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on Gender |
| By: | Marie Hyland (World Bank); Simeon Djankov (Peterson Institute for International Economics); Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg (Peterson Institute for International Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first global look at how gender discrimination by the law affects women’s economic opportunity and charts the evolution of legal inequalities over five decades. Using the World Bank’s newly constructed Women, Business and the Law database, it documents large and persistent gender inequalities, especially with regard to pay and treatment of parenthood. The paper finds positive correlations between more equal laws pertaining to women in the workforce and more equal labor market outcomes, such as higher female labor force participation and a smaller wage gap between men and women. |
| Keywords: | Law, gender, discrimination |
| JEL: | J16 N40 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iie:wpaper:wp20-7&r=all |
| By: | Farré, Lídia (University of Barcelona); Jofre-Monseny, Jordi (University of Barcelona); Torrecillas, Juan (University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the contribution of increasing travel times to the persistent gender gap in labor market participation. In doing so, we estimate the labor supply elasticity of commuting time from a sample of men and women in US cities using microdata from the Census for the last decades. To address endogeneity concerns, we adopt an instrumental variables approach that exploits the shape of cities as an exogenous source of variation for travel times. Our estimates indicate that a 10 minutes increase in commuting decreases the probability of married women to participate in the labor market by 4.6 percentage points. In contrast, the estimated effect on men is small and statistically insignificant. We also find that women with children and immigrant women originating from countries with more gendered social norms respond the most to commuting time variations. This evidence suggests that the higher burden of family responsibilities supported by women may magnify the negative effect of commuting on their labor supply. From our findings, we conclude that the increasing trend in travel times observed in the US and in many European countries during the last decades may have contributed to the persistence of gender disparities in labor market outcomes. |
| Keywords: | commuting time, labor supply, gender roles, family responsibilities, city shape |
| JEL: | R41 J01 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13213&r=all |
| By: | Folke, Olle (Uppsala University); Rickne, Johanna (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | This paper offers a comprehensive empirical analysis of sexual harassment in the Swedish labormarket. First, we use nationally representative survey data linked with employer-employee datato describe rates of self-reported sexual harassment across occupations and workplaces. The riskof sexual harassment is clearly imbalanced across the sex segregated labor market. In gender-mixed and male-dominated occupations and workplaces, women have a higher risk than men,and men have a higher risk than women in female-dominated contexts. We use a hypotheticaljob-choice experiment with vignettes for sexual harassment to measure the disutility of sexualharassment risks. Both men and women have an equally high willingness to pay for avoidingworkplaces where sexual harassment has occurred. But the willingness to pay is conditional onthe sex of the fictional harassment victim. People reject workplaces where the victim is the samesex as themselves, but not where the victim is of the opposite sex. We return to the administrativedata to study employer compensation for the disutility of sexual harassment risks. Withinworkplaces, a high risk is associated with lower, not higher wages. People who self-report sexualharassment also have higher job dissatisfaction, more quit intentions, and more actual quits.Both these patterns indicate a lack of full compensation. We conclude that sexual harassmentshould be conceptualized as gender discrimination in workplace amenities, and that thisdiscrimination reinforces sex segregation and pay-inequalities in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | Gender Inequality; occupational gender segregation; Sexual harassment; workplace amenities |
| JEL: | J16 J24 J81 |
| Date: | 2020–05–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2020_004&r=all |
| By: | Anthony Lepinteur (CREA, Université du Luxembourg); Giorgia Menta (CREA, Université du Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | We here use data from the British Cohort Study (BCS) to link family size to age-16 children's contribution to household chores and the adult housework gender gap. Assuming that home production is an increasing function of family size and using an instrument to account for the endogeneity of fertility, we show that larger families have a different effect on boys and girls at age 16: girls in large families are significantly more likely to contribute to housework, with no effect for boys. We then show that childhood family size affects the housework gender gap between the cohort members and their partners at age 34. Women who grew up in larger families are more likely to carry out a greater share of household tasks in adulthood, as compared to women from smaller families. In addition, larger families at age 16 make cohort members more likely to sort into households with a larger housework gender gap. We show that the persistent effect of family size is due to the adoption of behaviours and attitudes in line with traditional gender roles: a lower likelihood of employment and shorter commutes for women, along with a higher employment probability for men. Last, the family-size effect here is mostly driven by low-income families, so that the outsourcing of household tasks may help to sustain fertility without aggravating the gender housework gap |
| Keywords: | Housework Gender Gap, Family Size, Instrumental Variables. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 D13 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:20-04&r=all |
| By: | Gerst, Benedikt (RWTH Aachen University); Grund, Christian (RWTH Aachen University) |
| Abstract: | Although male employees are increasingly making use of parental leave, gender differences in both usage and duration of parental leave are still prevalent. In this contribution, we explore the role of gender for the relation between the incidence/duration of parental leave and earnings after returning to a job. We use data on middle managers in the German chemical industry and show that parental leave pay gaps are much more severe for males than they are for females. |
| Keywords: | compensation, gender, parental leave, stigma, wages |
| JEL: | M52 M12 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13216&r=all |
| By: | Avram, Silvia; Popova, Daria |
| Abstract: | We complement the institutional literature on gender and the welfare state by examining how taxes and transfers affect the incomes of men and women. Using microsimulation and intra-household income splitting rules, we measure the differences in the level and composition of individual disposable incomes of men and women in eight European countries covering various welfare regime types. We quantify the extent to which taxes and transfers are able to close the gender gap in earnings, as well as which policy instruments contribute most to reducing the gap. We find that with the exception of old-age pensions, taxes and transfers – both contributory and means-tested – significantly reduce gender income inequality but cannot compensate for high gender earnings gaps. The equalizing effect of benefits is higher than that of taxes but varies significantly not only across countries but also across groups with different demographic characteristics. |
| Date: | 2020–05–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:emodwp:em9-20&r=all |
| By: | Georgios Efthyvoulou; Pantelis Kammas; Vassilis Sarantides |
| Abstract: | The electoral law of 31 May 1952 extended the voting rights to all adult women in Greece. This paper examines the impact of womenÕs enfranchisement on party vote shares by employing a unique dataset of 385 communities located in seven prefectures in Greece where by-elections took place in 1953 and 1954 (for strictly exogenous reasons). To estimate causal effects, we exploit the observed heterogeneity in the proportion of women in the electorate across communities as the identifying source of variation, and employ a difference-in-differences design that holds unobserved local characteristics fixed. Our results provide strong evidence in favour of the Òtraditional gender voting gapÓ (women voting more conservatively compared to men) in the urban prefecture of Thessaloniki, and no evidence of gender voting differences in the remaining (six) predominantly rural prefectures of our sample. Our results also reveal that the existence of a gender voting gap is highly conditional upon the proportion of economically inactive women; that is, women tend to vote for right parties when they are outside of the labour force. Interestingly, when we account for this conditionality, a suffrage-induced pro-right shift can also be observed in communities outside Thessaloniki. Building on the economic bargaining models of the family, we argue that, in an economic environment characterized by limited demand for female labour force participation, women support more vigorously the sanctity and the strength of family values and tend to vote more conservatively compared to men. |
| Keywords: | womenÕs suffrage; political preferences; womenÕs labour market participation |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hel:greese:146&r=all |
| By: | Wiborg, Vegard Sjurseike (University of Oslo); Brekke, Kjell Arne (University of Oslo); Nyborg, Karine (University of Oslo) |
| Abstract: | If individual abilities are imperfectly observable, statistical discrimination may affect hiring decisions. In our lab experiment, pairs of subjects solve simple mathematical problems. Subjects then hire others to perform similar tasks. Before choosing whom to hire, they receive information about the past scores of pairs, not of individuals. We vary the observability of individuals' abilities by ordering pair members either according to performance, or alphabetically by nickname. We find no evidence of gender discrimination in either treatment, however, possibly indicating that gender stereotypes are of limited importance in the context of our study. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, collaboration, alphabetic, gender |
| JEL: | C91 J71 A13 D83 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13225&r=all |