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on Gender |
| By: | Chloé van Biljon (Department of Economics and ReSEP, Stellenbosch University); Dieter von Fintel (Department of Economics and ReSEP, Stellenbosch University); Atika Pasha (Department of Economics, University of Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | Female labour supply is an important outcome for measuring gender equality and is therefore regarded as one of the key indicators for women's empowerment. The empowerment of women through greater labour force participation is well documented in the literature. We argue, however, that the relationship between female labour force participation and empowerment is endogenous. We instead turn our attention to understanding whether greater female household autonomy causes participation in the labour market in the first place. Using the roll out of banking cards associated with the South African government cash transfers as an exogenous shock, we show that financial inclusion improves women's decision making power in the household. In response to this redistribution of bargaining power in the household, we provide evidence of increased female labour force participation. Our results show that becoming a primary decision maker leads to a 92 percentage point increase in the probability that women participate in the labour market. |
| Keywords: | Female labour force participation, SASSA cards, female autonomy, non-cooperative household bargaining model, South Africa, NIDS |
| JEL: | C36 C78 D13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers297&r=gen |
| By: | Osikominu, Aderonke; Pfeifer, Gregor |
| Abstract: | We estimate gender differences in elicited wage expectations among German University students applying for STEM and non-STEM fields. Descriptively, women expect to earn less than men and also have lower expectations about wages of average graduates across different fields. Using a two-step estimation procedure accounting for self-selection, we find that the gender gap in own expected wages can be explained to the extent of 54-69% by wage expectations for average graduates across different fields. However, gender differences in the wage expectations for average graduates across different fields do not contribute to explaining the gender gap in the choice of STEM majors. |
| Keywords: | college major choice; Gender Gap; STEM; wage expectations |
| JEL: | I21 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2018–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12719&r=gen |
| By: | Aurelie Dariel; Curtis Kephart; Nikos Nikiforakis; Christina Zenker (Division of Social Science) |
| Abstract: | We explore gender attitudes towards competition in the United Arab Emirates – a traditionally patriarchal society which in recent times has adopted numerous policies to empower women and promote their role in the labor force. The experimental treatments vary whether individuals compete in single-sex or mixed-sex groups. In contrast to previous studies, women in our sample are not less willing to compete than men. In fact, once we control for individual performance, Emirati women are more likely to select into competition. Our analysis shows that neither women nor men shy away from competition, and both compete more than what would be optimal in monetary terms as the fraction of men in their group increases. We offer a detailed survey of the literature and discuss possible reasons for the lack of gender differences in our experiment. |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nad:wpaper:20170011&r=gen |
| By: | Castagnetti, Carolina; Rosti, Luisa; Töpfer, Marina |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the effect of public-contest recruitment on earnings for men and women using Italian microdata over a time period of ten years. We find that the gender pay gap vanishes and even reverses among the young, when employees are selected through public contests. The results suggest that selection mechanisms such as public contests may offer a way for merit-based and gender-fair wage setting. However, since public contests and the public sector are highly correlated, we analyze the gender pay gap taking the interconnection between the public and private sector as well as the open contest issue into account. By decomposing our results by sector we find that public contests represent a necessary but not sufficient condition for merit-based and gender-fair recruitment. Similarly, the institutional environment of the public sector is a necessary but not sufficient condition for making public contests merit-based and gender-fair screening devices. These two factors taken together, cause the disappearance of the gender pay gap. |
| Keywords: | Gender Pay Gap,Public-Contest Recruitment,Double Sample Selection |
| JEL: | J7 J13 J31 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:faulre:103&r=gen |
| By: | Robert Duval-Hernandez (Economics Research Centre (CypERC) University of Cyprus; Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE); Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)); Lei Fang (Economic Research Department Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta); L. Rachel Ngai (Economics Department London School of Economics (LSE); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Centre for Macroeconomics (CFM)) |
| Abstract: | This paper decomposes the differences in aggregate market hours between US and Europe across gender-skill groups and finds that low-skilled women are the biggest contributors to aggregate differences, with the exception of Nordic countries. We develop a model to account for the gender-skill differences in market hours across countries. Taxes, which reduce market hours in favor of leisure and home production, explain a substantial fraction of the differences in hours for Southern and Central European countries. Subsidized family care, which reduces home hours of women in favor of market hours, explains the different pattern of hours in Nordic countries. Low-skilled women are more responsive to policy because of their comparative advantage in producing home services and the corresponding market substitutes. |
| Keywords: | Cross-country differences in market hours, Home production, Subsidies on family care |
| JEL: | E24 E62 J22 |
| Date: | 2018–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfm:wpaper:1804&r=gen |
| By: | Peter, Noemi (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen); Lundborg, Petter (Department of Economics, Lund University); Mikkelsen, Sara (Department of Economics, Lund University); Webbink, Dinand (Erasmus School of Economics, Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | We examine how the gender of a sibling affects earnings, education and family formation. Identification is complicated by parental preferences: if parents prefer certain sex compositions over others, children's gender affects not only the outcomes of other children but also the existence of potential additional children. We employ two empirical strategies that both address this problem. First, we look at a sample of dizygotic (i.e. non-identical) twins. Second, we use a large sample of singletons to estimate whether first-borns are affected by the gender of their second-born sibling. We find that a same-sex sibling increases men's earnings and family formation outcomes (marriage and number of children), as compared to an opposite-sex sibling. Women with a same-sex sibling also earn more and are somewhat more likely to form a family in the singleton sample. A large part of the positive effect on men's income can be explained by competition among brothers. Women on the other hand seem to benefit from sisters because of shared labor market networks. The effects on family formation might stem from differential parental treatment for men, and from competition between sisters for women. |
| Keywords: | sibling gender; sex composition; twins; income; schooling; fertility |
| JEL: | J00 J13 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2018–02–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2018_003&r=gen |
| By: | Timo Hener; Tanya Wilson |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of a compulsory schooling reform on marriage market matching using a regression discontinuity design. Our results imply that the formally gender-neutral educational reform has asymmetric impacts for men and women, owing to the pervasive marital age gap and the birthdate discontinuity. We show that treated women decrease the marital age gap to avoid marrying less qualified men. Treated men in contrast are able to marry similarly educated women without substantially changing the age gap. Our estimates indicate that the disruptions for cohorts around the introduction of the reform are economically significant. |
| Keywords: | Marital sorting, spousal age gap, compulsory schooling. |
| JEL: | I28 J12 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ifowps:_256&r=gen |