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on Gender |
| By: | Hospido, Laura; Laeven, Luc; Lamo, Ana |
| Abstract: | We examine gender differences in career progression and promotions in central banking, a stereotypical male-dominated occupation, using confidential anonymized personnel data from the European Central Bank (ECB) during the period 2003-2017. A wage gap emerges between men and women within a few years of hiring, despite broadly similar entry conditions in terms of salary levels and other observables. We also find that women are less likely to be promoted to a higher salary band up until 2010 when the ECB issued a public statement supporting diversity and took several measures to support gender balance. Following this change, the promotion gap disappears. The gender promotion gap prior to this policy change is partly driven by the presence of children. Using 2012-2017 data on promotion applications and decisions, we explore the promotion process in depth, and confirm that during this most recent period women are as likely to be promoted as men. This results from a lower probability of women to apply for promotion, combined with a higher probability of women to be selected conditional on having applied. Following promotion, women perform better in terms of salary progression, suggesting that the higher probability to be selected is based on merit, not positive discrimination. JEL Classification: J16, J31, J41, J63 |
| Keywords: | central banking, gender gaps, promotions, working histories |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20192265&r=all |
| By: | Jeffrey T. Denning; Brian Jacob; Lars Lefgren; Christian vom Lehn |
| Abstract: | We document two empirical phenomena. First, the observational wage returns to hours worked within occupation is small, and even negative in some specifications. Second, the wage return to average hours worked across occupations is large. We develop a conceptual framework that reconciles these facts, where the key insight is that workers choose jobs as a bundle of compensation and expected hours worked. As an example, we apply this framework to the gender wage gap and show how it can explain the view expressed in recent work that hours differences between men and women represent a large and growing component of the gender wage gap. |
| JEL: | J16 J3 J7 |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25739&r=all |
| By: | Drelichman, Mauricio; Gonzalez Agudo, David |
| Abstract: | We exploit the records of a large Toledan hospital to study the compensation of female labor and the gender wage gap in early modern Castile in the context of nursing, a non-gendered low-skill occupation in which men and women performed the same clearly defined tasks. We employ a robust methodology to valuate in-kind compensation, and show it to constitute a central part of the labor contract, far exceeding subsistence requirements. Patient admissions records are used to measure nurse productivity, which did not differ across genders. Female compensation varied between 70% and 100% of male levels, with fluctuations clearly linked to relative labor scarcity. Contrary to common assumptions in the literature, we show that female compensation in early modern Castile was set through a competitive market, and not according to custom. The sources of the gender disparity are therefore likely to be found in the broader social and cultural context. |
| Keywords: | gender gap; discrimination; compensation; early modern; Spain |
| JEL: | N33 N93 J16 |
| Date: | 2019–04–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:bricol:mauricio_drelichman-2019-7&r=all |
| By: | Paryavi, Maliheh (Harvard Kennedy School); Bohnet, Iris (Harvard Kennedy School); van Geen, Alexandra (Harvard Kennedy School) |
| Abstract: | Descriptive norms provide social information on others' typical behaviors and have been shown to lead to prescriptive outcomes by "nudging" individuals towards norm compliance in numerous settings. This paper examines whether descriptive norms lead to prescriptive outcomes in the gender domain. We examine whether such social information can influence the gender distribution of candidates selected by employers in a hiring context. We conduct a series of laboratory experiments where 'employers' decide how many male and female 'employees' they want to hire for male- and female-typed tasks and examine whether employers are more likely to hire more of one gender when informed that others have done so as well. In this set-up descriptive norms do not have prescriptive effects. In fact, descriptive norms do not affect female employers' hiring decisions at all and lead to norm reactance and backlash from male employers when informed that others have hired more women. |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp19-007&r=all |
| By: | Dogan, Pinar (Harvard Kennedy School) |
| Abstract: | Using data from room bookings at the Harvard Kennedy School, I find that female students volunteer significantly more than male students in booking rooms for team meetings. I also find that gender difference in undertaking this logistical task is statistically and quantitatively significant only when students have limited interaction prior to teamwork. Even though booking a room involves a relatively small (time) cost, such costs can add up, and also contribute to gender stereotyping in allocation of tasks in other team settings. |
| JEL: | C71 I23 J16 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp19-001&r=all |
| By: | Barigozzi, Francesca; Cremer, Helmuth; Roeder, Kerstin |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the design of child-care policies when redistribution matters. Traditional mothers provide some informal child care, whereas career mothers purchase full time formal care in the market. The sorting of women across career paths is endogenous and shaped by a social norm about gender roles in the family. Via this social norm traditional mothers' informal child care imposes an externality on career mothers, so that the market outcome is inefficient. Informal care is too large and the group of career mothers is too small so that inefficiency and gender inequality go hand in hand. In a first-best, full information word redistribution across couples and efficiency are separable. Redistribution is performed via lump-sum transfers and taxes which are designed to equalize utilities across all couples. The efficient allocation of child care is obtained by subsidizing formal care at a Pigouvian rate. However, in a second-best settings, we show that a trade-off between the reduction of gender inequality and redistributive considerations emerge. The optimal uniform subsidy is lower than the "Pigouvian" level. Under a nonlinear policy the first-best "Pigouvian" rule for the (marginal) subsidy on informal care is reestablished. While the share of high career mothers continues to be distorted downward for incentive reasons, this policy is effective in reconciling the objectives of reducing the child care related gender inequalities and achieving a more equal income distribution across couples. |
| Keywords: | Child Care; child care subsidies; redistribution; Social norms; women's career choices |
| JEL: | D13 H23 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13675&r=all |
| By: | Yosh Halberstam |
| Abstract: | In the first large-scale study on voice, audio data on lawyers at the top U.S. law firms–a male dominated work environment–show that female lawyers alternate between two voice frequency modes: a primary female mode at about 200 Hz as well as a secondary female mode at about 100 Hz that is coextensive with the primary (and only) male voice frequency mode. This tendency is stronger among female associates than among female partners, and does not replicate for male lawyers or female assistants. Evidence of differences driven by firm heterogeneity is comparatively insignificant, indicating market-wide trends in workplace behavior. |
| Keywords: | labor markets; gender identity; social norms; codeswitching; voice frequency |
| JEL: | D91 J16 J44 M14 Z10 |
| Date: | 2019–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-636&r=all |
| By: | Maximilian Sprengholz; Anna Wieber; Elke Holst |
| Abstract: | We exploit the natural experiment of German reunification in 1990 to investigate if the institutional regimes of the formerly socialist (rather gender-equal) East Germany and the capitalist (rather gender-traditional) West Germany shaped different gender identity prescriptions of family breadwinning. We use data for three periods between 1984 and 2016 from the representative German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Density discontinuity tests and fixed-effects regressions suggest that married couples in West (but not East) Germany diminished the wife’s labor market outcomes in order to avoid situations where she would earn more than him. However, the significance of the male breadwinner prescription seems to decline in West Germany since reunification, converging to the more gender-egalitarian East Germany. Our work emphasizes the view that political and institutional frameworks can shape fairly persistent gender identity prescriptions that influence household economic decisions for some time, even when these frameworks change. |
| Keywords: | Gender identity, Male breadwinner norm, Institutions, Female labor market outcomes, SOEP |
| JEL: | J16 J12 D10 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp1030&r=all |
| By: | Norris, Pippa (Harvard Kennedy School) |
| Abstract: | Monitors report that many elections around the world are flawed by problems of corruption and violence--sometimes both. These malpractices are deeply troubling for electoral integrity and liberal democracy. Do they also serve as critical barriers to women's representation in elected office and thus the achievement of gender equality in parliaments around the world? Part I in this paper sets out the theoretical arguments and reviews what is known from qualitative studies. Part II then considers sources of quantitative evidence, selecting systematic cross-national and time-series indices from the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project. Part III analyzes the impact of corruption and violence on the proportion of women in elected office worldwide, controlling for factors such as levels of democracy and development, electoral laws and gender quotas. Part IV confirms that both legislative corruption and political killings serve as significant constraints on women's election, with important implications for achieving the twin goals of electoral integrity and gender equality in parliamentary representation. |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp19-011&r=all |
| By: | Kessler, Anke; Milligan, Kevin |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the influence of cultural norms on economic outcomes. We combine detailed information on second-generation female immigrants with historical data from their an- cestral source countries to see how the cultural endowment affects current decisions on work and fertility. We show that results using the standard approach are sensitive to context and specification. We then extend to reveal an education gradient for cultural assimilation: lower-educated women exhibit a strong influence of cultural variables while higher educated women show no in- fluence at all. We gather and present evidence on several potential mechanisms for the education gradient. |
| Keywords: | Assimilation; Culture; Fertility; Human Capital; Immigration; Labor Supply |
| JEL: | J16 J22 J61 |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13658&r=all |