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on Gender |
| By: | Bhalotra, Sonia R. (University of Essex); Fernandez Sierra, Manuel (University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | We analyse impacts of the rising labor force participation of women on the gender wage gap. We formulate and structurally estimate an equilibrium model of the labor market in which the elasticity of substitution between male and female labor is allowed to vary depending on the task content of occupations. We find that the elasticity of substitution is higher in high- paying occupations that are intensive in abstract and analytical tasks than in low-paying manual and routine occupations. Consistent with this we find a narrowing of the gender wage gap towards the upper end of the wage distribution and an increase in the gender wage gap at the low end. Demand side trends favoured women and this attenuated the supply-driven downward pressure on women's wages in low-paying occupations, and fully counteracted it in high-paying occupations. The paper contributes new evidence on the distribution of the gender wage gaps, and contributes to a wider literature on technological change, occupational sorting, wage inequality and polarization. |
| Keywords: | female labour force participation, gender wage gap, technological change, supply-demand framework, task-based approach, wage distribution |
| JEL: | J16 J21 J24 J31 O33 |
| Date: | 2018–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11640&r=gen |
| By: | Mary Ann Bronson (Georgetown University) |
| Abstract: | Why do women's wages grow more slowly than men's? Theory indicates that wages grow both as workers progress up an internal "career ladder," and as they switch firms and move up the "job ladder" to higher-paying firms. In this paper, we use employer-employee linked data from Sweden to non-parametrically decompose cumulative wage growth of men and women at each age into wage gains associated with firm changes, and within-firm growth. We then decompose within-firm growth into (1) large wage increases relative to one's co-workers, or promotions, and (2) interim (non-promotion) growth. We find that Swedish women switch firms at almost identical rates as men over the lifecycle, and upgrade to higher-paying firms at only slightly lower rates as men. However, they have substantially lower promotion rates at all ages, even accounting for firm, major, and occupation. Though relatively rare, promotions are the largest driver of wage growth by 45 for both men and women. Gender differences in promotion-related growth account for around 73 to 83% of the differences in lifecycle wage growth of college-educated men and women from ages 25 to 45. Differences in wage growth associated with firm changes account for 28%, while interim, non-promotion growth is slightly higher for women. Gender differences in sorting across firms with steeper vs. flatter wage structures explain only about 10% of differences in promotion probability. Lastly, we study hours worked and the evolution of the promotion gap with time to first birth. We use our findings to explain why childbirth penalties for women are so large, immediate and persistent; why gender wage differentials vary across professions; and what contributes to gender differences in firm wage premiums estimated using AKM. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed018:923&r=gen |
| By: | Anne Ardila Brenøe |
| Abstract: | I examine how one central aspect of the childhood family environment—sibling gender composition—affects women's gender conformity, measured through their choice of occupation and partner. Using Danish administrative data, I causally estimate the effect of having a second-born brother relative to a sister for first-born women. The results show that women with a brother acquire more traditional gender norms with negative consequences for their labor earnings. I provide evidence of increased gender-specialized parenting in families with mixed-sex children, suggesting a stronger transmission of traditional gender norms. Finally, I find indications of persistent effects to the next generation of girls. |
| Keywords: | Gender identity, sibling gender, occupational choice, family formation |
| JEL: | I2 J1 J3 |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:econwp:294&r=gen |
| By: | Claudia Goldin; Adriana Lleras-Muney |
| Abstract: | Females live longer than males in most parts of the world today. Among OECD nations in recent years, the difference in life expectancy at birth is around four to six years (seven in Japan). But have women always lived so much longer than men? The answer is that they have not. We ask when and why the female advantage emerged. We show that reductions in maternal mortality and fertility are not the reasons. Rather, we argue that the sharp reduction in infectious disease in the early twentieth century played a role. The primary reason is that those who survive most infectious diseases carry a health burden that affects organs, such as the heart, as well as impacting general well-being. We use new data from Massachusetts containing information on causes of death from 1887 to show that infectious diseases disproportionately affected females between the ages of 5 and 25. Increased longevity of women, therefore, occurred as the burden of infectious disease fell for all. Our explanation does not tell us why women live longer than men, but it does help understand the timing of the increase. |
| JEL: | J1 J16 N0 |
| Date: | 2018–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24716&r=gen |
| By: | Campus, Daniela |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the empirical evidence on the gender differences in agricultural productivity. Using detailed household and individual data from the Uganda LSMS-ISA (2009-10; 2010-11) we estimate the value of productivity of crops grown per acre of harvested land at the household level, based on the gender of the land manager. Results from the Tobit model with fixed effects confirm the findings of the existing literature: controlling also for socio-economic variables and plot characteristics (soil quality, topography, distance from the homestead), as well as for the use of inputs (both labour and other inputs than labour) female managed plots are less productive than plots managed by men. Better individual agricultural data disaggregated by gender may allow to better identify the reasons of such productivity gap. |
| Keywords: | Food Security and Poverty, Productivity Analysis |
| Date: | 2017–07–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aiea17:261259&r=gen |
| By: | Platt, Lucinda; Polavieja, Javier |
| Abstract: | The persistence of gender inequalities in the division of paid and unpaid work poses an important question for gender socialization research: what matters most for the intergenerational transmission of gender-role attitudes, parental own attitudes or parental behaviours? Recent explanations in cultural economics suggest that intentional attitudinal transmission is the main driver of cultural reproduction. In line with classical sex-role learning models, we contend, however, that what parents do is at least as important as what parents say for gender-role transmission. Using data for British children aged between 11 and 15 we estimate the independent influence of each of these two socialization channels on children’s attitudes towards the sexual division of labour (ASDL). We show that both parental attitudes and parental behaviours are crucial in the formation of children’s ASDL, and that parental influences are stronger when they operate through same-sex dyads. We also show that mothers’ time out of the labour force is a stronger predictor of children’s ASDL than either mothers’ or fathers’ own attitudes. Finally, analysis of a subset of the children followed into their early adult lives shows that ASDL formed in childhood have significant and lasting consequences for both adults’ gender attitudes and their behaviours. |
| Keywords: | gender-role attitudes; children; parental socialization; behavioural sex-role modelling; British household panel survey; UKHLS |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:67302&r=gen |
| By: | Sascha O. Becker (University of Warwick); Ana Fernandes (Berner Fachhochschule; University of Fri); Doris Weichselbaumer (University of Linz) |
| Abstract: | We conducted a large scale correspondence test in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria to examine whether employers discriminate among job candidates concerning family status. In German speaking countries, CVs routinely include detailed information about the job candidate's personal characteristics. We considered thirty-year-old job applicants seeking secretarial or accounting positions. We found that having a family (indicated by marriage and the presence of children and their ages, or by being married but childless) does not affect the job candidate's chances of being called back for an interview for a full-time job. However, women were significantly less likely to receive a callback compared to men if the applicant's skills were not a good fit for the advertised position, if they lived far from the workplace, or when applying to large companies. Such gender asymmetric callback decisions are likely the result of subconscious decision making. Our results remain even after controlling for differences in the variance of unobservable determinants of productivity across applicants with and without a family. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed018:650&r=gen |