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on Gender |
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Issue of 2022‒09‒05
eleven papers chosen by Jan Sauermann Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering |
| By: | Molina, Teresa (University of Hawaii at Manoa); Usui, Emiko (Hitotsubashi University) |
| Abstract: | Aspirations and plans for the future can influence investments made today. Gender gaps in these views can perpetuate gender gaps in outcomes. In this paper, we explore how gender gaps in aspirations and expectations are affected by the local labor market. Using a national longitudinal survey from Japan, we begin by documenting large gender differences in adolescents’ own thoughts about their future educational attainment, occupation, marriage, and fertility, as well as parental aspirations for their child’s future. We then show that these gender gaps – specifically, boys planning for higher educational attainment as well as later marriage and fertility – are significantly smaller in municipalities with higher female labor force participation. Consistent with this, we also find that female labor force participation increases parental investments in girls relative to boys. We detect similar patterns when examining realized outcomes at age 19. |
| Keywords: | aspirations, gender differences, female employment |
| JEL: | J16 I24 J13 |
| Date: | 2022–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15453&r= |
| By: | Halvarsson, Daniel (The Ratio Institute); Lark, Olga (Department of Economics, Lund University); Tingvall, Patrik (The National Board of Trade Sweden, Södertörn University); Videnord, Josefin (Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the link between globalization of firms and gender inequality. Specifically, we examine how the need for interpersonal contacts in trade and gender-specific differences in negotiations are related to the gender wage gap. Our key finding is that export of goods that are intensive in interpersonal contacts widens the gender wage gap. The effect is robust across various specifications and is most pronounced for domestic exporting firms, which do not trade within multinational corporations but with external foreign partners, where the contracting problem is most distinct. We ascribe this result to a male comparative advantage in bargaining. |
| Keywords: | Export; Gender wage gap; Gender inequality; Contract intensity; Interpersonal contacts; International trade |
| JEL: | F16 F66 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2022–08–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2022_013&r= |
| By: | Alessandra Casarico; Elena Del Rey; Jose I. Silva |
| Abstract: | We develop a model to study the impact on gender gaps in participation and wages of a liquidity constraint that prevents some households from paying child care. We show that this liquidity constraint generates an inefficiency and amplifies gender gaps in the labour market. In this framework, an extension of paid maternity leave duration has ambiguous effects on gender inequality. In contrast, child care subsidies, which require higher taxes, and loans, which do not, unambiguously reduce gender inequality. We illustrate the mechanisms at play in a numerical example using Spanish data. |
| Keywords: | liquidity constraints, gender wage and participation gaps, statistical discrimination, numerical example |
| JEL: | J16 J18 J13 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9827&r= |
| By: | Lochner, Benjamin; Merkl, Christian |
| Abstract: | This paper opens up the black box of gender-specific application and hiring behavior and its implications for the residual gender earnings gap. To understand the underlying mechanisms, we propose a two-stage matching model with testable implications. Using the German IAB Job Vacancy Survey, we show that the patterns in the data are in line with linear and nonlinear production functions at different jobs. Women's application probability at high-wage firms is much lower than at low-wage firms. By contrast, women have the same probability of being hired as men when they apply at high-wage firms. These patterns are not in line with taste-based discrimination, but they can be rationalized by high-wage firms that ask for more employer-sided flexibility. We show that the share of male applicants increases in various dimensions of employer-sided flexibility requirements. Adding the share of male applicants as a proxy for flexibility requirements to Mincer wage regressions reduces the residual earnings gap by around 50 to 60 percent. Women who match at jobs with a high share of male applicants earn substantially more than women at comparable jobs with only females in the application pool (due to compensating differentials). By contrast, when women with children match at these jobs, they face large earnings discounts relative to men. |
| Keywords: | Job Search,Application Behavior,Gender Earnings Gap |
| JEL: | E24 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwqwdp:042022&r= |
| By: | Ezgi Caki |
| Abstract: | This study empirically assesses the impact of school closures on women’s employment in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study’s objective is to determine whether school closures have adversely and disproportionately affected women's careers. It tests the argument that the longer schools remain closed during the pandemic, the more women than men are forced to reduce their working hours, opt for part-time jobs, or ask for paid or unpaid leave, or otherwise lose their jobs. The case study reveals that, even though the German federal state has been granting financial incentives for employment during the pandemic, women remain disproportionately affected by the pandemic-related containment measures, notably school closures. This study’s finding that more men were unemployed than women at the apex of the pandemic in Germany can be explained by the already higher number of employed men. Overall, the relationship between the demand for women’s part-time work and women not returning to work is stronger and more significant than that of men’s part-time work and men not returning to work, meaning that there is a growing demand for non-standard forms of employment, such as part-time work, for women compared to men. Childcare responsibilities, which are increasing due to the pandemic, are threatening women's significant gains for gender equality. Although the empirical assessments present varying results, gender inequality subsists and requires carefully formulated policies with a focus on enhancing gender equality and women's labor force participation during and after the pandemic. |
| Keywords: | gender, employment, COVID-19, school closures, Germany |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ayl:wpaper:202204&r= |
| By: | Bachmann, Ronald (RWI); Gonschor, Myrielle (RWI) |
| Abstract: | We analyze if technological progress and the corresponding change in the occupational structure have improved the relative position of women in the labour market. We show that the share of women rises most strongly in non-routine cognitive and manual occupations, but declines in routine occupations. While the share of women also rises relatively strongly in high-paying occupations, womens' individual-level wages lag behind which implies within-occupation gender wage gaps. A decomposition exercise shows that composition effects with respect to both individual and job characteristics can explain the rise of female shares in the top tier of the labour market to an extent. However, the unexplained part of the decomposition is sizeable, indicating that developments such as technological progress are relevant. |
| Keywords: | female labour market participation, occupations, tasks, technological progress |
| JEL: | J21 J31 O33 |
| Date: | 2022–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15419&r= |
| By: | Gehde-Trapp, Monika; Klingler, Linda |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we explore whether male and female fund managers react differently to sentiment. Our main idea is that sentiment indicates mispricings of stocks relative to their fundamental values, and that rational fund managers should profit from these mispricings. As trading against the mispricing is risky, we hypothesize that female fund managers take on less aggressive positions. Indeed, our empirical results show that male fund managers hold portfolios with significantly higher total fund risk and unsystematic risk when sentiment is bad. For female fund managers, we find significantly lower levels in unsystematic risk when sentiment is bad. This difference in risk-taking behavior does not affect fund returns or risk-adjusted performance. |
| Keywords: | mutual funds,gender,sentiment,investment behavior |
| JEL: | G11 G23 G40 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cfrwps:2208&r= |
| By: | Kristjanson, Patricia |
| Abstract: | Gender relations shape women’s and men’s identities, norms, rules, and responsibilities. They influence people’s access to, use, and management of land and other natural resources, including ownership, tenure, and user rights to land and forests. A substantial body of research on these issues comes from the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), through its Flagship 5 research theme. Flagship 5 focused on gender and social inclusion in relation to land and natural resource tenure and to landscape governance, and analyzed how tenure security affects sustainable management of land, water, fish stocks, and forests. This Food Policy Report reviews the scientific contributions from Flagship 5 to the broader wealth of related literature, including key lessons about gender from these studies with respect to outcomes and impacts on natural resource management, food security, and poverty alleviation. |
| Keywords: | WORLD; gender; tenure; tenure security; governance; landscape; land governance; natural resources; women; gender norms |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:fprepo:136299&r= |
| By: | Henrik Kleven |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a new approach to estimating child penalties based on crosssectional data and pseudo-event studies around child birth. The approach is applied to US data and validated against the state-of-the-art panel data approach. Child penalties can be accurately estimated using cross-sectional data, which are widely available and give more statistical power than typical panel datasets. Five main empirical findings are presented. First, US child penalties have declined significantly over the last five decades, but almost all of this decline occurred during the earlier part of the period. Child penalties have been virtually constant since the 1990s, explaining the slowdown of gender convergence during this period. Second, child penalties vary enormously over space. The employment penalty ranges from 12% in the Dakotas to 38% in Utah, while the earnings penalty ranges from 21% in Vermont to 61% in Utah. Third, child penalties correlate strongly with measures of gender norms. The evolution of child penalties mirrors the evolution of gender progressivity over time, with a greater fall in child penalties in states where gender progressivity has increased more. Fourth, an epidemiological study of gender norms using US-born movers and foreign-born immigrants is presented. The child penalty for US movers is strongly related to the child penalty in their state of birth, adjusting for selection in their state of residence. Parents born in high-penalty states (such as Utah or Idaho) have much larger child penalties than those born in low-penalty states (such as the Dakotas or Rhode Island), conditional on where they live. Similarly, the child penalty for foreign immigrants is strongly related to the child penalty in their country of birth. Immigrants born in high-penalty countries (such as Mexico or Iran) have much larger child penalties than immigrants born in low-penalty countries (such as China or Sweden). Evidence is presented to show that these effects are not driven by selection. Finally, immigrants assimilate to US culture over time: A comparison of child penalties among first-generation and later-generation immigrants shows that differences by country of origin eventually disappear. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J21 J22 J61 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30176&r= |
| By: | Luis Guirola (Banco de España); María Sánchez-Domínguez (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) |
| Abstract: | While motherhood is one of the main reasons for the persistence of gender gaps, its impact on the rising share of immigrant mothers in Europe is less well understood. This paper asks how the burden of childcare affects the labor market integration of immigrants. To identify the contribution of this burden to the native-immigrant employment gap, it exploits European Labor Force Survey (EU-LFS) microdata from 2004 to 2019. This survey collects information on respondents’ counterfactual behaviour, in the event that: a) they had no care responsibilities; b) they could find a job compatible with their care responsibilities; c) they had access to childcare services. This information allows estimates to be obtained of the impact of childcare on labor supply comparable across eleven countries. Our results show that the burden of childcare is the major obstacle to the integration of immigrant mothers. While the employment gap between non-EU immigrant and native mothers in Northern and Southern Europe is 35 and 17 percentage points (pp) respectively, two-thirds (24 pp and 12 pp) of it is explained by childcare motivated inactivity. We reject the hypothesis that the childcare gap is solely driven by immigrants’ sociodemographic traits or traditional parenting norms. Our estimates suggest that at least a quarter (5.8 pp and 2.6 pp) of the gap is due to the higher opportunity cost of paid work faced by immigrant mothers; that equal access to childcare could reduce it by 10 pp and 7 pp; and that immigrants’ exclusion from flexible time arrangements could explain the larger size and higher persistence of the gap in the North. This paper contributes to the literature on immigrant integration, highlighting that the child penalty is the main obstacle to female migrant labor supply and that differences in howEuropean societies handle the burden of care can account for their records on the integration of immigrant households, suggesting that family policies could be central to the integration policy mix and even influence the migration decision. |
| Keywords: | female labor supply, care burden, immigrant and native women, opportunity cost, Europe |
| JEL: | J13 J15 J16 J18 J31 J61 J70 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:2216&r= |
| By: | Kozhaya, Mireille |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of school closure on the labor force participation, hours worked, extensive, and the intensive margin of women in Mexico for the years 2017 to 2021. Using a difference-in-differences approach, I analyze how school closure, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, affects the labor supply of women with school-aged children, 6 to 14 years old, versus women with nursery-aged children, 0 to 5 years old. This approach allows me to isolate the impact of school closure from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings show that on average mothers with children younger than 14 decrease their labor force participation by about 2.6 percentage points. Mothers with school-aged children, however, decrease their labor force participation by an additional 1.7 percentage points and increase their domestic work. While the increase in domestic work occurs immediately after the school closure, the impact on the labor force is only observed several months later. The decrease is observed for all women with low or middle education level, formal and informal employment, and income quantiles. However, I find no decrease for single-mothers and mothers with access to informal child care. |
| Keywords: | Child care,COVID-19,women's labor supply,school closure |
| JEL: | J1 J16 J2 J23 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:956&r= |