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on Gender |
| By: | Johannesson, Louise (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Kyvik Nordås, Hildegunn (Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Norway,) |
| Abstract: | Standing at 24% in 2018, India’s female labour force participation is only half of the global average (48%). At the same time, India has one of the widest gender wage gaps in the world and women are less likely to be employed in the formal sector compared to men. This study focuses on the role of international trade as a source of increased competitive pressure in domestic markets, and how it affects relative wages and formal employment between men and women. Using the Revealed Symmetrical Comparative Advantage index, sectors of comparative advantage and disadvantage are identified and matched on Indian labour force surveys that contain information on sectoral employment and earnings. We find that sectors of comparative advantage in services have the lowest gender wage gap, with women earning 24% less than their male counterpart, while women in manufacturing earned on average 40% less than male workers. The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition shows that the total gender wage gap in sectors of comparative advantage in services are minor while it is quite substantial in manufacturing, regardless of the comparative advantage. The study concludes that trade goes hand in hand with a smaller gender wage gap in the services sectors as it allows women to leverage their skills better than in manufacturing. |
| Keywords: | Gender; International trade; Jobs; Earnings |
| JEL: | F14 F16 |
| Date: | 2020–08–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1348&r=all |
| By: | Ata Can Bertay; Ljubica Dordevic; Can Sever |
| Abstract: | We study whether higher gender equality facilitates economic growth by enabling better allocation of a valuable resource: female labor. By allocating female labor to its more productive use, we hypothesize that reducing gender inequality should disproportionately benefit industries with typically higher female share in their employment relative to other industries. Specifically, we exploit within-country variation across industries to test whether those that typically employ more women grow relatively faster in countries with ex-ante lower gender inequality. The test allows us to identify the causal effect of gender inequality on industry growth in value-added and labor productivity. Our findings show that gender inequality affects real economic outcomes. |
| Date: | 2020–07–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:20/119&r=all |
| By: | Tharp, Derek; Parks-Stamm, Elizabeth; Lurtz, Meghaan; Kitces, Michael |
| Abstract: | This study examined marriage and parental income premiums among financial advisors. Financial advisors provide an interesting context for exploring such premiums, as financial advising is a historically male-dominated profession that has been found to exhibit large unadjusted gender pay gaps. Using a large sample of financial advisors recruited via a professional continuing education website (n=555), this study investigates whether gender differences exist among financial advisors with respect to the marriage premium, the parenthood premium, the parental leave effect, and the stay-at-home spouse premium. This study examined premiums both with and without potentially endogenous human capital covariates. Without including potentially endogenous covariates, a marriage premium was observed among men but not women, a parenthood premium was observed among women but not men, a parental leave premium was observed among neither men nor women, and a stay-at-home spouse premium was observed among men but not women. When potentially endogenous covariates were included, a marriage penalty was observed among women but not men, a parenthood premium was observed among women while a parenthood penalty observed among men, a parental leave premium was observed among men but not women, and a stay-at-home spouse premium was observed among men while a stay-at-home spouse penalty was observed among women. Exploratory Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analyses revealed sizeable unadjusted income gaps by gender (16.7%), marriage (32.8%), parenthood (8.1%), parental leave (16.7%), and spousal employment (39.8%). |
| Date: | 2020–07–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:7k95t&r=all |
| By: | Titan Alon (University of California San Diego); Matthias Doepke (Northwestern University); Jane Olmstead-Rumsey (Northwestern University) |
| Abstract: | In recent US recessions, employment losses have been much larger for men than for women. Yet, in the current recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the opposite is true: unemployment is higher among women. In this paper, we analyze the causes and consequences of this phenomenon. We argue that women have experienced sharp employment losses both because their employment is concentrated in heavily affected sectors such as restaurants, and due to increased childcare needs caused by school and daycare closures, preventing many women from working. We analyze the repercussions of this trend using a quantitative macroeconomic model featuring heterogeneity in gender, marital status, childcare needs, and human capital. Our quantitative analysis suggests that a pandemic recession will i) feature a strong transmission from employment to aggregate demand due to diminished within-household insurance; ii) result in a widening of the gender wage gap throughout the recovery; and iii) contribute to a weakening of the gender norms that currently produce a lopsided distribution of the division of labor in home work and childcare. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, gender, marital status, human capital |
| JEL: | I14 J16 E24 |
| Date: | 2020–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2020-057&r=all |
| By: | Aksoy, Cevat Giray; Ozcan, Berkay; Philipp, Julia |
| Abstract: | Could robotization make the gender pay gap worse? We provide the first large-scale evidence on the impact of industrial robots on the gender pay gap using data from 20 European countries. We show that robot adoption increases both male and female earnings but also increases the gender pay gap. Using an instrumental variable strategy, we find that a ten percent increase in robotization leads to a 1.8 percent increase in the gender pay gap. These results are mainly driven by countries with high levels of gender inequality and outsourcing destination countries. We then explore the mechanisms behind this effect and find that our results can be explained by the fact that men at medium- and high-skill occupations disproportionately benefit from robotization (through a productivity effect). We rule out the possibility that our results are driven by mechanical changes in the gender composition of the workforce nor by inflows or outflows from the manufacturing sector. |
| Date: | 2020–07–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:rxkg2&r=all |
| By: | Deepak Malghan; Hema Swaminathan |
| Abstract: | Emerging evidence suggests that COVID-19 has amplified existing gender divisions that disadvantage women. What is the appropriate unit of analysis to study the gendered impact of a pandemic? The study of gendered inequality – especially labor market opportunities and outcomes – has for the large part relied on population wide differences between men and women. Using over four decades of global data (n =2.85 million couple units, from 45 countries in the LIS repository) we show that intra-household earnings inequality within a household is systemic, prevalent across disparate societies, and across the entire earnings distribution. Our analysis shows why accounting for intra-household gender inequality is crucial to ameliorating the pandemic’s gendered impact. |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lis:liswps:797&r=all |
| By: | Piera Bello (Istituto di economia politica (IDEP), Facoltà di scienze economiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies gender-based price discrimination in the annuity market. The dataset consists of transaction-level data on the universe of individuals accessing the Chilean annuity market in the 2004-2017 period. It exploits the fact that, in Chile, individuals can access the annuity market through three different channels: an independent financial advisor, a sales agent at a company, or directly at a PFA (Pension Fund Administrator). The analysis shows that sales agents severely distort prices to the detriment of women customers. Women who consult sales agents pay higher transaction prices compared to the other two groups of women, while there is no variation in men’s prices across the three channels for market access. Additional evidence shows that this is not driven by differences in negotiation skills or type of annuity product purchased but rather by differences in initial prices. Firms charge higher initial prices to women who access the market through one of their sales agents. These results are consistent with an explanation that links the lack of competition between firms to discriminatory behaviour against female customers. Gender differences in financial literacy might explain why firms find it profitable to offer higher prices to women. |
| Keywords: | annuity market, insurers, gender, bargaining, statistical inference |
| JEL: | J16 C78 G22 D81 |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lug:wpidep:2002&r=all |
| By: | Alaref,Jumana Jamal Subhi; Nikaein Towfighian,Samira; Paez Salamanca,Gustavo Nicolas; Audah,Mohammed Thabet M |
| Abstract: | The role of employer discrimination in widening labor market differences between men and women has been hypothesized and investigated in different settings. Using a field experiment, this paper examines the presence and magnitude of gender-based discrimination by employers at the point of screening in Tunisia. The study sent out 1,571 fictitious and substantially identical pairs of male and female resumes in response to online job advertisements. On average, women were 2.4 percentage points more likely than men to receive a callback from an employer. However, this average effect hides substantial heterogeneity across economic sectors. In the information technology sector, women were 15 percentage points less likely to receive a callback than men. No discrimination against or in favor of women is found in engineering, whereas in marketing and finance, women were 19 and 4 percentage points more likely to receive a callback, respectively. The paper also finds that, unlike men, women may suffer from discrimination based on their physical appearance. Veiled women were 8.5 percentage points less likely to receive a callback than non-veiled women. Overall, the findings suggest that, at the point of screening, employer discrimination against women in Tunisia is sector specific, and, on its own, it cannot fully explain the complex challenge of female unemployment in the country. |
| Date: | 2020–08–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9361&r=all |
| By: | Yining Geng |
| Abstract: | The investments parents make in their children can be gender specific. I study the impact of family planning policies on gender-specific outcomes. Empirically, this paper uses China’s Family Planning Policy (FPP), enacted in 1971, to understand how a reduction in the number of children in a family can generate gender-specific outcomes. I mainly use the diff-in-diff strategy to compare the educational outcomes of boys and of girls born before and after the FPP was implemented. I find that while post-FPP-born children generally complete higher levels of education, this effect is particularly stronger for girls. This finding is robust to (1) using the diff-in-diff-in-diff strategy by incorporating another dimension of variation: different fertility constraints imposed by the FPP on the ethnic majority Han than those imposed on ethnic minorities; and (2) using a different measure of educational outcomes: the probability of pursuing an education beyond the compulsory education period. In addition, I document that the FPP also has an impact on changing women’s preference for their child’s gender. Post-FPP-born women show a more pronounced change in gender attitudes and exhibit less son preference than their male counterparts. |
| Keywords: | Family Planning Policy; Fertility; Education; Gender Inequality. |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:liv:livedp:202009&r=all |
| By: | Victoria Costoya (CEDH-Universidad de San Andres); Lucía Echeverría (CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata and CEDH-Universidad de San Andrés, CEDH-Universidad de San Andres); María Edo (CEDH-Universidad de San Andres); Ana Rocha (CEDH-Universidad de San Andres); Agustina Thailinger (CEDH-Universidad de San Andres) |
| Abstract: | The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown policies on gender gaps remains unclear. While some studies point to equalizing factors (domestic work becomes more visible, flexible remote work arrangements expand) others highlight the potentially inequitable effects associated to women increasing their already disproportionate burden regarding housework and childcare. This paper provides evidence for Argentina. Based on a novel survey, we track changes in time allocation patterns of couples, before and during lockdown. Our results indicate that on average men allocate more time to paid work and less time to unpaid work (housework, childcare, educational support) than women. These within-couple gender gaps suffered opposite changes during lockdown: while the former reduces, the latter increases. However, given the fact that changes in paid work may be driven by more external forces linked to the labor market while modifications in unpaid work allocation probably reflect results of bargaining processes within couples, the latter may probably have longer lasting consequences. |
| Keywords: | time allocation; unpaid work; within-couple gender gaps; COVID19 |
| JEL: | D10 D13 J16 |
| Date: | 2020–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sad:wpaper:145&r=all |
| By: | Michelle Holder; Janelle Jones; Thomas Masterson |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic seemingly appeared out of nowhere but changed nearly everything. As the pandemic unfolded, industries deemed nonessential were leveled. Many occupations in these industries are low-wage, and women constitute a greater share of America's low-wage labor force than men. Even as some workers were able to do their jobs from their homes, a high proportion of "essential workers" were African American, other people of color, women, and an intersection of these groups--women of color. The goal of this paper is to closely examine the contours, depth, and causes of COVID-19's impact on Black women's employment in the United States through the lenses of both feminist economic theory and stratification economics. |
| Keywords: | Occupational Segregation; Racial Discrimination; Gender Discrimination; COVID-19 |
| JEL: | J15 J16 J21 |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_963&r=all |
| By: | Zehra Aftab (Faculty Fellow, American University.) |
| Abstract: | The paper aims to learn more about how the lives of enrolled children is different from non-students. Findings show that while girls and boys are substituting unpaid and paid work respectively for the gender neutral activity of learning, there is no evidence to show that school enrolment changes the patterns of gender roles as girls continue to perform more care work and public arenas remain a heavily masculinised space. |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pid:wpaper:2020:18&r=all |
| By: | Elsayed, Ahmed (IZA); Marie, Olivier (Erasmus University Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | Exploiting a unique policy reform in Egypt that reduced the number of years of compulsory schooling, we show how it unexpectedly increased education attainment as more students chose to complete the next school stage. This impact is almost entirely driven by girls from more disadvantaged households. Treated women later experienced important positive improvements in labor market opportunity and marriage quality, as measured by bride price received and household bargaining power. We attribute the increased investment in daughters' human capital to changes in the behavior of credit-constrained families facing reduced school costs combined with strongly non-linear returns to female education. |
| Keywords: | school costs, education investment, gender bias, female labor market, marriage, bride price, Egypt |
| JEL: | I21 I25 J24 O55 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13402&r=all |