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on Gender |
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Issue of 2023‒08‒28
six papers chosen by Jan Sauermann, Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering |
| By: | Anna Kerkhof; Valentin Reich |
| Abstract: | Gender stereotypes pose an important hurdle on the way to gender equality. It is difficult to quantify the problem, though, as stereotypical beliefs are often subconscious or not openly expressed. User-generated content (UGC) opens up novel opportunities to overcome such challenges, as the anonymity of users may eliminate social pressures. This paper leverages over a million anonymous comments from a major German online discussion forum to study the prevalence and development of gender stereotypes over almost a decade. To that end, we develop an innovative and widely applicable text analysis procedure that overcomes conceptual challenges that arise whenever two variables in the training data are correlated, and changes in that correlation in the prediction sample are subject of examination themselves. Here, we apply the procedure to study the correlation between gender (i.e., does a comment discuss women or men) and gender stereotypical topics (e.g., work or family) in our comments, where we interpret a strong correlation as the presence of gender stereotypes. We find that men are indeed discussed relatively more often in the context of stereotypical male topics such as work and money, and that women are discussed relatively more often in the context of stereotypical female topics such as family, home, and physical appearance. While the prevalence of gender stereotypes related to stereotypical male topics diminishes over time, gender stereotypes related to female topics mostly persist. |
| Keywords: | gender bias, gender stereotypes, natural language processing, machine learning, user-generated content, word embeddings |
| JEL: | C55 J16 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10578&r=gen |
| By: | Guo, Liwen (University of New South Wales); Cheng, Zhiming (University of New South Wales); Tani, Massimiliano (University of New South Wales); Cook, Sarah (University of Nottingham) |
| Abstract: | Utilizing a nationally representative panel data of middle-aged and elder individuals from China, we assess the health impact of environmental policies, with special attention paid to gender disparities within their effects. This study utilizes thermal inversions to address the endogeneity of air pollution and constructs a fixed effects model. Our findings highlight that the negative impact of air pollution on female health is significant, particularly for females in the middle of the health distribution. Notably, the implementation of environmental policies leads to health improvements in females and plays a key role in bridging the health gap between genders. These findings provide compelling evidence of the importance of environmental policy in promoting health equity. |
| Keywords: | environmental policy, gender health gap, China |
| JEL: | C21 I14 J71 Q53 Q58 |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16320&r=gen |
| By: | Ager, Philipp (University of Mannheim); Goñi, Marc (University of Bergen); Salvanes, Kjell G. (Norwegian School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the link between gender-biased technological change in the agricultural sector and structural transformation in Norway. After WWII, Norwegian farms began widely adopting milking machines to replace the hand milking of cows, a task typically performed by women. Combining population-wide panel data from the Norwegian registry with municipality-level data from the Census of Agriculture, we show that the adoption of milking machines triggered a process of structural transformation by displacing young rural women from their traditional jobs on farms in dairy-intensive municipalities. The displaced women moved to urban areas where they acquired a higher level of education and found better-paid employment. These findings are consistent with the predictions of a Roy model of comparative advantage, extended to account for task automation and the gender division of labor in the agricultural sector. We also quantify significant inter-generational effects of this gender-biased technology adoption. Our results imply that the mechanization of farming has broken deeply rooted gender norms, transformed women's work, and improved their long-term educational and earning opportunities, relative to men. |
| Keywords: | gender biased technological change, migration, intergenerational mobility |
| JEL: | J16 J24 J43 J61 N34 O14 O33 |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16347&r=gen |
| By: | Sule Alan (European University Institute); Gözde Corekcioglu (Kadir Has University); Mustafa Kaba (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods); Matthias Sutter (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, University of Cologne, University of Innsbruck) |
| Abstract: | Using data from over 2, 000 professionals in 24 large corporations, we show that female leaders shape the relational culture in the workplace differently than male leaders. Males form homophilic professional ties under male leadership, but female leadership disrupts this pattern, creating a less segregated workplace. Female leaders are more likely to establish professional support links with their subordinates. Under female leadership, female employees are less likely to quit their jobs but no more likely to get promoted. Our results suggest that increasing female presence in leadership positions may be an effective way to mitigate toxic relational culture in the workplace. |
| Keywords: | female leadership; workplace climate; social networks |
| JEL: | C93 J16 M14 |
| Date: | 2023–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:249&r=gen |
| By: | Aga Kasperska (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences); Anna Matysiak (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences); Ewa Cukrowska-Torzewska (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences) |
| Abstract: | Work from home (WFH) has been a part of the professional landscape for over two decades, yet it was the COVID-19 pandemic that has substantially increased its prevalence. The impact of WFH on careers is rather ambiguous, and a question remains open about how this effect is manifested in the current times considering the recent extensive and widespread use of WFH during the pandemic. In an attempt to answer these questions, this article investigates whether managerial preferences for promotion, salary increase and training allowance depend on employee engagement in WFH. We also explore the heterogeneity of the effects of WFH on careers across different populations by taking into account the employee’s gender, parenthood status, frequency of WFH as well as the prevalence of WFH in the team. An online discrete choice experiment was run on a sample of over 1, 000 managers from the United Kingdom. The experiment was conducted between July and December 2022, and thus after the extensive use of this working arrangement during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings indicate that employees who WFH are less likely to be considered for promotion, salary increase and training than on-site workers. The pay and promotion penalties for WFH are particularly true for men (both fathers and non-fathers) and childless women, but not mothers. We also find that employees operating in teams with a higher prevalence of WFH do not experience negative career effects when working from home. The findings underline the importance of individual factors and familiarisation as well as social acceptance of flexible working arrangements in their impact on careers. |
| Keywords: | career, experiment, family, gender, promotion, work from home |
| JEL: | J12 J13 J16 J21 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2023-16&r=gen |
| By: | Thiess Büttner; Frank Hechtner; Boryana Madzharova |
| Abstract: | Many countries are currently debating whether to reduce or eliminate taxes on feminine hygiene products as a measure to address “period poverty” and promote gender equality. Legislators often reject proposals involving reforms of “tampon taxes” as the pass-through of sales taxes into consumer prices cannot be guaranteed. This paper uses a permanent reduction of the tax on tampons & pads in Germany in 2020 as a natural experiment to study the price and unit-sales effects of the tax. Exploiting an extensive data set on the unit sales and scanner prices of feminine hygiene products in Germany and Italy, our results indicate that the incidence of tampon taxes is fully on consumers, while demand for these products is price-inelastic. We do not find cross-price effects for a closely related product group, which remained taxed at the standard tax rate. Both the pass-through and demand effects are found to be homogenous along the pre-reform market-share and price distributions. |
| Keywords: | tax incidence, pass-through, gender equality, feminine hygiene products, period poverty |
| JEL: | H22 H23 I38 J16 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10580&r=gen |