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on Gender |
| By: | Libertad González Luna; Hosny Zoabi |
| Abstract: | We consider a non-cooperative model of the household, in which the husband and wife decide on parental leave and the allocation of time between child rearing and the labor market. They can choose the non-cooperative outside option or cooperate by reaching an agreement of specialization in which the wife specializes in raising kids (home production) while the husband works and transfers consumption to his wife. The model identifies three distinct groups of couples: Egalitarian couples (with a sufficiently low gender wage gap), Intermediate-gap couples (with an intermediate gender wage gap) and high-gap couples (with a sufficiently high gender wage gap). Our model predicts that while egalitarian couples never specialize and always share home production, those with intermediate and high gaps do have such an agreement. An expansion in paternity leave reduces the net benefits from the agreement and moves the intermediate-gap couples to their outside option where women work more and men do more home production. As a result, the cost of raising children increases and fertility declines. Assuming a loss of utility from children in the case of divorce, lower fertility increases the probability of divorce. Using Spanish data and RDD analysis, we confirm our model’s predictions. Specifically, while we don’t find systematic effects of paternity leave expansion on egalitarian and high-gap couples, we find that, among intermediate-gap couples, the two-week paternity leave introduced in 2007 resulted in a reduction in fertility by up to 60%, an increase in the probability to divorce by 37%, and an increase in father’s childcare and housework time as much as 2-3 hours per day. |
| Keywords: | Gender equality, specialization, fertility, divorce, time allocation |
| JEL: | D13 J12 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1806&r= |
| By: | Bonsang, Eric (Université Paris-Dauphine); Caroli, Eve (Université Paris-Dauphine); Garrouste, Clémentine (Université Paris-Dauphine) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the gender gap in hypertension misreporting using the French Constances cohort. We show that false negative reporting of hypertension is more frequent among men than among women, even after conditioning on a series of individual characteristics. As a second step, we investigate the causes of the gender gap in hypertension misreporting. We show that women go to the doctor more often than men do and that they have better knowledge of their family medical history. Once these differences are taken into account, the gender gap in false negative reporting of hypertension is reversed. This suggests that information acquisition and healthcare utilisation are crucial ingredients in fighting undiagnosed male hypertension. |
| Keywords: | gender, objective health, subjective health, hypertension, false negative reporting |
| JEL: | I10 I12 J18 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14742&r= |
| By: | Renée B Adams; Roman Kräussl; Marco Navone (Finance Discipline Group, University of Technology Sydney); Patrick Verwijmeren |
| Abstract: | We provide evidence that culture is a source of pricing bias. In a sample of 1.9 million auction transactions in 49 countries, paintings by female artists sell at an unconditional discount of 42.1%. The gender discount increases with measures of country-level gender inequality—even in artist fixed effects regressions. Our results are robust to accounting for potential gender differences in art characteristics and their liquidity. Evidence from two experiments supports the argument that women’s art may sell for less because it is made by women. However, the gender discount reduces over time as gender equality increases. |
| JEL: | D44 J16 Z11 |
| Date: | 2021–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uts:ppaper:2021-4&r= |
| By: | Mr. John C Bluedorn; Mr. Niels-Jakob H Hansen; Mr. Ippei Shibata; Francesca G Caselli; Ms. Marina Mendes Tavares |
| Abstract: | Early evidence on the pandemic’s effects pointed to women’s employment falling disproportionately, leading observers to call a “she-cession.” This paper documents the extent and persistence of this phenomenon in a quarterly sample of 38 advanced and emerging market economies. We show that there is a large degree of heterogeneity across countries, with over half to two-thirds exhibiting larger declines in women’s than men’s employment rates. These gender differences in COVID-19’s effects are typically short-lived, lasting only a quarter or two on average. We also show that she-cessions are strongly related to COVID-19’s impacts on gender shares in employment within sectors. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19 recession; Employment; Gender; sectoral employment; labor force participation contribution; gender gap change; labor market change; sectoral workforce composition; Employment rate; Women; Gender inequality; Labor markets; Global |
| Date: | 2021–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2021/095&r= |
| By: | Magda, Iga (Warsaw School of Economics); Lipowska, Katarzyna (Institute for Structural Research (IBS)) |
| Abstract: | We use data from the 2019 EU Labor Force Survey to study gender and parenthood gaps in two dimensions of flexibility in working time arrangements in 25 European countries. We find that overall in Europe, there is no statistically significant gender difference in access to flexible work arrangements. However, women are less likely than men to have flexible working hours in the Central-Eastern and Southern European countries, whereas this gender gap is reversed in Continental Europe. At the same time, women are less likely than men to face demands from their employers that they work flexible hours. We also find that both mothers and fathers are more likely than their childless colleagues to have access to flexible working hours, but that fathers' workplaces are more likely than mothers' workplaces to demand temporal flexibility from employees. In addition, we find that working in a female-dominated occupation decreases the probability of having access to flexible work arrangements, and that this effect is stronger for women than for men. At the same time, we observe that both men and women who work in female-dominated occupations are less exposed to flexibility demands from employers than their counterparts who work in male-dominated or gender-neutral occupations. Finally, we find that compared to employers in other Europeans countries, employers in the Central and Eastern European countries are less likely to offer flexible working hours, especially to women, and with no additional flexibility being offered to parents; whereas employers in Continental and Nordic countries are more likely to offer flexible work arrangements, and with no gender gap. |
| Keywords: | working time flexibility, gender segregation, work life balance, parenthood |
| JEL: | J13 J22 J32 |
| Date: | 2021–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14812&r= |
| By: | Scott A. Carson |
| Abstract: | A population’s average stature reflects cumulative net nutrition and changing long-run economic conditions facing women’s economic opportunity, inequality, and net nutrition during development. This study uses stature as a measure for cumulative net nutrition to show how female and male statures varied around the US Civil War. Male statures and net nutrition decreased more than females with industrialization, indicating that women’s net nutrition improved relative to men with emancipation and industrialization. The net nutrition of women in agricultural occupations was greater than women in other occupations; however, male stature returns associated with occupations increased more than women with the transition to free-labor. |
| Keywords: | nutrition transition by gender, stature by gender, economic transitions |
| JEL: | C10 C40 D10 I10 N30 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9402&r= |
| By: | Ruchi Avtar; Rajashri Chakrabarti; Kasey Chatterji-Len |
| Abstract: | Household debt has risen markedly since 2013 and amounts to more than $15 trillion dollars. While the aggregate volume of household debt has been well-documented, literature on the gender, racial and education distribution of debt is lacking, largely because of an absence of adequate data that combine debt, demographic, and education information. In a three-part series beginning with this post, we seek to bridge this gap. In this first post, we focus on differences in debt holding behavior across race and gender. Specifically, we explore gender and racial disparities in different types of household debt and delinquencies—for auto, mortgage, credit card, and student loans—while distinguishing between students pursuing associate’s (AA) and bachelor’s (BA) degrees. In the second post in this series, we investigate gender and racial disparities in delinquencies across these various kinds of consumer debt. We close with a third post where we try to understand some of the mechanisms behind differences in debt and delinquencies across gender and race. |
| Keywords: | inequality; CUNY; mortgage; student debt; auto debt; credit card debt |
| JEL: | D14 Q12 R10 |
| Date: | 2021–11–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednls:93365&r= |
| By: | Harka, Elona (University of Padova); Nunziata, Luca (University of Padova); Rocco, Lorenzo (University of Padova) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the legacy of the former Papal States on modern female condition by comparing Italian municipalities located in a narrow band across the border between the former Papal States and the former Grand Duchy of Tuscany. While in the Papal States gender inequality was particularly severe, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany experienced a relatively stronger female emancipation. We find that one century after the fall of the Papal States, in the municipalities formerly ruled by the Pope, there is lower female labour market participation and employment when compared to their counterparts in Tuscany, while we do not detect any discontinuity for males. We also find that in the former Papal States there is less political support for the legal right to divorce, historically advocated by women emancipation movements. |
| Keywords: | papal states, gender equality, female condition, divorce, religion, labour |
| JEL: | N9 J12 P48 Z12 Z13 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14719&r= |
| By: | Rohini Pande; Helena Roy |
| Abstract: | Alfred Marshall and Mary Paley Marshall are often described as the first academic economist couple. Both studied at Cambridge University, where Paley became one of the first women to take the Tripos exam and the first female lecturer in economics, with Marshall’s encouragement. But in later life, Marshall opposed granting Cambridge degrees to women and their participation in academic economics. This paper recounts Alfred Marshall’s use of gender norms, born out of a separate spheres ideology, to promote and ingrain women’s exclusion in academic economics and beyond. We demonstrate the persistence of this ideology and resultant norms, drawing parallels between gendered inequities in labor market outcomes for Cambridge graduates in the UK post-Industrial Revolution and those apparent in cross-country data today. We argue that the persistence of the norms produced by separate spheres ideologies is likely to reflect, at least in part, the rents associated with preferential access to better paid, high-skilled labor market opportunities. In doing so, we ask who benefits from gender norms, who enforces them, and suggest relevant policy work and areas for future research. |
| JEL: | B3 J16 J7 O43 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29481&r= |
| By: | Sara Grubanov-Boskovic; Spyridon Spyratos; Stefano Maria Iacus; Umberto Minora; Francesco Sermi |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic has created a sudden need for a wider uptake of home-based telework as means of sustaining the production. Generally, teleworking arrangements have direct effect on worker's efficiency and motivation. The direction of this impact, however, depends on the balance between positive effects of teleworking (e.g. increased flexibility and autonomy) and its downsides (e.g. blurring boundaries between private and work life). Moreover, these effects of teleworking can be amplified in case of vulnerable groups of workers, such as women. The first step in understanding the implications of teleworking on women is to have timely information on the extent of teleworking by age and gender. In the absence of timely official statistics, in this paper we propose a method for nowcasting the teleworking trends by age and gender for 20 Italian regions using mobile network operators (MNO) data. The method is developed and validated using MNO data together with the Italian quarterly Labour Force Survey. Our results confirm that the MNO data have the potential to be used as a tool for monitoring gender differences in teleworking patterns. This tool becomes even more important today as it could support the adequate gender mainstreaming in the `Next Generation EU' recovery plan and help to manage related social impacts of COVID-19 through policymaking. |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2111.09442&r= |
| By: | Gornick, Janet (CUNY Graduate Center); Sierminska, Eva (LISER (CEPS/INSTEAD)) |
| Abstract: | Wealth is an increasingly important dimension of economic well-being and is attracting rising attention in discussions of social inequality. In this paper, we compare – within and across countries – wealth outcomes, and link those to both employment-related factors and policy solutions that have the potential to improve wealth creation and retirement security for women. By constructing country-specific portraits of wealth outcomes and "retirement preparedness," we reveal extensive cross-national variation in multiple facets of wealth. Our regression analysis finds a statistically significant and positive effect of work experience on wealth, with that effect, in general, increasing over time. The effect of work experience for single women is greater than for single men, suggesting that, among men, other, stronger forces are at work in creating wealth. The retirement preparedness outcomes indicate that single women in all three countries are in a precarious position at retirement, with much lower expected annual wealth levels than single men. The second preparedness indicator, which links expected annual wealth to income, demonstrates that men have the potential to cover 1larger shares of their income at retirement – and thus are more able, than their female counterparts, to maintain standards of living achieved earlier in life. Our policy discussion indicates that employment remains a viable option for ultimately bolstering women's wealth accumulation. Many scholars, gender equality advocates, and policymakers have argued for raising women's employment rates – for a multitude of reasons – but few, if any, have made the case for strengthening women's employment in order to ultimately bolster women's wealth building. We hope to help reduce the gap in the literature on policy supports for women's employment and re-open the discussion on how women can create more wealth. |
| Keywords: | wealth, gender, labor market |
| JEL: | J10 J16 I38 |
| Date: | 2021–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izapps:pp181&r= |
| By: | Ulrika Ahrsjö (Department of Economics, Stockholm University); René Karadakic (Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics); Joachim Kahr Rasmussen (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | We present new evidence on the existence and drivers of trends in intergenerational income mobility using administrative income data from Scandinavia along with survey data from the United States. Harmonizing the data from Sweden, Denmark and Norway, we first find that intergenerational rank associations in income have increased uniformly across Scandinavia for cohorts of children born between 1951 and 1979. These trends are robust to a large set of empirical specifications that are common in the associated literature. However, splitting the trends by gender, we find that father-son mobility has been stable in all three countries, while correlations involving females display substantial trends. Similar patterns are confirmed in the US data, albeit with slightly different timing. Utilizing information about individual occupation, education and income in the Scandinavian data, we find that intergenerational mobility in latent economic status has remained relatively constant for all gender combinations. This suggests that a gradual reduction in gender-specific labor market segregation, increased female labor force participation and increased female access to higher education has strengthened the signal value that maternal income carries about productivity passed on to children. Based on these results, we argue that the observed decline in intergenerational mobility in Scandinavia is consistent with a socially desirable development where female skills are increasingly valued at the labor market, and that the same is likely to be true also in the US. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational Mobility, Labor Force Participation |
| JEL: | J62 J21 |
| Date: | 2021–11–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kucebi:2119&r= |