|
on Gender |
|
Issue of 2025–12–15
five papers chosen by Jan Sauermann, Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering |
| By: | Francesca Barigozzi; Natalia Montinari; Giovanni Righetto; Alessandro Tampieri |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits the statistical discrimination model of Phelps (1972) to explain why a gender wage gap emerges immediately at labour-market entry, despite women's superior academic performance. We focus on graduates and extend the framework by adding a productivity-relevant attribute - willingness to work abroad or IT skills - that is correlated with gender and differs across fields of study. Employers observe noisy individual signals and coarse group-level statistics by gender and field, and optimally combine them when setting wages. Within this setting, gender differences in the distribution of these attributes can generate an entry wage premium for men even when women have higher average human capital. We test this mechanism using AlmaLaurea microdata on master's graduates from the University of Bologna (2015-2022). We calibrate the model for the full sample and separately for Economics & Management and Engineering. Human capital alone cannot reproduce the observed wage differences, while augmenting the model with willingness to work abroad or IT skills brings predicted and actual gaps into close alignment. Complementary wage regressions show that mobility intentions explain a substantial share of the raw gender wage gap across fields, whereas IT skills matter primarily in Engineering and only marginally in the aggregate. The combined evidence from the model calibration and the empirical analysis supports an extended statistical discrimination channel operating through gendered distributions of mobility and IT-related attributes. |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J71 J24 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp1217 |
| By: | Collis, Manuela R. (University of Toronto); Van Effenterre, Clémentine (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | We investigate how much individuals value a workplace that doesn't tolerate hostility, and how these preferences affect sorting in the labor market. We conduct a choice experiment involving 2, 048 participants recruited from recent graduates and alumni from a large public university. Our results show that individuals are willing to forgo a significant portion of their earnings—between 12 and 36 percent of their wage—to avoid hostile work environments, valuations substantially exceeding those for remote work (7 percent). Women exhibit a stronger aversion to exclusionary workplaces and environments with sexual harassment. Combining survey evidence, experimental variations of workplace environments, and individual labor market outcomes, we show that both disutility from workplace hostility and perceptions of risk contribute to gender gaps in early-career choices and in pay. To quantify equilibrium implications, we develop a model of compensating differentials calibrated to our experimental estimates. Using counterfactual exercises, we find that gender differences in risk of workplace hostility drive both the remote pay penalty and office workers' rents. |
| Keywords: | compensating differentials, workplace hostility, gender |
| JEL: | J16 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18302 |
| By: | Liepmann, Hannah (ILO International Labour Organization); Hegewisch, Ariane |
| Abstract: | While population ageing increases the demand for care work, new technologies, including AI, reinforce the importance of human interaction, with recent research finding significant wage premiums for social skills. Against this background, we investigate two factors behind the gender wage gap: occupational gender segregation and lower pay in female-dominated occupations, especially care work, where social skills are central. Using 1972-2024 CPS data, we show that occupational gender segregation remains pronounced in the United States, with many care occupations remaining female-dominated. This continues to correlate with lower wages. Conditional on observable characteristics, a 1 percentage point increase in the occupational share of women during 2015-24 was associated with a wage decrease of 0.22 percent for women and 0.20 percent for men. We then analyze whether returns to social skills are distorted in the care sector, where we hypothesize that the wage returns on workers' performance are lower due to the public-goods aspect of care work. Based on combined CPS and O*Net data, we investigate occupation-level skills returns for 2015-24. They are indeed insignificant for care workers but sizeable for business services workers. |
| Keywords: | returns to skills, care work, future of work, undervaluation of women's work, occupational gender segregation, social skills, new technologies and AI, gender wage gap |
| JEL: | H41 J16 J21 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18291 |
| By: | Zhang, Haotian (Lingnan College, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China); Jamasb, Tooraj (Department of Economics, Copenhagen Business School); Nepal, Rabindra (School of Business, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia); Dong, Kangyin (School of International Trade and Economics, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing 100029, China) |
| Abstract: | Gender equality and carbon inequality are interrelated and pervasive. However, there is limited evidence on the presence and nature of the causality relationships between gender equality and carbon inequality in the literature. This paper examines how gender equality affects carbon inequality and the underlying mechanisms using a theoretical model analysis with a novel perspective and panel data from 153 countries for the period 2006–2019. We find that gender equality mitigates carbon inequality by alleviating wealth and income disparities with democratization and anti-corruption efforts amplifying its impact. The reduction in carbon inequality and economic inequality stems mainly from the decrease in carbon emissions and the economic share of the wealthy. The benefits of gender equality for the poor are relatively small, while democratization and anti-corruption and efforts strengthen its positive effects on disadvantaged groups. |
| Keywords: | Gender equality; Carbon inequality; Democratization; Corruption; Wealth inequality; Income inequality |
| JEL: | C23 F35 O13 P28 Q55 |
| Date: | 2025–12–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cbsnow:2025_011 |
| By: | Olympia Bover (CEMFI); Nezih Guner (BANCO DE ESPAÑA AND CEMFI); Yuliya Kulikova (OIST AND IIASA); Alessandro Ruggieri (CUNEF UNIVERSIDAD); Carlos Sanz (BANCO DE ESPAÑA AND CEMFI) |
| Abstract: | Family-friendly policies aim to help women balance work and family life, encouraging them to participate in the labor market. How effective are such policies in increasing fertility? We answer this question using a search model of the labor market where firms make hiring, promotion and firing decisions, taking into account how these decisions affect workers’ fertility incentives and labor force participation decisions. We estimate the model using administrative data from Spain, a country with very low fertility and a highly regulated labor market. We use the model to study family-friendly policies and demonstrate that firms’ reactions result in a trade-off: policies that increase fertility reduce women’s participation in the labor market and lower their lifetime earnings. |
| Keywords: | family-friendly policies, fertility, flexibility, search and matching, human capital accumulation, gender gaps, welfare |
| JEL: | E24 J08 J13 J18 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:2547 |