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on Gender |
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Issue of 2026–02–02
four papers chosen by Jan Sauermann, Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering |
| By: | Tsuyoshi Nihonsugi (Department of Economics, Osaka University of Economics); Yoshio Kamijo (Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University); Satoshi Taguchi (Graduate School of Commerce, Doshisha University); Shigeharu Okajima (Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, Kobe University); Hiroko Okajima (Graduate School of Economics, Nagoya University) |
| Abstract: | This study examines how gender quotas influence job application decisions and occupational choices in Japan, and how these effects vary across individual characteristics. Using a choice-based conjoint experiment with 1, 167 participants, we analyze preferences for positions with and without gender quotas across different job types. We find that gender quotas significantly increase women's application likelihood by approximately 10 percentage points, with the strongest effects among high-performing employed women, while not discouraging applications from comparably qualified men. Beyond increasing female representation, quotas enable women to make occupational choices that better align with their preferences and are associated with higher expected productivity and workplace well-being. Further analysis reveals that support for gender quotas relates systematically to personality traits, gender role beliefs, and prior experiences—notably, men who recognize past gender advantages show greater support for quotas. These findings provide actionable insights for designing inclusive recruitment strategies and diversity policies in non-Western contexts, demonstrating that well-designed quotas can promote both equity and efficiency in labor markets. |
| Keywords: | gender quotas, affirmative action, gender gap, hiring discrimination, occupational segregation, labor market |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wap:wpaper:2529 |
| By: | Li, Shurui (Department of Economics, Umeå University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how fertility events contribute to the gender pay gap in a framework that integrates a life-cycle model with a search and matching model featuring endogenous job matching and wage bargaining. The model represents four fertility-related life-cycle stages, each of which is associated with distinct labor market behaviors and constraints. This paper highlights the role of first-birth timing, parental leave, and job amenity preferences in shaping gender gaps in human capital accumulation and career trajectories. Counterfactual simulations show that delaying the first birth and shortening parental leave substantially improve women’s trajectories of wages and promotions. Equalizing amenity preferences between genders, though not efficiency-enhancing, significantly raises women’s representation in high-paying jobs and promotes greater structural equality in the labor market. The framework provides a structural lens to assess how demographic shocks interact with search frictions and amenity preferences to produce enduring gender gaps in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | parental leave; gender gap; job amenity; human capital; search and matching |
| JEL: | D91 J13 J16 J24 J64 |
| Date: | 2026–01–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:umnees:1042 |
| By: | Christopher Campos (University of Chicago Booth School of Business); Pablo Muñoz (Universidad de Chile, Department of Economics); Alonso Bucarey; Dante Contreras (Universidad de Chile, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how college major choices shape earnings and fertility outcomes. Using administrative data that link students’ preferences, random assignment to majors, and post-college outcomes, we estimate the causal pecuniary and nonpecuniary returns to different fields of study. We document substantial heterogeneity in these returns across majors and show that such variation helps explain gender gaps in labor market outcomes: women place greater weight on balancing career and family in their major choices, and these preference differences account for about 30% of the gender earnings gap among college graduates. Last, we use our causal estimates to evaluate the effects of counterfactual assignment rules that target representation gaps in settings with centralized assignment systems. We find that gender quotas in high-return fields can significantly reduce representation and earnings gaps with minimal impacts on efficiency and aggregate fertility. |
| Keywords: | preferences, returns to majors, gender gaps, centralized assignment |
| JEL: | I24 I26 J01 J16 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfi:wpaper:2026-19 |
| By: | Lixiong Li; Isma\"el Mourifi\'e |
| Abstract: | Counterfactual analysis is central to education market design and provides a foundation for credible policy recommendations. We develop a novel methodology for counterfactual analysis in Gale-Shapley deferred-acceptance (DA) assignment mechanisms under a weaker set of assumptions than those typically imposed in existing empirical works. Instead of fully specifying utility functions or students' beliefs about admission probabilities, we rely on interpretable restrictions on behavior that yield an incomplete but flexible model of preferences. This framework addresses the challenge of partial identification by delivering sharp bounds on counterfactual stable matching outcomes, which we compute efficiently using a combination of algorithmic techniques and integer programming. We illustrate the methodology by evaluating policies aimed at increasing female enrollment in STEM fields in Chile. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2512.08115 |