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on Gender |
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Issue of 2025–12–22
six papers chosen by Jan Sauermann, Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering |
| By: | Palladino, Marco G.; Bertheau, Antoine; Hijzen, Alexander; Kunze, Astrid; Barreto, Cesar; Gülümser, Dogan; Lachowska, Marta; Lassen, Anne Sophie; Lattanzio, Salvatore; Lochner, Benjamin; Lombardi, Stefano; Meekes, Jordy; Muraközy, Balázs; Nordström Skans, Oskar |
| Abstract: | We quantify the role of gender-specific firm wage premiums in explaining the private-sector gender gap in hourly wages using a harmonized research design across 11 matched employer-employee datasets — ten European countries and Washington State, USA. These premiums contribute to the gender wage gap through two channels: women’s concentration in lower-paying firms (sorting) and women receiving lower premiums than men within the same firm (pay-setting). We find that firm wage premiums account for 10 to 30 percent of the gender wage gap. While both mechanisms matter, sorting is the predominant driver of the firm contribution to the gender wage gap in most countries. We document three patterns that are broadly consistent across countries: (1) women’s sorting into lower-paying firms increases with age; (2) women are more concentrated in low-paying firms with a high share of part-time workers; and (3) women receive about 90 percent of the rents that men receive from firm surplus gains. |
| Keywords: | Gender wage gap, firms, cross-country comparison, J24, J31, J71, C52, fi=Tulonjako ja eriarvoisuus|sv=Inkomstfördelning och ojämlikhet|en=Income distribution and inequality|, fi=Työmarkkinat|sv=Arbetsmarknad|en=Labour markets|, |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fer:wpaper:181 |
| By: | Daniel Bianchi (Universidad de La Laguna); Ã lvaro Choi (Universitat de Barcelona); John Jerrim (University College London) |
| Abstract: | Early gender gaps condition future educational decisions and labor market and social outcomes. There is extensive evidence reporting the existence of significant gender gaps in mathematical and scientific competencies at age 15. It has been suggested these patterns may explain why men tend to make a clean sweep on STEM careers. This has led to a debate on which factors may be driving gender gaps in educational outcomes. While some authors point to the existence of differences in psychological traits by gender, others focus on external factors, such as socioeconomic characteristics, parental values and educational trajectories. Another factor which is sometimes claimed to be a relevant determinant of the gender gap in performance are socially determined gender roles. Evidence on this last point has been however rarely tested. In this paper we shed light on this issue. We do so by exploring the relationship between the use of leisure time in science-related activities at early ages and the emergence of gender gaps in performance and career expectations at age 15. We take advantage of intra and across country variation for a set of countries. Results show that game patterns at early ages are decisive for explaining gender gaps in performance. Boys have a higher likelihood of playing brick games when they are at preschool, as well as several science related activities at age 10. More time spent in science-related leisure activities influences performance in grade 4 and at age 15, and, in turn, STEM expectations. In this sense, childhood play patterns contribute to explaining gender gaps in mathematics and science achievement, as well as in STEM expectations. Gender-differentiated play dynamics from an early age can explain the widening of gender gaps several grades later. These results contribute to identifying how certain play practices and leisure activities in childhood may eventually bias mathematics and science achievement and preferences between girls and boys. The implications for an education policy committed to equal educational opportunities are discussed. |
| Keywords: | STEM, gender gap, game, academic performance |
| JEL: | I24 J16 J24 I21 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ewp:wpaper:491web |
| By: | Charness, Gary; Cobo-Reyes, Ramon; Garcia-Couto, Santiago; Meraglia, Simone; Sanchez, Angela |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a field experiment to study whether potential anticipation of gender discrimination affects requested wages. People interested in an advertised position can apply using an online portal. After the initial application, participants are randomly allocated to one of three treatments. In the baseline treatment, applicants are asked to fill in a standardized curriculum vitae template, containing information about the applicant’s first name, surname, age, education, and employment. In a gender-blind treatment, applicants complete a curriculum vitae template in which they can only report their initials, so that information about gender is not transmitted. We also conduct a gender-blind treatment in which applicants receive a message emphasizing that the selection is conducted based on merits. In all treatments, applicants request the hourly wage they wish to receive if hired. We find that female applicants ask for just over half the wage requested by male applicants when the full name is revealed. However, when gender is undisclosed this difference in requests decreases by over 50%. Finally, the reinforcing message (third treatment) causes the gap in requested wages to completely disappear. Our results indicate that female workers request much lower wages when the firm clearly knows the applicant’s gender, but that this lower request is dependent on whether they perceive that one’s gender is known to the hiring firm. |
| Date: | 2025–12–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:tswg9_v1 |
| By: | Heinzel, Mirko; Kern, Andreas; Metinsoy, Saliha; Reinsberg, Bernhard |
| Abstract: | We analyse the impact of International Monetary Fund (IMF) programmes on appointing women leaders in ministerial positions. We hypothesize that women leaders are selected after an incumbent government starts an IMF programme to shift accountability to them during political and economic turmoil. This political manoeuvring of appointing women to leadership positions during a crisis is known as the ‘glass cliff’ effect. We demonstrate substantial evidence for such a ‘glass cliff’ effect using data covering all IMF programmes from 1980 to 2018. Our evidence shows that women are more likely to be appointed to austerity-bearing ministerial positions under IMF programmes but not in positions of authority during negotiations with the IMF. This effect is more pronounced when a country displays worse societal gender norms, a higher level of corruption and a government facing a deeper economic crisis. Importantly, we verify that neither women's leadership nor a higher share of women in government predicts a balance of payments crisis triggering an IMF programme. In other words, women leaders do not govern worse; they are appointed to leadership positions in precarious, crisis-ridden conditions. |
| Keywords: | gender inequality; glass cliff effect; International Monetary Fund; public sector; structural adjustment; women cabinet representation |
| JEL: | J1 F3 G3 |
| Date: | 2024–01–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:130398 |
| By: | Sen Coskun; Husnu Dalgic; Yasemin Ozdemir |
| Abstract: | Women strategically sort into "family-friendly" sectors characterized by lower returns to experience but also lower per-child penalties, before the birth of their first child. This pre-birth sorting represents an ex-ante career cost, a "sorting penalty" not captured by conventional measures. We build a heterogeneous agent model of career choice and fertility, incorporating both quality-quantity (Q-Q) and time-expenditure (T-E) trade-offs, to quantify this cost. Our central finding is that despite this sorting penalty being surprisingly small, it reveals an important mechanism: Women at the productivity margin are the switchers and use the Q-Q and T-E trade-offs as their primary, more powerful tools to navigate motherhood and career. Our findings highlight that frameworks excluding these trade-offs will overestimate the fertility responses and career costs associated with policies. |
| Keywords: | child penalty, fertility, sectoral gender segregation, job switch, quality-quantity trade-off |
| JEL: | E24 J13 J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2025_722 |
| By: | Wang, Wanying; Costa-Font, Joan |
| Abstract: | Access to care among older adults can help identify unmet health needs and increase the use of health care, though in some cases it may substitute some forms of health care. We argue that the balance between these two effects is largely gender dependent: female spouses are more likely to act as informal caregivers and, as a result, are more likely to have neglected their own health needs. To examine this hypothesis, we exploit the variation introduced by Scotland’s Free Personal Care (FPC) programme, a government initiative implemented in 2002 that provides free personal care access to all eligible individuals regardless of their income. Using a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) framework comparing Scotland with the rest of the United Kingdom and a rich longitudinal dataset of men and women aged 65 and over, we first find that FPC significantly increased the uptake of home help services among women, with little change among men. Among women, adult care expansion led to a 3.5–percentage-point rise in inpatient admissions, whereas among men, we find evidence suggesting a modest substitution effect of care for health care. The effects are stronger among older adults who live alone, and those facing socioeconomic disadvantage, or high care needs. |
| Keywords: | social care; health care utilisation; complementary effects; ageing; gender differences; free personal care; Scotland; difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | I18 J14 H75 |
| Date: | 2026–01–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:130287 |