nep-hrm New Economics Papers
on Human Capital and Human Resource Management
Issue of 2024‒03‒11
seven papers chosen by
Patrick Kampkötter, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen


  1. Gender Differences in Early Occupational Choices: Evidence from Medical Specialty Selection By Agnès Charpin; Josep Amer-Mestre; Noémi Berlin; Magali Dumontet
  2. CEO Compensation and Cash-Flow Shocks: Evidence from Changes in Environmental Regulations By Seungho Choi; Ross Levine; Raphael Jonghyeon Park; Simon Xu
  3. The Gender Minority Gaps in Confidence and Self-Evaluation By Billur Aksoy; Christine L. Exley; Judd B. Kessler
  4. Gender pay gap in a highly qualified sector: evidence from administrative data By Nina Giordano; Cecilia Parada; Mijail Yapor
  5. Breaking the glass ceiling: empowering female entrepreneurs through female mentors By Vilcassim, Naufel J.
  6. Earnings Dynamics and Firm-Level Shocks By Benjamin Friedrich; Lisa Laun; Costas Meghir; Luigi Pistaferri
  7. Are Older Workers Good for Business? By Laura D. Quinby; Gal Wettstein; James Giles

  1. By: Agnès Charpin; Josep Amer-Mestre; Noémi Berlin; Magali Dumontet
    Abstract: This paper analyses gender differences in occupational choices in a setting in which observed matches are solely determined by supply-side factors: the French centralised medical residency selection mechanism. We show that men and women facing the same occupational choice set make drastically different occupational choices. Medical specialties selected by women pay less, have lower time requirements, and are less competitive. To understand these differences and estimate how much of the gender gap in specialty sorting can be explained by individual preferences for job attributes, we administer a survey to prospective medical residents just before their specialty choice. Using both a hypothetical job choice framework and stated preferences, we show that while “hard” job characteristics (earnings, time requirements) only slightly reduce the gender gap in sorting, “soft” characteristics (daily tasks, contact with patients, willingness to help others) play a larger role in reducing the gap. We also find suggestive evidence of an anticipation effect of fertility on women’s career choices. Our results suggest that individual preferences play a determinant role in explaining gender-based occupational segregation.
    Keywords: Occupational segregation, Gender, Labour market, Job attributes, Willingness to pay
    JEL: J16 J22 J24 J31
    Date: 2024
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2024-5&r=hrm
  2. By: Seungho Choi; Ross Levine; Raphael Jonghyeon Park; Simon Xu
    Abstract: This paper investigates how shocks to expected cash flows influence CEO incentive compensation. Exploiting changes in compliance with environmental regulations as shocks to expected future cash flows, we find that adverse shocks typically prompt corporate boards to recalibrate CEO compensation to reduce risk-taking incentives. However, this pattern is not uniform. Financially distressed firms exhibit milder reductions in compensation convexity, with some even increasing it, suggesting a “gambling for resurrection” strategy. Moreover, the strength of corporate governance influences shareholders’ capacity to align executive incentives with shareholder risk preferences following unanticipated changes in the stringency of environmental regulations.
    JEL: G34 G38 M52 Q53 Q58
    Date: 2024–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32101&r=hrm
  3. By: Billur Aksoy; Christine L. Exley; Judd B. Kessler
    Abstract: A rich literature explores gender differences between men and women, but an increasing share of the population identifies their gender in some other way. Analyzing data on roughly 10, 000 students and 1, 500 adults, we find that such gender minorities are less confident and provide less favorable self-evaluations than equally performing men on a math and science test. We find that these "gender minority gaps" are robust, are as large as—or larger than—gender gaps between men and women, and are domain specific. Administrative data reveals that our confidence and self-evaluation measures are highly predictive of academic performance.
    JEL: C91 D91 J16
    Date: 2024–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32061&r=hrm
  4. By: Nina Giordano (Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración. Departamento de Métodos Cuantitativos); Cecilia Parada (Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración. Instituto de Economía); Mijail Yapor (Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración. Instituto de Estadística)
    Abstract: This paper studies the existence of gender pay gaps within the highly skilled profession of medicine in Uruguay. We focus on understanding whether the way an occupation is structured may impact income equality. We use administrative data from the Human Resources Control and Analysis System (SCARH) database, published by the Ministry of Public Health of Uruguay. We estimate the gross and conditional gender pay gaps among physicians for the entire period between 2008 and 2018. Furthermore, we evaluated two potential mechanisms that could explain part of the differences in physician earnings, specifically horizontal segregation (the concentration of women in certain specialities with lower salaries) and vertical segregation (the under representation of women in top hierarchical positions). Our results indicate differences in labour income between female and male physicians, and that horizontal and vertical segregation play a role in explaining these gaps.Length: 33 pages
    Keywords: gender pay gaps, highly prestigious occupations, physicians, segregation
    JEL: J16 J24 J31 J7
    Date: 2023–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulr:wpaper:dt-21-23&r=hrm
  5. By: Vilcassim, Naufel J.
    Abstract: Among the millions of entrepreneurs in developing economies, few are able to earn a decent livelihood. To help these entrepreneurs succeed, governmental and nongovernmental organizations invest billions of dollars every year in providing training programs. Many of these programs involve providing entrepreneurs with mentors. Unfortunately, the effects of these programs are often muted, or even null, for woman-owned firms. Against this backdrop, we tested whether gender matching, where female entrepreneurs are randomly paired with a female mentor, could help address the gender gap. Findings from a randomized controlled field experiment with 930 Ugandan entrepreneurs show that mentor gender has a powerful impact on female entrepreneurs. Firm sales and profits of female entrepreneurs guided by a female mentor increased by, on average, 32% and 31% compared with the control group, and these estimates are even larger for female entrepreneurs with high aspirations. In contrast, female entrepreneurs guided by a male mentor did not significantly improve performance compared with the control group. We provide suggestive mechanism evidence that female mentor-mentee arrangements were characterized by more positive engagements.
    Keywords: female entrepreneurs; gender gap; glass ceiling; mentorship gender-matching; randomized controlled field experiment; small firm growth; developing economies; (ESRC) joint Growth Research Program; the Deloitte Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (DIIE); and the universities the authors were affiliated with when the research was conducted.
    JEL: L20 J16
    Date: 2023–12–22
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:120477&r=hrm
  6. By: Benjamin Friedrich (Northwestern University); Lisa Laun (The Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU)); Costas Meghir (Yale University); Luigi Pistaferri (Stanford University)
    Abstract: We use matched employer-employee data from Sweden to study the role of the Þrm in affecting the stochastic properties of wages. Our model accounts for endogenous participation and mobility decisions. We find that firm-specific permanent productivity shocks transmit to individual wages, but the effect is mostly concentrated among the high- skilled workers. The pass-through of temporary shocks is smaller in magnitude and similar for high- and low-skilled workers. The updates to worker-Þrm specific match effects over the life of a Þrm-worker relationship are small. Substantial growth in earnings variance over the life cycle for high-skilled workers is driven by Þrms. In particular, cross-sectional wage variances by age 55 are roughly one- third higher relative to a scenario with no pass-through of Þrm shocks onto wages.
    Date: 2024–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2383&r=hrm
  7. By: Laura D. Quinby; Gal Wettstein; James Giles
    Abstract: The U.S. workforce is aging, which has raised concerns about the implications of older workers for businesses and the economy. However, little research has been conducted on the quantitative value of older workers in recent years. This paper attempts to fill that gap by linking employee and employer data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics, Longitudinal Business Database, and Business Register. The analysis finds that in general, older workers are as productive as younger workers, however they do earn higher wages. Furthermore, the relationship between the share of older workers, productivity, and profitability varies substantially by industry.
    Date: 2023–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2023-19&r=hrm

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