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on Gender |
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Issue of 2025–04–28
seven papers chosen by Jan Sauermann, Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering |
| By: | Coskun Dalgic, Sena (FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, IAB, CEPR); Gartner, Hermann (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany); Taskin, Ahmet Ali (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany) |
| Abstract: | "We use the removal of public bank guarantees in Germany as a quasi-natural experiment to estimate the gender bargaining power gap. Using comprehensive wage data from the universe of banking employees, combined with bank-level financial information, we find that women have approximately two-thirds of the bargaining power of men. Our model-based analysis suggests that this gender bargaining gap alone accounts for 13 to 25 percent of the observed gender wage gap in the sector. These findings highlight an important driver of gender inequality: Changes in firm profitability can reduce the gender wage gap, even without improvements in structural gender equality. This effect has significant implications for high-rent, high-inequality industries such as finance, where rent-sharing mechanisms favor male employees." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | IAB-Open-Access-Publikation |
| JEL: | G21 G28 J16 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2025–04–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:202506 |
| By: | Lochner, Benjamin; Merkl, Christian |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how gender-specific application behaviour, firms' hiring practices, and flexibility demands relate to the gender earnings gap, using linked data from the German Job Vacancy Survey and administrative records. Women are less likely than men to apply to high-wage firms with high flexibility requirements, although their hiring chances are similar when they do. We show that compensating differentials for firms' flexibility demands help explain the residual gender earnings gap. Among women, mothers experience the largest earnings penalties relative to men in jobs with high flexibility requirements. |
| Keywords: | Job Search, Application Behaviour, Gender Earnings Gap |
| JEL: | E24 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1600 |
| By: | Anna Hochleitner; Fabio Tufano; Giovanni Facchini; Valeria Rueda; Markus Eberhardt |
| Abstract: | We study the gendered impact of recommendations at different stages of the hiring process. First, using a large sample of reference letters from the academic job market for economists, we document that women receive fewer ‘ability’ and more ‘grindstone’ letters. Next, we conduct two experiments — with academic economists and a broader, college-educated, population —analyzing both recommendation and recruitment stages. These confirm that recommendations are gendered and impact recruitment. We elicit gender views and beliefs about the effectiveness of different letter types, uncovering that gender attitudes and strategic behavior based on erroneous beliefs explain referees’ choices. Finally, we decompose gender recruitment gaps into two components: one capturing differences in treatment of candidates with identical qualities, the other reflecting recruiters’ failure to account for gendered patterns in recommendations. We show that recruiters’ failure to recognize the gendered nature of reference letters undermines visible efforts to improve diversity in hiring. |
| Keywords: | gender, recruitment, diversity, experiments |
| JEL: | J16 A11 D90 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11789 |
| By: | Cziriak, Marius; Bucher-Koenen, Tabea; Alessie, Rob |
| Abstract: | Women are less likely to correctly answer the "Big-3" financial literacy questions, and a substantial share of the gap reflects women's lower confidence. In our experiment, women are more likely to choose "do not know" or refuse to answer financial literacy questions. If these options are not available, the gender gap decreases substantially. We build on the method proposed by Bucher-Koenen et al. (2021) and provide an easy-to-implement survey design applicable in cross-sectional studies that allows us to disentangle financial knowledge and confidence. We find that both financial knowledge and confidence are related to participation in the stock market. |
| Keywords: | financial knowledge, gender gap, financial decision making, measurement error, survey methodology |
| JEL: | G53 C81 D14 D91 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:312571 |
| By: | Sevilla, Almudena |
| Abstract: | Gender inequality remains one of the most persistent and pressing economic challenges today. However, policymakers often address gender inequality through fragmented measures that focus on individual choices rather than the structural constraints driving economic disparities. This issue portrays how recent academic research increasingly supports this shift toward a multidisciplinary and overarching approach, highlighting the structural and cultural forces that sustain inequality. Gender inequality is not an isolated issue and gender disparities persist not because of a lack of talent or ambition among women but because of economic, legal, cultural, and institutional constraints that systematically disadvantage them. Whether in labour markets, workplace discrimination, health inequalities, or media narratives, gender gaps are reinforced through overlapping systems of exclusion. This recognition has profound policy implications: traditional, piecemeal interventions – such as work-family policies – are necessary but insufficient on their own. Addressing gender inequality requires a shift toward integrated, structural reforms that target the underlying constraints shaping women’s economic opportunities. Policies that promote financial inclusion, strengthen legal protections, enforce workplace rights, and challenge entrenched cultural norms must work in tandem. By linking individual-level gender penalties to systemic labour market inequalities, workplace policies, and institutional barriers within academia and policymaking, this issue underscores the urgent need for a more integrated approach to gender research and policy innovation. |
| Keywords: | gender inequality; gender research; policy innovation |
| JEL: | J1 |
| Date: | 2025–03–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:127727 |
| By: | Martínez, Claudia; Smith, Raimundo; Perticará, Marcela |
| Abstract: | This study employs an event study methodology to analyze the overall impact of childbirth, as well as the birth of a child with a disability, on the labor market outcomes of mothers and fathers. We use an annual panel of Chilean labor outcomes based on administrative data from pension and unemployment insurance, as well as data from the National Disability Registry in Chile. The findings reveal a significant gender gap associated with childbirth, which more than doubles in the presence of childhood disability: four years after childbirth, the gender gap in employment increases from 15% to 36% when the child has a disability. Specifically, childhood disability leads to parental specialization, creating an intra-gender gap. Mothers of children with disabilities experience poorer labor market outcomes than mothers of children without disabilities; four years after childbirth, these mothers are 15% less likely to be employed than other mothers. Conversely, fathers of children with disabilities tend to have higher labor market engagement than fathers of children without disabilities. These findings underscore the importance of caregiving policies, both in general and specifically for families of children with disabilities. |
| JEL: | I14 J13 J16 J22 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13993 |
| By: | Mathias Bühler; Navid Sabet |
| Abstract: | Who drives social change—the people or activist elites? While progressive reforms are often championed by elites, their preferences may diverge from those of the broader group they aim to represent, producing unintended political consequences. We study this dynamic in the context of female suffrage in Germany, a reform driven by activist elites but ultimately lacking support from the broader female electorate. Using newly digitized voting data from Munich, linked to individual socioeconomic records, we identify the political preferences of elite and non-elite women. We exploit variation in elite composition based on pre-franchise socioeconomic characteristics, as well as variation in World War I widowhood, which increased the observability of non-elite women in household records. Precincts with more elite women supported the social-liberal party that had long advocated women’s rights, while those with greater non-elite female presence shifted toward nationalist parties promoting traditional gender norms. This divergence persists across multiple elections and is not explained by warrelated shocks or male voting behavior. Our findings suggest that formal inclusion alone may be insufficient to shift entrenched social and political hierarchies. |
| Keywords: | suffrage, elite |
| JEL: | N40 D70 P40 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11771 |