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on Gender |
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Issue of 2022‒06‒13
eight papers chosen by Jan Sauermann Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering |
| By: | Dubois, Corinne (Department of Economics); Lambertini, Luisa (EPFL); Wu, Yu (EPFL) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of the pandemic on gender gaps in labor market outcomes in Switzerland. Using the Swiss labor force survey data, we document a significant increase in the gender gap in labor market participation. We find no evidence of a worsening of unemployment gender gap during the pandemic but we find a large gender gap in being on STW, a government policy that subsidizes wage payments for employees whose hours are cut at companies in temporary distress. Unlike the United States, the presence of children in the household did not worsen labor gender gaps. Sector and occupation, however, play an important role in explaining gender gaps. In particular, we document substantial heterogeneity in the effect of the pandemic on participation, STW, hours worked, and wage outcomes depending on the availability of telework in the respondent’s occupation. |
| Keywords: | Covid-19; labor market inequality; labor market policies; gender gaps. |
| JEL: | E24 J01 J08 J21 |
| Date: | 2022–05–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fri:fribow:fribow00525&r= |
| By: | Lundberg, Shelly (University of California, Santa Barbara) |
| Abstract: | The economics literature on gender has expanded considerably in recent years, fueled in part by new sources of data, including from experimental studies of gender differences in preferences and other traits. At the same time, economists have been developing more realistic models of psychological and social influences on individual choices and the evolution of culture and social norms. Despite these innovations much of the economics of gender has been left behind, and still employs a reductive framing in which gender gaps in economic outcomes are either due to discrimination or to “choice.” I suggest here that the persistence of this approach is due to several distinctive economic habits of mind—strong priors driven by market bias and gender essentialism, a perspective that views the default economic agent as male, and an oft-noted tendency to avoid complex problems in favor of those that can be modeled simply. I also suggest some paths forward. |
| Keywords: | gender, culture, social norms, discrimination |
| JEL: | J16 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15217&r= |
| By: | Leibing, Andreas (DIW Berlin); Peter, Frauke (DZHW-German Centre for Research on Higher Education and Science Studies); Waights, Sevrin (DIW Berlin); Spieß, C. Katharina (Bundesinstitut für Bevölkerungsforschung (BiB)) |
| Abstract: | Using detailed data from a unique survey of high school graduates in Germany, we document a gender gap in expected full-time earnings of more than 15%. We apply a regression-compatible Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition and find that especially differences in coefficients help explain the gap. In particular, the effects of having time for family as career motive and being first-generation college student are associated with large penalties in female wage expectations exclusively. This is especially true for higher expected career paths. Resulting expected returns to education are associated with college enrollment of women and could thus entrench subsequent gaps in realized earnings. |
| Keywords: | wage expectations, gender gap, college enrollment |
| JEL: | I26 J31 D84 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15281&r= |
| By: | Carlos Gomez-Gonzalez (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich); Helmut Dietl (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich); David Berri (Southern Utah University, Cedar City, UT, USA); Cornel Nesseler (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | Whether one looks at revenue, investment, or coverage, men’s sports do better than women’s. Many assume that the differences are driven by absolute differences in quality of athletic performance. However, the existence of stereotypes should alert us to another possibility: What if perceived quality is filtered through gender stereotypes? We perform an experiment showing participants video clips of elite female and male soccer players. In the control group, participants evaluated normal videos where the gender of the players was clear to see. In the treatment group, participants evaluated the same videos but with gender obscured by blurring. We find that participants only rated men’s videos higher when they knew they were watching men. When they didn’t know who they were watching, ratings for female and male athletes did not differ significantly. The findings are consistent with the interpretation that gender bias plays a role in the evaluation of athletic performance. Implications for research and the sports industry are discussed. |
| Keywords: | experiment; evaluation; gender bias; fans; soccer; women’s sport |
| JEL: | D70 J16 C90 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zrh:wpaper:391&r= |
| By: | Preston, Alison (University of Western Australia); Wright, Robert E. (University of Glasgow) |
| Abstract: | Using micro-data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, and the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition technique, this paper contributes to knowledge on gender-gaps in financial literacy (FL) via a study of teenagers, emerging adults and young adults. The analysis suggests that important predictors of FL include schooling, high school-type, labour market activity and parental employment. There are large unexplained gaps, equal to 31.6%, 19.3% and 11.9% amongst those aged 15-19, 20-24 and 25-29, respectively. Very little of the gap may be explained by gender differences in human capital variables and other characteristics, including mathematics ability, cognitive ability and personality. The main conclusion is that the gap starts young and likely derives from gender stereotype beliefs. |
| Keywords: | financial literacy, gender gap in financial literacy, gender stereotypes, adolescence, Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition |
| JEL: | B54 D14 D31 G18 I30 J26 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15287&r= |
| By: | Aedin Doris (Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting, Maynooth University.); Donal O'Neill (Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting, Maynooth University.); Olive Sweetman (Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting, Maynooth University.) |
| Abstract: | TThis paper uses a rich set of administrative data to examine the dynamics of the gender earnings gap for college graduates from 2010-2020 in Ireland. We focus on the dynamics of the gap in the first 10 years of the working career, what this looks like, what determines it and what can explain the patterns. We examine the extent to which changes in job mobility after childbirth can explain the dynamics of the gender earnings gap across fields of study. Our findings suggest that the fact that men experience much higher earnings gains than women, particularly within jobs, is the key driver behind the observed earnings divergence. This is particularly evident among women who have studied Business or Law in University. Changes in job mobility after childbirth are not a major contributor to the divergence in earnings but analysis of household survey data suggests that reductions in hours of work following childbirth explains approximately 60% of the initial decline in female weekly earnings and much of the male-female earnings gap in the years after childbirth. |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:may:mayecw:n315-22.pdf&r= |
| By: | Sugata Marjit; Reza Oladi |
| Abstract: | We propose a competitive general equilibrium theory of gender discrimination in labor market where male and female workers are equally productive, but the female workers are deliberately paid less than the male due to subjective discrimination. Pioneering works of Becker (1957) and Arrow (1973), in terms of partial equilibrium models, have argued that the forces of competition would restrict subjective discrimination which leads to increasing cost for a firm and reduce the return to capital. In contrast, using a general equilibrium framework as in Jones (1965), we show that discrimination can perpetuate even in perfectly competitive markets. We also show that the return to capital can increase with discrimination if the capital intensive sector is also female worker dominated. If international trade policy, or any competitive price shock, reduces return to capital, increasing discrimination may be attempted to compensate the capital. Thus, policy intervention may be essential to contain discrimination in competitive markets. |
| Keywords: | gender discrimination |
| JEL: | J16 J70 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9705&r= |
| By: | Dutta, Nabamita (University of Wisconsin, La Crosse); Kar, Saibal (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta) |
| Abstract: | India experienced one of the strictest lockdowns during COVID-19 and sections of the workforce seemed overwhelmingly disadvantaged. Given substantial poverty still, marginalized daily wage labor and gendered outcomes in the context of India, economic shocks are expected to have disparate implications. Employing World Bank data for rural areas in six states of India, we investigate the probability of female employment during the lockdown period between March and May 2020. Based on marginal estimates of logit specifications, our results show that females, in general, were 8 percent less likely to be employed as compared to males. Females belonging to marginalized castes experienced higher likelihood of being unemployed – between 9 and 14%. Return migrants generally suffered less in terms of finding alternative jobs at the source, but being a female return migrant, the probability of joblessness rises to about 17%. For female return migrants belonging to marginalized castes, the probability of joblessness is about 10%. Lockdown is expected to have raised the economic inequality by gender and needs commensurate interventions. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, lockdown, gender, unemployment, return migrants, India |
| JEL: | J16 F22 E24 C33 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15270&r= |