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on Gender |
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Issue of 2023‒11‒20
seven papers chosen by Jan Sauermann, Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering |
| By: | ONO Yoshikuni |
| Abstract: | Do men and women have distinct preferences for leadership styles in the political arena? Existing research in organizational behavior indicates that leadership styles in business settings differ between men and women. Specifically, male leaders tend to adopt a task-oriented approach focused on goal achievement, while female leaders lean toward a relationship-oriented style that emphasizes participatory decision-making. This study examines survey data from Japanese voters and elected officials to investigate whether these gender differences are mirrored in political preferences. The findings reveal that male voters value task-oriented leadership more than female voters, who show a greater preference for relationship-oriented leadership. Interestingly, similar patterns were observed among elected officials. However, when accounting for party affiliation, these gender differences disappeared, suggesting that gender-specific leadership preferences might be closely linked to partisan styles. This could be because political parties aim to attract more female voters by adopting leadership styles that align with the preferences of their female voters. |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:23073&r=gen |
| By: | Mariana Marchionni (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP & CONICET); Julián Pedrazzi (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP & CONICET) |
| Abstract: | We assess whether motherhood could be the last hurdle to achieving gender equality in developing countries by exploring the link between motherhood and the overall gender gap in the labor market for 14 Latin American countries over the last two decades. Using pseudo- panels built from harmonized household surveys and an event study approach around the birth of the first child, we find that the arrival of the first child leads to a sharp and persistent 35% decline in mothers’ earnings. This result is explained by a reduction in employment and a prompting shift towards occupations that favor more flexible work arrangements, including part-time and informal jobs. These effects are pervasive across countries and population groups. Furthermore, using an extended version of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, we identify motherhood as the primary source of income inequality between men and women. Motherhood explains 42% of the remaining gender gap and has progressively gained relative importance over the last two decades while other contributing factors, such as education and its associated returns, have shown a waning impact. Moreover, we find no clear cross- country association between the motherhood-related gap and per capita GDP or gender norms, while the contribution of other factors to the gender gap in earnings diminishes with higher per capita GDP and more gender-egalitarian social norms. This suggests that gender gaps stemming from the motherhood effect exhibit greater rigidity than other drivers of gender inequality. |
| JEL: | D63 J13 J16 J22 J31 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0321&r=gen |
| By: | Yiwei Qian; Naveen Sunder; Adnan M. S. Fakir (Department of Economics, University of Sussex, BN1 9SL Falmer, United Kingdom); Rakesh Banerjee; Tushar Bharati |
| Abstract: | We conduct an experiment on a major international online freelancing labor market platform to study the impact of greater flexibility in choosing work hours within a day on female participation. We post identical job advertisements (for 320 jobs) covering a wide range of tasks (80 distinct tasks) that differ only in flexibility and the fee offered. Comparing application numbers across these jobs, we find that though both men and women prefer flexibility, the elasticity of response for women is twice as large as for men. Flexible jobs receive 24 percent more female applications and 12 percent more male applications compared to inflexible jobs. Our findings have important implications in explaining gender differences in labor market outcomes and for firms interested in attracting more women employees. |
| Keywords: | workplace flexibility, online freelancing jobs, female labour force participation |
| JEL: | J22 O14 J16 L86 |
| Date: | 2023–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sus:susewp:0723&r=gen |
| By: | Valentina Flamini; Diego B. P. Gomes; Bihong Huang; Ms. Lisa L Kolovich; Aina Puig; Ms. Aleksandra Zdzienicka |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of monetary policy shocks on employment gender gaps in a panel of 22 countries using quarterly data from 1990 to 2019. Our results show that men’s employment falls more than women’s after contractionary monetary policy shocks, narrowing the employment gender gap over time. Two factors contribute to explaining this heterogeneous effect. First, a larger impact of monetary policy shocks on employment in the industry sector that employs more men. Second, the larger response of the employment gap in the sector (services) that employs the largest share of men and women. In terms of labor market adjustment, the narrowing of the gender employment gap is initially driven by a reduction in the gender unemployment gaps that, over time, results in an adjustment in the gender labor force participation gap—with men’s labor force participation dropping more than women’s. The effects are larger in countries with more flexible labor market regulations, higher gender wage gaps, and lower informal women’s employment compared to men’s. Finally, the effects are also larger for contractionary monetary policy shocks and during expansions. |
| Keywords: | Monetary policy; shocks; gender inequality; labor market; unemployment; labor force participation; monetary policy shock; gender employment gap; gender labor force participation gap; labor market gender gaps; men employment; employment gender gaps; Labor markets; Employment; Women |
| Date: | 2023–09–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2023/211&r=gen |
| By: | Vojtech Bartos; Silvia Castro; Kristina Czura; Timm Opitz |
| Abstract: | We analyze gender discrimination in entrepreneurship finance. Access to finance is crucial for entrepreneurial success, yet constraints for women are particularly pronounced. We structurally unpack whether loan officers evaluate business ideas and implementation constraints differently for male and female entrepreneurs, both as individual entrepreneurs or in entrepreneurial teams. In a lab-in-the-field experiment with Ugandan loan officers, we document gender discrimination of individual female entrepreneurs, but no gender bias in the evaluation of entrepreneurial teams. Our results suggest that the observed bias is not driven by animus against female entrepreneurs but rather by differential beliefs about women’s entrepreneurial ability or implementation constraints in running a business. Policies aimed at team creation for start-up enterprises may have an additional benefit of equalizing access to finance and ultimately stimulating growth. |
| Keywords: | access to finance, gender bias, entrepreneurship, lab-in-the-field |
| JEL: | C93 G21 J16 L25 L26 O16 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10719&r=gen |
| By: | Elena Bastianelli (Università Bocconi); Cristina Solera (Università di Torino); Daniele Vignoli (Università di Firenze) |
| Abstract: | Gender theories agree that the role played by women and men’s employment status in the prediction of union dissolution depends on the level of gender equality in the society. Given its strong regional differences, Italy represents an excellent laboratory to study how variations in gender contexts influence the gendered relationship between employment status and union dissolution. We measured regional gender equality by means of an index comprising equality in three spheres: the labor market, the family, and the welfare context. By applying discrete-time event history models to nationally representative data, we estimated the probability of union dissolution for jobless and employed men and women across regions. Our results showed that, as contextual gender equality increases, differences by employment status diminish, and gender differences in the relationship between employment status and union dissolution virtually disappear – even in a country considered ‘traditional’ in terms of family and gender dynamics. |
| Keywords: | union dissolution; divorce; gender equality; employment status; Italy |
| JEL: | J12 J64 |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fir:econom:wp2023_09&r=gen |
| By: | ENDO Yuya; ONO Yoshikuni |
| Abstract: | Do male and female candidates equally benefit from disclosing their political ambitions during electoral campaigns? Generally, candidates for elective office are politically ambitious individuals vying for positions of power. There is a pervasive stereotype of women that sees them as ideally modest and reserved, which is potentially contradictory to the seemingly masculine nature of political office. Voters swayed by this stereotype may not reward female candidates for openly expressing their political ambitions to the same extent they would male candidates. To investigate this issue, we conducted a vignette experiment where both the candidate’s gender and their stated motivation for seeking office were randomly manipulated. Our findings reveal that respondents favored candidates—regardless of gender—who were transparent about their political ambition. Nevertheless, male candidates who openly displayed ambition were perceived as more favorable among voters, whereas female candidates did not receive a comparable boost to their image. These results indicate that the electoral benefits garnered from revealing political ambitions are not equally distributed between men and women. |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:23074&r=gen |