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on Gender |
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Issue of 2026–09–14
five papers chosen by Jan Sauermann, Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering |
| By: | Dongwoo Kim |
| Abstract: | When in the lifecycle does a large gender wage gap emerge? South Korea has the largest gender pay gap in the OECD, 29%. Among recent college graduates the conditional gap is only 4.3% over 2008-2019, falling from 5.0% to 3.0%, and correcting for differential selection into full-time wage employment with semiparametric, machine-learning, and bounds methods leaves it unchanged. Among observed workers what remains sits at the top of the distribution. In Korean panel data the corrected gap widens severalfold across the prime-age workforce, where the selection correction becomes first order. Korea's gender disparity is mostly generated after entry. |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2608.03153 |
| By: | Coleman, Winnie |
| Abstract: | A persistent gender gap in inflation expectations, i.e., women systematically reporting higher expected inflation than men on average, has been documented across countries and over time, yet its underlying causes remain under debate. Using more than half a million responses from the ECB Consumer Expectations Survey and a double machine learning framework that provides valid inference on many dimensions of heterogeneity at once, I show that there is no single gender gap: individualized gaps range from roughly -1 to +5 percentage points. This heterogeneity is shaped primarily by subjective belief-formation variables, such as forecast uncertainty and the rounding of inflation beliefs, and only to a much lesser extent by objective ones, such as financial literacy. When inflation is high enough to attract consumers' attention, the average gap narrows, but the distribution of individual gaps fans out, widening precisely for economically vulnerable women. Since the women who diverge most from men hold the most imprecise beliefs, communication that reduces ambiguity, rather than solely providing information, is a promising policy lever. |
| Keywords: | Consumer Inflation Expectations, Expectation Formation, Gender, Double Machine Learning, Big Data |
| JEL: | C55 D84 E31 E58 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:343048 |
| By: | Campaña, Juan Carlos; Chomali, Laura |
| Abstract: | This paper examines gender differences in paid work, unpaid work, and care activities among Colombian couples using three Colombian National Time Use Surveys (2012-2013, 2016-2017, and 2020-2021). The analysis focuses on households in which both partners can be identified, both are active in the labour market, and comparisons can be made across urban and rural areas, as well as between households with and without children aged 0-12. Descriptive evidence based on mean equality tests and Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) estimates reveals persistent gender specialization within Colombian households. While gender gaps in paid work narrowed over the period studied, differences in unpaid work remained largely unchanged. In addition, gender inequalities in care activities increased significantly among urban households with children during the period that includes the COVID-19 pandemic. The results suggest that the progress observed in gender gaps in time devoted to paid work has not been matched by an equivalent redistribution of domestic and care responsibilities. |
| Keywords: | Intra-household allocation, gender gaps, paid work, unpaid work, care activities, COVID-19, Colombia |
| JEL: | J16 J22 D13 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1804 |
| By: | Banerjee, Souvik (IIT Bombay); Jaiswal, Preeti (IIT Bombay); Mukhopadhyay, Sankar (University of Nevada, Reno) |
| Abstract: | Using nationally representative data from the Annual Survey of Industries, we examine the effects of India’s Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017, which extends the paid maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks on firms’ hiring decisions and gender-specific employment outcomes. We use the institutional variation of the policy mandate, which applies only to firms with 10 or more employees, to define treatment and control firms. Our results reveal that firms respond to the mandate primarily through labour substitution, i.e., replacing female workers with male workers rather than bearing the increased cost of female employment. We find a decline of 8.4% in female workers and 9.5% in female mandays worked, accompanied by an increase of 2.6% in male workers and 2.1% in male mandays. This substitution is concentrated in industries with high female employment shares, while firms in low female-share industries show no female employment effects but exhibit positive spillovers to male wages. Firm output and profit are unaffected, indicating that male workers serve as effective production substitutes. These findings imply well-intentioned maternity leave policies can inadvertently reinforce gender labour market disparities. |
| Keywords: | maternity benefit, female labour, employment |
| JEL: | J13 J33 J31 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18888 |
| By: | Lauro Carnicelli |
| Abstract: | Parental and paternity leave policies have been used in developed countries to promote gender equality and curb the child penalty. However, these policies have a direct impact on how housework and childcare are organized within the household. Given the decline in fertility rates and the rise of single-parent households. I examine how the expansion and flexibilization of paternity leave affect union stability and future fertility. This study uses Finnish registry and social security data in a regression discontinuity setting to answer this question. The child’s due date is used as the running variable because it cannot be precisely manipulated by parents. Four paternity leave reforms from the 2000s are analyzed. Each reform introduced different changes regarding leave-entitlement expansion, flexibility, and benefit-replacement rate. Results suggest that flexibility is important for leave take-up. The most flexible reform, from 2010, increased the duration of paternity leave. It had a positive impact on fertility and a transient increase in union stability for individuals younger than 30 years. |
| Keywords: | Paternity leave, Fertility, Marriage, Union Stability |
| JEL: | J12 J13 |
| Date: | 2025–10–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pst:wpaper:356 |