazorra

Chapter 2 follows the unlikely pact between U.S. occupying forces and patriotic doctors through its fraying under the auspices of Cuba’s first sovereign government (1902-6) and its revival during another U.S. occupation (1906-9). As public alarm grew over a ballooning institutional population and patient death rate, Mazorra’s status as an icon of a sovereign Cuba increasingly cast doubts on the political health of that nation. Reformers, doctors, and patients all contributed to the project of unpacking what sovereignty would mean for Mazorra and Cuba.