In: Economics
What changes would cause the labour supply curve to shift to the left? To the right? 8 marks
he labor supply curve can shift due to a variety of reasons:
(1) Population growth: If the population growth in a county is high, more and more people would be of the working-age population and will desire work. This will increase the supply of labor and the labor supply curve will shift to the right.
(2) Reduction in fertility rates: This will increase the labor supply of women as they do not need to get out of the labor market due to pregnancies and child care responsibilities. Similarly, if the fertility rate is high, the labor force participation will shift to the left.
(3) Price of related goods and services: There are several other prices that people care about while deciding to work or not. For instance, consider the cost of sending a child to daycare. If this decreases, more and more people (especially womrn) with children would refer to work rather than look after the child themseleves. This will shift the labor supply curve to the right. An increase in such costs will shift the labo supply curve to the left.
(4) Presence of social security. If the people think that they will have good social security support, they can retire early and the labor supply curve will shift to the left. On the other hand, if people expect to not have social security, they will work for longer and the labor supply curve will shift to the right.