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on Gender |
| By: | Kamal, Mustafa (Tasmanian School of Business & Economics, University of Tasmania); Blacklow, Paul (Tasmanian School of Business & Economics, University of Tasmania) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the effects of gender role attitudes and personality traits on the gender wage gap in Australia. Applying standard decomposition techniques and controlling for a wide range of variables, the paper finds that the overall gender wage gap in our estimates on average stood at 17.2% in 2019. Furthermore, the major portion of this wage gap remains unexplained, which accounts for at least 72.7% of the total gender wage gap. The results establish gender role attitudes as a key predictor of this pay gap both in the explained and unexplained part of the wage decomposition. It also shows that the impact of personality traits depends on whether the big five traits or the sub-traits are used in the analysis. Even some of the sub-traits belonging to the same category can influence the gender pay gap in opposite directions. Overall, the estimates establish the importance of psychological variables as more important than traditional human capital and other work-related characteristics in explaining the remaining gender wage gap in Australia. |
| Keywords: | gender wage gap, wage decompositions, gender role attitudes, personality |
| JEL: | J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tas:wpaper:38717&r= |
| By: | Robert Kaestner; Ofer Malamud |
| Abstract: | The authors use data from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (C-NLSY79) to examine gender differences in the associations between child behavioral problems and early adult earnings. They find large and significant earnings penalties for women who exhibited more headstrong behavior and for men who exhibited more dependent behavior as children. In contrast, there are no penalties for men who were headstrong or for women who were dependent. While other child behavioral problems are also associated with labor market earnings, their associations are not significantly different by gender. The gender differences in headstrong and dependent behavior are not explained by education, marriage, depression, self-esteem, health, or adult personality traits. However, one potential explanation is that these gender differences are a consequence of deviations from gender norms and stereotypes in the workplace. |
| JEL: | J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29509&r= |
| By: | Marco Caliendo (University of Potsdam, IZA, DIW, IAB); Linda Wittbrodt (University of Potsdam) |
| Abstract: | In many countries, women are over-represented among low-wage employees, which is why a wage floor could benefit them particularly. Following this notion, we analyse the impact of the German minimum wage introduction in 2015 on the gender wage gap. Germany poses an interesting case study in this context, since it has a rather high gender wage gap and set the minimum wage at a relatively high level, affecting more than four million employees. Based on individual data from the Structure of Earnings Survey, containing information for over one million employees working in 60,000 firms, we use a difference-in- difference framework that exploits regional differences in the bite of the minimum wage. We find a significant negative effect of the minimum wage on the regional gender wage gap. Between 2014 and 2018, the gap at the 10th percentile of the wage distribution was reduced by 4.6 percentage points (or 32%) in regions that were strongly affected by the minimum wage compared to less affected regions. For the gap at the 25th percentile, the effect still amounted to -18%, while for the mean it was smaller (-11%) and not particularly robust. We thus find that the minimum wage can indeed reduce gender wage disparities. While the effect is highest for the low-paid, it also reaches up into higher parts of the wage distribution. |
| Keywords: | Minimum Wage, Gender Wage Gap, Regional Bite |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J38 J71 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pot:cepadp:40&r= |
| By: | Nisvan Erkal (University of Melbourne); Lata Gangadharan (Monash University); Boon Han Koh (University of East Anglia) |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether gender distorts performance evaluation in environments where outcomes are determined by leaders’ unobservable effort choices and luck. Evaluators form beliefs about effort choices and make discretionary payment decisions. We find that while the discretionary payments made to male leaders are determined by both outcomes and evaluators’ beliefs, those made to female leaders are determined by outcomes only. Hence, beliefs are a source of gender biases in our decision-making environment not because they are biased, but because they play differential roles in female and male leaders’ discretionary payments. We label this new source of gender bias as the gender belief-outcome gap. These findings further our understanding of the factors driving gender gaps in leadership and performance pay. They imply that in the labor market, good outcomes are necessary for women to get bonuses, but men can receive bonuses for bad outcomes as long as evaluators hold them in high regard. |
| Keywords: | Gender gaps; Performance evaluation; Biases in belief updating; Outcome bias; Social preferences; Laboratory experiments |
| JEL: | C92 D91 J71 |
| Date: | 2021–12–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uea:ueaeco:2021-09&r= |
| By: | Eva Sierminska; Ronald Oaxaca |
| Abstract: | We model the process of field specialization choice among beginning economists within a multivariate logit framework that accommodates single and dual primary field specializations and incorporates correlations among field specialization choices. Conditioning on personal, economic, and institutional variables reveals that women graduate students are less likely to specialize in Labor/Health, Macro/Finance, Industrial Organization, Public Economics, and Development/Growth/International and are more likely to specialize in Agricultural/Resource/Environmental Economics. Field-specific gender faculty ratios and expected relative salaries as well as economics department rankings are significant factors for gender doctoral specialization dissimilarity. Preferences and characteristics contribute about equally to field specialization dissimilarity |
| Keywords: | gender; economics; specialization; salaries |
| JEL: | J08 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2021-11&r= |
| By: | Behera, Sarthak; Sadana, Divya |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study the role of peoples’ attitudes on their labor market behavior. Focusing within a household, we estimate how one's labor market decisions are dependent on their partner’s labor market outcomes, and how these decisions are driven by their culture component. Historically, man has been associated as the primary earner in a family. We argue that culture might play a role in determining a person’s labor market outcomes as it induces an aversion to the situation of when the wife earns more than the husband. We find that husbands increase their participation in the labor market if their wives earn more and this effect is even more prominent if they are from a country where people have the traditional view that man should be the primary bread-winner for the family. However, wives do not exhibit any such behavior. We argue that this irregularity is explained by the role that culture plays on forming labor market decisions. This result is important as it might contribute to the explanation of the slowdown in the convergence of the gender gap in the recent past. |
| Keywords: | Labor Force Participation, Gender, Identity, Machismo |
| JEL: | J12 J16 J21 J22 J31 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:110753&r= |
| By: | Tu Thi Ngoc Le; Ngoc Thi Bich Pham |
| Abstract: | This study seeks to determine the effect on the gender employment gap and women's employment of the extension of maternity leave from four months to six months in Viet Nam's 2012 Labor Code. To identify this effect, labour market outcomes of groups of women and men are compared. We use the national representative Viet Nam Household Living Standards Survey for 2008-16, with the difference-in-differences approach. The objective of this study is to provide evidence of the relationship between extensions of maternity leave and the gender employment gap in Viet Nam. |
| Keywords: | Gender gap, Women's work, Female labour force participation, Maternity |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-171&r= |
| By: | Mr. David Stenzel; Rasmane Ouedraogo |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns have led to a rise in gender-based violence. In this paper, we explore the economic consequences of violence against women in sub-Saharan Africa using large demographic and health survey data collected pre-pandemic. Relying on a two-stage least square method to address endogeneity, we find that an increase in the share of women subject to violence by 1 percentage point can reduce economic activities (as proxied by nightlights) by up to 8 percent. This economic cost results from a significant drop in female employment. Our results also show that violence against women is more detrimental to economic development in countries without protective laws against domestic violence, in natural resource rich countries, in countries where women are deprived of decision-making power and during economic downturns. Beyond the moral imperative, the findings highlight the importance of combating violence against women from an economic standpoint, particularly by reinforcing laws against domestic violence and strengthening women’s decision-making power. |
| Keywords: | Gender-based violence, economic development, sub-Saharan Africa |
| Date: | 2021–11–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2021/277&r= |