nep-gen New Economics Papers
on Gender
Issue of 2023‒10‒02
three papers chosen by
Jan Sauermann, Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering


  1. Gender Norms and the Gender Gap in Higher Education By Stefanie J. Huber; Hannah Paule-Paludkiewicz
  2. Gender differences in management styles during crisis and the effect on firm performance By Valerija Botric; Sonja Radas; Bruno Skrinjaric
  3. The Child Penalty Atlas By Henrik Kleven; Camille Landais; Gabriel Leite-Mariante

  1. By: Stefanie J. Huber (Department of Economics, University of Bonn and ECONtribute, Germany and Department of Economics, University of Amsterdam and Tinbergen Institute, The Netherlands); Hannah Paule-Paludkiewicz (Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt, Germany)
    Abstract: Cross-country differences in the gender gap of higher education attainment are large. In this paper, we study the role of gender norms for this particular gender gap. To isolate the effect of gender norms from institutional and economic factors, we investigate the decisions of second-generation immigrants in the United States to achieve at least a bachelor’s degree. We measure gender norms using economic outcomes as well as beliefs prevailing in the migrants’ parents’ country of origin. We find that gender norms explain part of the observed differences in the gender gap in attaining at least a bachelor’s degree. There is also a sizable effect of gender norms on gender gaps in higher educational attainment levels, such as a master’s degree or a PhD. We confirm the gender norms effect using a sample of siblings, which allows us to hold unobservable and observable household characteristics constant.
    Keywords: gender gap, tertiary education, gender norms, culture, second-generation migrants, sibling fixed effects
    JEL: I23 I24 J15 J16 J24 Z10
    Date: 2023–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:253&r=gen
  2. By: Valerija Botric (The Institute of Economics, Zagreb); Sonja Radas (The Institute of Economics, Zagreb); Bruno Skrinjaric (The Institute of Economics, Zagreb)
    Abstract: This paper aims to shed light on gender differences in firm performance in a period that entails an unprecedented crisis with specific effects on gender roles, i.e., COVID-19. The analysis focuses on Croatian high-tech manufacturing and knowledge-intensive service sector SMEs. Previous literature indicates that the obstacles the SMEs face may be even more significant for women-owned firms. Specifically, women entrepreneurs find it more challenging to secure social and financial capital. Women often face restrictions on their working hours due to societal pressure and family obligations, and they are rarely well-connected because they are often not members of influential business networks. Literature also suggests that the usual pressures on female working hours have disproportionally increased during the COVID-19 imposed lockdowns, so the general expectation is that women entrepreneurs were not able to cope equally with the changed market circumstances. In this study, we consider a causation-effectuation management framework to investigate how women- and men-owned SMEs used these management styles to address the business challenges in the COVID-19 crisis. Our contribution aims explicitly to answer the invitation made in recent literature to explore how gender influences the effects of the four dimensions of effectuation on firm performance.
    Keywords: women entrepreneurship; firm performance; management styles; COVID-19
    JEL: B54 J16 L26
    Date: 2023–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iez:wpaper:2301&r=gen
  3. By: Henrik Kleven; Camille Landais; Gabriel Leite-Mariante
    Abstract: This paper builds a world atlas of child penalties in employment based on micro data from 134 countries. The estimation of child penalties is based on pseudo-event studies of first child birth using cross-sectional data. The pseudo-event studies are validated against true event studies using panel data for a subset of countries. Most countries display clear and sizable child penalties: men and women follow parallel trends before parenthood, but diverge sharply and persistently after parenthood. While this qualitative pattern is pervasive, there is enormous variation in the magnitude of the effects across different regions of the world. The fraction of gender inequality explained by child penalties varies systematically with economic development and proxies for structural transformation. At low levels of development, child penalties represent a minuscule fraction of gender inequality. But as economies develop — incomes rise and the labor market transitions from subsistence agriculture towards salaried work in industry and services — child penalties take over as the dominant driver of gender inequality. Because parenthood is often tied to marriage, we also investigate the existence of marriage penalties in female employment. In general, women experience both marriage and child penalties, but their relative importance depends on economic development. The development process is associated with a substitution from marriage penalties to child penalties, with the former gradually converging to zero.
    JEL: D13 D30 J12 J13 J16 J21 J22 O12
    Date: 2023–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31649&r=gen

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