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on Gender |
| By: | Robert Hill; Tim Köhler (Development Policy Research Unit, University of Cape Town) |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic has had severe and potentially long-lasting impacts on the South African economy since the onset of the national lockdown in March 2020. These effects have not been equally distributed. Employment effects have been disproportionately felt by several vulnerable groups, including women. However, few authors have examined the outcomes of those who retained their jobs, especially in developing countries. In this light, this paper uses new representative survey data to investigate whether gender wage inequality has deepened among job retainers in South Africa. We estimate the conditional and unconditional gender wage gaps at the mean, showing that women earned 29% less than men per hour prior to South Africa’s national lockdown, expanding to 43% less during June 2020. We proceed to use Recentred Influence Function (RIF) regressions to estimate the gender wage gap across the wage distribution given evidence of heterogeneity in South Africa. We find that the gap exists at almost all points of the distribution in both periods, but it has deepened significantly amongst the poorest 40% of earners. This finding is robust to a reweighting sample selection correction. We argue that this increased wage inequality was driven by a reduction in working hours amongst women relative to men due to an increased childcare burden during the lockdown. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, NIDS-CRAM, Wave 2, South Africa, gender wage inequality Recentred Influence Function (RIF) regressions, lockdown |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctw:wpaper:202101&r= |
| By: | Livini Donath; Oliver Morrissey; Trudy Owens |
| Abstract: | This paper employs Recentered Influence Function (RIF) regressions to examine the distributional effect of education on earnings in East Africa, using data from the Living Standards and Measurement Study (LSMS) for Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda. Taking into consideration the pay period of the workers, the paper investigates how education affects earnings at various points of the earnings distribution; how education affects earnings inequality; and how much of the gender gap in earnings can be attributed to gender differences in educational attainment. Results show heterogenous effects of education on earnings along the earnings distribution in all pay periods. Generally, the effect is more substantial for workers reporting monthly earnings than their daily and weekly counterparts. The results also show that in each pay period, there is significant wage inequality between workers in the top decile of earnings and those in the bottom four deciles. Education can either increase or reduce wage inequality depending on the period in which the worker is paid, i.e., education is associated with an increase in inequality for workers paid weekly and reduced inequality for those paid daily and monthly. Significant gender gaps in earnings were found for Tanzania and Uganda but not for Malawi. The decomposition results suggest that gender differences in educational attainment significantly explain the gender wage gap for Tanzania and Uganda. The paper recommends, rather than pooling, researchers should obtain separate estimate for each period for more reliable results |
| Keywords: | Earnings decomposition, wage inequality, pay period, Tanzania |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notcre:21/02&r= |
| By: | Nguyen, Cuong Viet; Tran, Anh Ngoc |
| Abstract: | The FIFA Soccer World Cups often happen within one month just before the national entrance exam to universities and colleges in Vietnam. Watching soccer matches can distract male students from their studies and reduce their probability to pass the exam. We find that Vietnamese men who had the university entrance exam during the FIFA Soccer World Cups tend to have a lower proportion of having a bachelor's degree. Exposure to World Cups also reduces the probability of having a formal job, a high-skilled job and management position for men. Using the exposure to World Cups as a natural shock for tertiary education, we find a large and positive effect of tertiary education on employment. It confirms the important role of education in reducing gender gap in employment. |
| Keywords: | Return to education,employment,gender gap,World Cup,Vietnam |
| JEL: | J16 J21 I25 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:893&r= |
| By: | Simon Rabaté (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis) |
| Abstract: | Having children can result in large earnings penalties for mothers. Using extensive administrative data from the Netherlands, we assess the magnitude and drivers of the effects of first childbirth on parents' earnings trajectories in the Netherlands. We show that mothers' earnings are 46% lower compared to their pre-birth earnings trajectory, whereas fathers' earnings are unaffected by child birth. We examine the role of two potential determinants of the unequal distribution of parents' labour market costs by gender: childcare policies and gender norms. We find that while child care availability is correlated with lower child penalty, the immediate short-term causal effect of increasing child care availability on the earnings penalty of becoming a mother is small. By taking advantage of variation in gender norms in different population groups, we show that gender norms are strongly correlated with child penalty for mothers. Having children can result in large earnings penalties for mothers. Using extensive administrative data from the Netherlands, we assess the magnitude and drivers of the effects of first childbirth on parents' earnings trajectories in the Netherlands. We show that mothers' earnings are 46% lower compared to their pre-birth earnings trajectory, whereas fathers' earnings are unaffected by child birth. We examine the role of two potential determinants of the unequal distribution of parents' labour market costs by gender: childcare policies and gender norms. We find that while child care availability is correlated with lower child penalty, the immediate short-term causal effect of increasing child care availability on the earnings penalty of becoming a mother is small. By taking advantage of variation in gender norms in different population groups, we show that gender norms are strongly correlated with child penalty for mothers. |
| JEL: | I26 I32 J13 |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:424.rdf&r= |
| By: | ENDO Yuya; ONO Yoshikuni |
| Abstract: | What stereotypes do Japanese voters have regarding men and women politicians? Women are extremely underrepresented in Japanese politics, and one possible reason for the underrepresentation is that voters have gender-based stereotypes that put women candidates at a disadvantage. Numerous studies have revealed the gender stereotypes of voters in the United States, but little is known whether Japanese voters have similar stereotypes as those found in the United Sates. In order to clarify gender stereotypes in the context of Japanese politics, we conducted a survey of approximately 3,000 Japanese voters in March 2020, employing the same questions and question format as used in a study conducted in the United States. Our results revealed similar stereotypes for men and women politicians regarding policy areas of expertise and salient personal characteristics as those found in the United States. We also found that gender stereotypes were shared among women voters as well as men voters, and that they varied by age and party support. These results are important because if gender stereotypes have any influence on voter decisions, then candidates and politicians may try to achieve the best results by acting in line with the stereotypes of their target constituencies to maximize their electoral support. |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:21061&r= |
| By: | Emilia Barili (University of Genoa); Veronica Grembi (University of Milan); Anna Rosso (University of Milan, Centro Studi Luca d’Agliano and CEP) |
| Abstract: | Using a new measure of the strength of gender stereotypes defined at the individual level and based on responses to a survey conducted with more than 4,500 Italian women in July 2020, we show that women with stronger stereotypes are more likely to state that they know a victim of violence but are not more likely to state that violence (physical or psychological) is widespread in their area of residence. They are also more likely to rank behaviours meant to control a victim’s interpersonal contacts and access to financial resources as more serious than physically and sexually violent behaviours and to justify violent acts using distressing, event-specific circumstances (e.g., a period of economic distress) rather than the deep-seated psychological issues of the attackers. Finally, when personal stereotyping is stronger, respondents are more likely to suggest that a hypothetical victim of violence either not react to or deal directly with the partner rather than look for formal help. Using different controls for the impact of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on the respondents’ personal and economic lives does not affect our main findings. |
| Keywords: | Gender Stereotypes, Domestic Violence Perceptions, Justifications for Violent Behaviour, COVID-19 |
| JEL: | J12 I18 |
| Date: | 2021–06–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:474&r= |
| By: | Kumar, Anand; Sahoo, Soham |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the role of social identity, namely gender and caste of individuals, in stream choice at the higher secondary level of schooling in India. We analyze the choice of science stream that is a crucial determinant of subsequent science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related education and labour market outcomes. Using three rounds of nationally representative surveys between 2007 and 2018, we estimate regression models including household characteristics and fixed effects to control for region-specific unobserved heterogeneity. We find that females and individuals belonging to historically disadvantaged social groups (castes) are significantly less likely to study science. On average, female students enrolled in higher secondary education have 9 percentage points lower probability than male students to study science during the period considered for the analysis. For students belonging to the socially disadvantaged groups – Scheduled Tribes (ST), Scheduled Caste (SC), and Other Backward Classes (OBC), the likelihood of studying science is significantly lower by 6.9, 4.4, and 2.7 percentage points, respectively, than students from the less-disadvantaged groups. Using decomposition analysis, we show that the differences in the observable characteristics such as economic affluence and household head’s education significantly explain some portion of the caste-based gaps, but they do not explain the gender gap that persists even in an intra-household comparison. We also test for the intersectionality of the overlapping identities of gender and caste in this context. We find evidence of cumulative disadvantages for females of SC and OBC groups, but lower gender disparity among ST students indicating the presence of intersectionality for this group. Thus, our paper highlights social identity as an important determinant of STEM-related education that may have long-term implications for the economic welfare of disadvantaged groups. |
| Keywords: | Post-secondary education,STEM,Gender,Caste,Intersectionality,India |
| JEL: | I24 J15 J16 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:900&r= |
| By: | Laura Pagani; Giovanni Pica |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether exposure to academically gifted peers of the same and opposite gender in primary school (grade 5, at age 10) affects later academic achievement (grade 8, at age 13) and high-school track choice. For identification we exploit random allocation of kids across classes within primary schools. We document that, conditional on primary school fixed effects and grade 8 class fixed effects, as well as on baseline achievement, a higher share of same/opposite-gender high-achievers in math in primary school is related, both for boys and girls, to better/worse later math academic achievement in grade 8 and to a higher/lower probability of choosing a scientific high-school track. We argue that these results are consistent with a role model channel. |
| Keywords: | Peer effects, early education stage, gender-specific effects |
| JEL: | I21 I24 J24 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mib:wpaper:474&r= |