Zitatform

Goldin, Claudia (2015): How to achieve gender equality in pay. In: The Milken Institute review H. 3, S. 1-33.

Abstract

"It's no secret that, on average, women - even those with equivalent education and experience - typically earn less than men. The ratio of the average (mean) earnings of female workers (fulltime, full-year, 25 to 69 years old) to that of their male counterparts was 0.72 in 2010. The pay ratio of median earners (those at the 50th percentile) for the same groups was 0.78. But that is not the whole story.
First the good news: the gender gap has narrowed. The ratio of median earnings increased from 0.56 to 0.78 in the three decades prior to 2010. This narrowing of the gap in pay reflects the converging economic roles of men and women, a reality that is among the grandest social and economic advances in the last century. There are many aspects to the convergence, and each can be thought of as a chapter in a figurative book. The big question is whether the last chapter, in which the economy achieves full equality, can be written. And if so, how?" (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Goldin, Claudia (2015): Hours Flexibility and the Gender Gap in Pay. Washington, DC, 27 S.

Abstract

"There is a large hourly wage penalty associated with working fewer hours per week, and although the effect is similar by gender, women are more greatly affected because they are more likely to work fewer than 40 hours per week." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Herr, Jane Leber (2015): The labor supply effects of delayed first birth. In: The American economic review, Jg. 105, H. 5, S. 630-637. DOI:10.1257/aer.p20151119

Abstract

"In this paper I compare the relationship between first-birth timing and post-birth labor supply for high school and college graduate mothers. Given that pre-birth wages are increasing in fertility delay, the rising opportunity cost of time would suggest that among both groups, later mothers work more. Yet I only find this pattern for high school graduates. For college graduates, I instead find that there is a strong U-shaped pattern between hours worked within motherhood, and the career timing of first birth." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Huber, Martin (2015): Causal pitfalls in the decomposition of wage gaps. In: Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Jg. 33, H. 2, S. 179- 191. DOI:10.1080/07350015.2014.937437

Abstract

"The decomposition of gender or ethnic wage gaps into explained and unexplained components (often with the aim to assess labor market discrimination) has been a major research agenda in empirical labor economics. This article demonstrates that conventional decompositions, no matter whether linear or nonparametric, are equivalent to assuming a (probably too) simple model of mediation (aimed at assessing causal mechanisms) and may therefore lack causal interpretability. The reason is that decompositions typically control for post-birth variables that lie on the causal pathway from gender/ethnicity (which are determined at or even before birth) to wage but neglect potential endogeneity that may arise from this approach. Based on the newer literature on mediation analysis, we therefore provide more attractive identifying assumptions and discuss nonparametric identification based on reweighting." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Jepsen, Christopher & Lisa K. Jepsen (2015): Labor-market specialization within same-sex and difference-sex couples. In: Industrial relations, Jg. 54, H. 1, S. 109-130. DOI:10.1111/irel.12078

Abstract

"We use data from the 2000 decennial U.S. Census to compare differences in earnings, hours worked, and labor-force participation between members of different household types, including same-sex couples, different-sex couples, and roommates. Both same-sex and different-sex couples exhibit some degree of household specialization, whereas roommates show little or no degree of specialization. Of all household types, married couples exhibit by far the highest degree of specialization with respect to labor-market outcomes. With respect to differences in earnings and hours, gay male couples are more similar to married couples than lesbian or unmarried heterosexual couples are to married couples." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Jones, Daniel B. (2015): The supply and demand of motivated labor. When should we expect to see nonprofit wage gaps? In: Labour economics, Jg. 32, H. January, S. 1-14. DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2014.11.001

Abstract

"Evidence on whether nonprofit workers earn less than for-profit workers is mixed. I argue that we should only expect wage gaps when labor demand of the nonprofit sector of an industry is low. When labor demand is high, there are not enough 'motivated' workers to fulfill demand, so nonprofits must raise wages. I findempirical evidence consistent with these predictions. Penalties for working in a nonprofit are largest in areas where nonprofits require a small share of the labor force. In these same locations, the quality of work is higher than in for-profits." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Kalenkoski, Charlene M. & Donald J. Lacombe (2015): Using spatial econometric techniques to analyze the joint employment decisions of spouses. In: Journal of labor research, Jg. 36, H. 1, S. 67-77. DOI:10.1007/s12122-014-9196-2

Abstract

"Studies of the joint time-use decisions of spouses have relied on joint estimation of time-use equations, sometimes assuming correlated errors across spouses' equations and sometimes directly examining the effects of one spouse's time use on another's, relying on panel data or instrumental variables techniques to account for endogeneity. However, panel data often are not available and available instruments often are not satisfactory, making examination of the direct relationship between spouses' time use difficult. Spatial econometric techniques applied to cross-sectional data do not require instrumental variables. This study estimates both a Spatial Autoregressive (SAR) Model and a Spatial Durbin Error Model (SDEM) to examine the labor hours of husbands and wives in dual-earner couples using the 2012 Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey (ASEC). In these models, each spouse is treated as a direct 'neighbor' of the other in a spatial weight matrix and non-spouses are treated as nonneighbors. Estimates of both the own- and cross-wage effects on labor hours and an estimate of the direct relationship between spouses' labor hours are obtained." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Killewald, Alexandra & Xiaolin Zhuo (2015): Mothers' long-term employment patterns. (Upjohn Institute working paper 247), Kalamazoo, Mich., 60 S. DOI:10.17848/wp15-247

Abstract

"Previous research on maternal employment has disproportionately focused on married, college-educated mothers and examined either current employment status or postpartum return to employment. Following the life course perspective, we instead conceptualize maternal careers as long-term life course patterns. Using data from the NLSY79 and optimal matching, we document four common employment patterns of American mothers over the first 18 years of maternity. About two-thirds follow steady patterns, either full-time employment (38 percent) or steady nonemployment (24 percent). The rest experience 'mixed' patterns: long-term part-time employment (20 percent), or a multiyear period of nonemployment following maternity, then a return to employment (18 percent). Consistent employment following maternity, either full-time or part-time, is characteristic of women with more economic advantages. Women who experience consistent nonemployment disproportionately lack a high school degree, while women with return to employment following a long break tend to be younger with lower wages prior to maternity. Race is one of the few predictors of whether a mother is consistently employed full time versus part time: consistent part-time labor is distinctive to white women. Our results support studying maternal employment across the economic spectrum, considering motherhood as a long-term characteristic, and employing research approaches that reveal the qualitative distinctness of particular employment patterns." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Koutentakis, Franciscos (2015): Gender unemployment dynamics. Evidence from ten advanced economies. In: Labour, Jg. 29, H. 1, S. 15-31. DOI:10.1111/labr.12044

Abstract

"The paper investigates gender unemployment dynamics in 10 advances economies applying a recent methodology on widely available Labour Force Surveys data. We calculate the job finding and separation rates for each gender and use them to construct the steady-state unemployment gap as well as two counterfactual gender unemployment gaps: one generated by differences only in job finding rates and the other by differences only in separation rates. We find that in all countries the gender unemployment gap attributed to differences in the job finding rate is lower than the gap attributed to differences in the separation rate, suggesting that gender differences in the separation rate are the major factor behind the gender unemployment gap." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Koyama, Jill (2015): Constructing gender: refugee women working in the United States. In: Journal of Refugee Studies, Jg. 28, H. 2, S. 258-275. DOI:10.1093/jrs/feu026

Abstract

"Drawing on data collected during a 26-month ethnographic study of refugees in a city in upstate New York, I examine the gendered and gendering training and work contexts with which refugee women engage. Utilizing the notion of assemblage, a term often associated with actor-network theory (ANT), I ask, among other questions, how do the gathered collages of texts, aims, histories, resources, knowledges, and practices that instantiate what we might recognize as resources for newcomers, come to frame refugee women as they enter the workforce? I demonstrate that through the processes of becoming employed, certain material objects, such as completed job applications, combine with case workers' assessments of employability, and employers' ethnic and gender stereotypes, to create socio-material renderings of refugee women. However, even as they participate in the labour market, the refugee women push against the constraints imposed by their limited English-language ability, lack of formal education, initial lack of socio-economic connections, culturally-defined gender roles, and gender stereotypes. I argue that greater efforts through changes in the national policy and also the related practices of local resettlement agencies should address gender more explicitly. Greater time investment in educational programmes, a longer period of workforce training in more varied, less gender-stereotypical areas, and explicit programmes educating the receiving community about the refugees could result not only in greater economic adaptation, but also increased social integration for refugee women." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Lee, Bora, Katie M. Lawson & Susan M. McHale (2015): Longitudinal associations between gender-typed skills and interests and their links to occupational outcomes. In: Journal of vocational behavior, Jg. 88, H. June, S. 121-130. DOI:10.1016/j.jvb.2015.02.011

Abstract

"Although gender-based occupational segregation has declined in past decades, the world of work remains segregated by gender. Grounded in research showing that individuals tend to choose jobs that match their interests and skills, this study examined the longitudinal associations between gendered activity interests and skills from middle childhood through adolescence and tested gendered interests and skills, measured in adolescence, as predictors of occupational outcomes in young adulthood. Data were collected from 402 participants at four time points - when they averaged 10, 12, 16, and 25 years old. Results revealed that the longitudinal linkages between male-typed interests and skills were bidirectional, that both male-typed interests and skills in adolescence predicted working in male-typed occupations in young adulthood, and that skills, but not interests, predicted income. In contrast, female-typed interests predicted female-typed skills, but not the reverse, adolescent female-typed skills (but not interests) predicted working in female-typed occupations in young adulthood, and there were no links between female-typed interests or skills and income. Discussion focuses on the differential meanings and developmental implications of male- versus female-typed interests and skills." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Linde Leonard, Megan de & T.D. Stanley (2015): Married with children. What remains when observable biases are removed from the reported male marriage wage premium. In: Labour economics, Jg. 33, H. April, S. 72-80. DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2015.02.010

Abstract

"There is a substantial research literature that discusses and documents a wage premium for married men. Our meta-analysis of 59 studies and 661 estimates finds a marriage premium for US men of between 9% and 13% after misspecification and selection biases are filtered out. Results from this meta-regression analysis cast doubt upon both the 'selection' and the 'specialization' explanation for the marriage-wage premium but are consistent with the notion that marriage may cause men to become more stable and committed workers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Lutter, Mark (2015): Do women suffer from network closure? The moderating effect of social capital on gender inequality in a project-based labor market, 1929 to 2010. In: American Sociological Review, Jg. 80, H. 2, S. 329-358. DOI:10.1177/0003122414568788

Abstract

"That social capital matters is an established fact in the social sciences. Less clear, however, is how different forms of social capital affect gender disadvantages in career advancement. Focusing on a project-based type of labor market, namely the U.S. film industry, this study argues that women suffer a 'closure penalty' and face severe career disadvantages when collaborating in cohesive teams. At the same time, gender disadvantages are reduced for women who build social capital in open networks with higher degrees of diversity and information flow. Using large-scale longitudinal data on career profiles of about one million performances by 97,657 film actors in 369,099 film productions between the years 1929 and 2010, I analyze career survival models and interaction effects between gender and different measures of social capital and information openness. Findings reveal that female actors have a higher risk of career failure than do their male colleagues when affiliated in cohesive networks, but women have better survival chances when embedded in open, diverse structures. This study contributes to the understanding of how and what type of social capital can be either a beneficial resource for otherwise disadvantaged groups or a constraining mechanism that intensifies gender differences in career advancement." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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McGee, Andrew, Peter McGee & Jessica Pan (2015): Performance pay, competitiveness, and the gender wage gap. Evidence from the United States. In: Economics letters, Jg. 128, H. March, S. 35-38. DOI:10.1016/j.econlet.2015.01.004

Abstract

"Evidence that women are less likely to opt into competitive compensation schemes in the laboratory has generated speculation that a gender difference in competitiveness contributes to the gender wage gap. Using data from the NLSY79 and NLSY97, we show that women are less likely to be employed in jobs using competitive compensation. The portion of the gender wage gap explained by gender segregation in compensation schemes is small in the NLSY79 but somewhat larger in the NLSY97 - suggesting an increasing role for competitiveness in explaining the gender wage gap." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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McHenry, Peter & Melissa McInerney (2015): Estimating Hispanic-white wage gaps among women. The importance of controlling for cost of living. In: Journal of labor research, Jg. 36, H. 3, S. 249-273. DOI:10.1007/s12122-015-9210-3

Abstract

"Despite concern regarding labor market discrimination against Hispanics, previously published estimates show that Hispanic women earn higher hourly wages than white women with similar observable characteristics. This estimated wage premium is likely biased upwards because of the omission of an important control variable: cost of living. We show that Hispanic women live in locations (e.g., cities) with higher costs of living than whites. After we account for cost of living, the estimated Hispanic-white wage differential for non-immigrant women falls by approximately two-thirds. As a result, we find no statistically significant difference in wages between Hispanic and white women in the NLSY97." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Ng, Weiyi & Ming D. Leung (2015): For love or money? Gender differences in how one approaches getting a job. (IRLE working paper 2015-103), Berkeley, CA, 45 S.

Abstract

"Extant supply-side labor market theories conclude that women and men apply to different jobs but are unable to explain gender differences in how they may behave when applying to the same job. We correct this discrepancy by considering gendered approaches to the hiring process. We propose that applicants can emphasize either the relational or the transactional aspects of the job and that this affects whether they are hired. Relational job seekers focus on developing a social connection with their employer. In contrast, transactional job seekers focus on quantitative and mechanical aspects of the job. We expect women to be more relational and men to be more transactional and that this behavior will contribute to differences in hiring outcomes. Specifically, we contend that being relational suggest that one is more committed to the job at hand and therefore should increases the chances of being hired - holding constant competence. We examine behaviors in an online contract labor market for graphic designers, Elance.com where we find that women are more likely to be hired than men by about 4.1%. Quantitative linguistic analysis on the unstructured text of job proposals reveals that women (men) adopt more relational (transactional) language in their applications. These different approaches affect a job seeker's likelihood of being hired and attenuate the gender gap we identified. Attenuation suggests that how one approaches the hiring process matters and that gender is correlated with a particular style of engagement." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Seron, Carroll, Susan S. Silbey, Erin Cech & Brian Rubineau (2015): Persistence is cultural: professional socialization and the reproduction of sex segregation. In: Work and occupations, Jg. 43, H. 2, S. 178-214. DOI:10.1177/0730888415618728

Abstract

"Why does sex segregation in professional occupations persist? Arguing that the cultures and practices of professional socialization serve to perpetuate this segregation, the authors examine the case of engineering. Using interview and diary entry data following students from college entry to graduation, the authors show how socialization leads women to develop less confidence that they will 'fit' into the culture of engineering. The authors identify three processes that produce these cultural mismatches: orientation to engineering at college entry, initiation rituals in coursework and team projects, and anticipatory socialization during internships and summer jobs. Informal interactions with peers and everyday sexism in teams and internships are particularly salient building blocks of segregation." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Srivastava, Sameer B. & Eliot L. Sherman (2015): Agents of change or cogs in the machine? Reexamining the influence of female managers on the gender wage gap. In: American Journal of Sociology, Jg. 120, H. 6, S. 1778-1808. DOI:10.1086/681960

Abstract

"Do female managers act in ways that narrow or instead act in ways that preserve or even widen the gender wage gap? Although conceptual arguments exist on both sides of this debate, the empirical evidence to date has favored the former view. Yet this evidence comes primarily from cross-establishment surveys, which do not provide visibility into individual managers' choices. Using longitudinal personnel records from an information services firm in which managers had considerable discretion over employee salaries, we estimate multilevel models that indicate no support for the proposition that female managers reduce the gender wage gap among their subordinates. Consistent with the theory of value threat, we instead find conditional support for the cogs-in-the-machine perspective: in the subsample of high-performing supervisors and low-performing employees, women who switched from a male to a female supervisor had a lower salary in the following year than men who made the same switch." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Steffens, Melanie C. & Ma. Àngels Viladot (2015): Gender at work. A social psychological perspective. (Language as social action 18), New York: Lang, 312 S.

Abstract

"While many women receive equal education, such equality is nowhere in sight when it comes to women's and men's career success: men still earn significantly more than women and are more likely to be promoted. In this book, the authors offer a state of the art review of applied social-psychological research on gender at work, shedding light on all the different ways that work-related perceptions, attributions, outcomes, and the like differ for women and men. Focusing on domains (e.g., engineering) and positions (e.g., leadership) that are marked by women's underrepresentation, the first part of the book looks at gender at work in terms of stereotypes, attitudes, and social roles, including parenthood, while the second part takes a social identity and communication perspective, exploring the situations in which men and women interact at work. Many chapters focus on applied questions, such as career choice, effects of role models, and sexual harassment at work. Theories and findings are applied to these topics, with conclusions and recommendations drawn throughout the book." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Strain, Michael R. & Douglas A. Webber (2015): High school experiences, the gender wage gap, and the selection of occupation. (IZA discussion paper 9277), Bonn, 15 S.

Abstract

"Using within-high-school variation and controlling for a measure of cognitive ability, this paper finds that high-school leadership experiences explain a significant portion of the residual gender wage gap and selection into management occupations. Our results imply that high-school leadership could build non-cognitive, productive skills that are rewarded years later in the labor market and that explain a portion of the systematic difference in pay between men and women. Alternatively, high-school leadership could be a proxy variable for personality characteristics that differ between men and women and that drive higher pay and becoming a manager. Because high school leadership experiences are exogenous to direct labor market experiences, our results leave less room for direct labor market discrimination as a driver of the gender wage gap and occupation selection." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Weber Handwerker, Elizabeth & James R. Spletzer (2015): The role of establishments and the concentration of occupations in wage inequality. (IZA discussion paper 9294), Bonn, 24 S.

Abstract

"This paper uses the microdata of the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) Survey to assess the contribution of occupational concentration to wage inequality between establishments and its growth over time. We show that occupational concentration plays an important role in wage determination for workers, in a wide variety of occupations, and can explain some establishment-level wage variation. Occupational concentration is increasing during the 2000-2011 time period, although much of this change is explained by other observable establishment characteristics. Overall, occupational concentration can help explain a small amount of wage inequality growth between establishments during this time period." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Addison, John T., Orgul Demet Ozturk & Si Wang (2014): The role of gender in promotion and pay over a career. In: Journal of Human Capital, Jg. 8, H. 3, S. 280-317. DOI:10.1086/677942

Abstract

"Using data from the NLSY79, this paper considers the role of gender in promotion and promotion-related earnings development over the course of a career. The raw data suggest reasonably favorable promotion outcomes for females over a career, but any such advantages are found to be confined to less educated females. Further, the strong returns to education in later career stemming from promotion-related earnings growth accrue solely to males. While consistent with fertility timing and choice on the part of educated females, this earnings result is not inconsistent with discrimination as well, reminiscent of findings from an earlier human capital literature." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Augustine, Jennifer March (2014): Mothers' employment, education, and parenting. In: Work and occupations, Jg. 41, H. 2, S. 237-270. DOI:10.1177/0730888413501342

Abstract

"This study investigates whether mothers' education moderates the link between their work and parenting quality, differentiating among aspects of work that may negatively and positively influence it. Data came from the National Institute of Child Health and Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 1,345). The results revealed that part-time and higher status work were associated with increases in parenting quality for less educated women, but not for more educated women, thereby narrowing socioeconomic differences in the parenting behaviors linked to children's mobility. Yet non-employment among less educated women was associated with the lowest levels of parenting quality, pointing to a key source of inequality in the lives of children." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bitler, Marianne, Hilary Hoynes & Elira Kuka (2014): Do in-work tax credits serve as a safety net? (NBER working paper 19785), Cambridge, Mass., 48 S. DOI:10.3386/w19785

Abstract

"The cash and near cash safety net in the U.S. has undergone a dramatic transformation in the past fifteen years. Federal welfare reform has led to the 'elimination of welfare as we know it' and several tax reforms have substantially increased the role of 'in-work'' assistance. In 2010, we spent more than 5 dollars on the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for every dollar spent on cash benefits through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), whereas in 1994 on the eve of federal welfare reform these programs were about equal in size. In this paper, we evaluate and test whether the EITC satisfies a defining feature of a safety net program -- that it responds to economic need. In particular, we explore how EITC participation and expenditures change with the business cycle. The fact that the EITC requires earned income leads to a theoretical ambiguity in the cyclical responsiveness of the credit. We use administrative IRS data to examine the relationship between business cycles and the EITC program. Our empirical strategy relies on exploiting differences in the timing and severity of economic cycles across states. The results show that higher unemployment rates lead to higher EITC recipients and total dollar amounts of credits for married couples. On the other hand, the effect of business cycles on the EITC is insignificant for single individuals, whether measured by recipients or expenditures. In sum, our results show that the EITC serves as an automatic stabilizer for married couples with children but not for the majority of recipients -- single parents with children. The patterns we identify are consistent with the predictions of static labor supply theory, and with expectations about how economic shocks are likely to affect one versus two-earner households." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Cooke, Lynn Prince (2014): Gendered parenthood penalties and premiums across the earnings distribution in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In: European Sociological Review, Jg. 30, H. 3, S. 360-372. DOI:10.1093/esr/jcu044

Abstract

"Parenthood explains some of the gender earnings gap, but its effects differ among women and men and across countries. Wave 6 LIS data and regressions of the recentered influence function are used to compare effects of parenthood across the unconditional earnings distribution in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The three countries are considered more liberal welfare regimes, but still differ in within- and between-gender economic inequality. Australia has slightly greater income equality than the other two countries. Results reveal that fatherhood premiums and motherhood penalties are smaller in Australia, as are differences between the highest- and lowest-earning parents. Australian and British mothers are more likely to work part-time, but controlling for work hours, motherhood penalties in those countries are smaller across the bottom half of the distribution than in the United States. Motherhood penalties across the upper half of the earnings distribution are more similar in the three countries and decrease as earnings increase. The lowest-earning men in all three countries face small but significant fatherhood penalties, whereas high-earning British and US fathers garner significant premiums as compared with childless men. Parenthood penalties and premiums therefore reflect relative socio-economic (dis)advantage among both women and men, as well as between them." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Damaske, Sarah, Elaine Howard Ecklund, Anne E. Lincoln & Virginia J. White (2014): Male scientists' competing devotions to work and family. Changing norms in a male-dominated profession. In: Work and occupations, Jg. 41, H. 4, S. 477-507. DOI:10.1177/0730888414539171

Abstract

"Using in-depth interviews with 74 men across different ranks in biology and physics at prestigious U.S. universities, the authors ask to what extent changing norms of fatherhood and a flexible workplace affect men working in a highly male-dominated profession and what variation exists in family forms. The authors conceptualize four typologies of men: those forgoing children, egalitarian partners, neotraditional dual earners, and traditional breadwinners. Findings suggest male scientists hold strong work devotions, yet a growing number seek egalitarian relationships, which they frame as reducing their devotion to work. The majority of men find the all-consuming nature of academic science conflicts with changing fatherhood norms." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Daysal, N. Meltem & Chiara Orsini (2014): The miracle drugs. Hormone replacement therapy and labor market behavior of middle-aged women. (IZA discussion paper 7993), Bonn, 27 S.

Abstract

"In an aging society, determining which factors contribute to the employment of older individuals is increasingly important. We examine the impact of medical innovations on the employment of middle-aged women focusing on the specific case of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), a common treatment for the alleviation of negative menopausal symptoms. HRT medications were among the most popular prescriptions in the United States until 2002 when the Women's Health Initiative Study - the largest randomized control trial on women ever undertaken - documented the health risks associated with their long term use. We exploit the release of these findings within a Fixed Effect Instrumental Variable framework to address the endogeneity in HRT use. Our results indicate substantial benefits of HRT use to the short-term employment of middle-aged women." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Fernandez, Raquel & Joyce Cheng Wong (2014): Divorce risk, wages and working wives. A quantitative life-cycle analysis of female labour force participation. In: The economic journal, Jg. 124, H. 576, S. 319-358. DOI:10.1111/ecoj.12136

Abstract

"This article develops a quantitative life-cycle model to study the increase in married women's labour force participation (LFP). We calibrate the model to match key life-cycle statistics for the 1935 cohort and use it to assess the changed environment faced by the 1955 cohort. We find that a higher divorce probability and changes in wage structure are each able to explain a large proportion of the LFP increase. Higher divorce risk increases LFP not because the latter contributes to higher marital assets or greater labour market experience, however. Instead, it is the result of conflicting spousal preferences towards the adjustment of marital consumption in the face of increased divorce risk." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Fernández, Raquel & Joyce Wong (2014): Unilateral divorce, the decreasing gender gap, and married women's labor force participation. In: The American economic review, Jg. 104, H. 5, S. 342-347. DOI:10.1257/aer.104.5.342

Abstract

"Married women's labor force participation (LFP) increased dramatically in the United States between the 1940 and 1960 cohort. The two cohorts lived under different divorce regimes (unilateral divorce rather than mutual consent). The 1960 cohort also had a lower gender wage gap. We use a quantitative dynamic life-cycle model of endogenous marital status, calibrated to key statistics for the 1940 cohort, to study the effects of these two changes. We find that both drivers combined are able to account for over 50 percent of the increase in married women's LFP and also generate large movements in marriage and divorce rates." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Furtado, Delia (2014): Can immigrants help women "have it all"? Immigrant labor and women's joint fertility and labor supply decisions. (IZA discussion paper 8614), Bonn, 31 S.

Abstract

"This paper explores how inflows of low-skilled immigrants impact the trade-offs women face when making joint fertility and labor supply decisions. I find increases in fertility and decreases in labor force participation rates among high skilled US-born women in cities that have experienced larger immigrant inflows. Most interestingly, these changes have been accompanied by decreases in the strength of the negative correlation between childbearing and labor force participation, an often-used measure of the difficulty with which women combine motherhood and labor market work. Using a structured statistical model, I show that the immigrant-induced attenuation of this negative correlation can explain about 24 percent of the immigrant-induced increases in the joint likelihood of childbearing and labor force participation in the U.S. between the years 1980 and 2000." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Goldin, Claudia (2014): A pollution theory of discrimination. Male and female differences in occupations and earnings. In: L. P. Boustan, C. Frydman & R. A. Margo (Hrsg.) (2014): Human capital in history : the American record, S. 313-348.

Abstract

"Occupations are segregated by sex today, but were far more segregated in the early to mid-twentieth century. It is difficult to rationalize sex segregation and 'wage discrimination' on the basis of men's taste for distance from women in the same way differences between other groups in work and housing have been explained. Rather, this paper constructs a 'pollution' theory model of discrimination in which occupations are defined by the level of a single-dimensional productivity characteristic. Because there is asymmetric information regarding the value of the characteristic of an individual woman, a new female hire may reduce the prestige of a previously all-male occupation. The predictions of the model include that occupations requiring a level of the characteristic above the female median will be segregated by sex and those below the median will be integrated. The historical record reveals numerous cases of the model's predictions. For example in 1940 the greater is the productivity characteristic of an office and clerical occupation, the higher the occupational segregation by sex. 'Credentialization' that spreads information about individual women's productivities and shatters old stereotypes can help expunge 'pollution.'" (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Guvenen, Fatih, Greg Kaplan & Jae Song (2014): The glass ceiling and the paper floor. Gender differences among top earners, 1981-2012. (NBER working paper 20560), Cambridge, Mass., 41 S. DOI:10.3386/w20560

Abstract

"We analyze changes in the gender structure at the top of the earnings distribution in the United States over the last 30 years using a 10% sample of individual earnings histories from the Social Security Administration. Despite making large inroads, females still constitute a small proportion of the top percentiles: the glass ceiling, albeit a thinner one, remains. We measure the contribution of changes in labor force participation, changes in the persistence of top earnings, and changes in industry and age composition to the change in the gender composition of top earners. A large proportion of the increased share of females among top earners is accounted for by the mending of, what we refer to as, the paper floor - the phenomenon whereby female top earners were much more likely than male top earners to drop out of the top percentiles. We also provide new evidence at the top of the earnings distribution for both genders: the rising share of top earnings accruing to workers in the Finance and Insurance industry, the relative transitory status of top earners, the emergence of top earnings gender gaps over the life cycle, and gender differences among lifetime top earners." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Healy, Olivia & Rachel Dunifon (2014): Child-care subsidies and family well-being. In: Social Service Review, Jg. 88, H. 3, S. 493-528.

Abstract

"Many low-income families receive child-care subsidies, and a small but growing literature examines the relationship between subsidies and family well-being. Some studies find a negative association between subsidy receipt and family well-being, raising questions about the processes that mediate the two. Drawing on a subsample of 1,189 subsidy recipients and eligible mothers from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we investigate the relationship between child-care subsidies and maternal and child well-being using measures of parenting stress, maternal depression, and child cognitive and behavioral outcomes. Within a sample limited to working mothers, and after addressing issues of selection, we find little evidence to suggest relationships between subsidy receipt and maternal and child well-being, despite significant negative bivariate associations between subsidy receipt and measures of well-being. Null findings are consistent with those of other recent studies and suggest that subsidy receipt in and of itself is not associated with decreased well-being of either children or mothers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Jacobsen, Joyce, Melanie Khamis & Mutlu Yuksel (2014): Convergences in men's and women's life patterns. Lifetime work, lifetime earnings, and human capital investment. (IZA discussion paper 8425), Bonn, 40 S.

Abstract

"The changes in women and men's work lives have been considerable in recent decades. Yet much of the recent research on gender differences in employment and earnings has been of a more snapshot nature rather than taking a longer comparative look at evolving patterns. In this paper, we use 50 years (1964-2013) of US Census Annual Demographic Files (March Current Population Survey) to track the changing returns to human capital (measured as both educational attainment and potential work experience), estimating comparable earnings equations by gender at each point in time. We consider the effects of sample selection over time for both women and men and show the rising effect of selection for women in recent years. Returns to education diverge for women and men over this period in the selection-adjusted results but converge in the OLS results, while returns to potential experience converge in both sets of results. We also create annual calculations of synthetic lifetime labor force participation, hours, and earnings that indicate convergence by gender in worklife patterns, but less convergence in recent years in lifetime earnings. Thus, while some convergence has indeed occurred, the underlying mechanisms causing convergence differ for women and men, reflecting continued fundamental differences in women's and men's life experiences." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Kassenböhmer, Sonja & Mathias Sinning (2014): Distributional changes in the gender wage gap. In: ILR review, Jg. 67, H. 2, S. 335-361. DOI:10.1177/001979391406700203

Abstract

"In diesem Papier werden unter Verwendung von Daten der Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) Änderungen in den Lohndifferntialen zwischen weißen Männern und Frauen im Zeitraum 1993 bis 2006 entlang der gesamten Lohnverteilung untersucht. Wir zerlegen Änderungen im Lohndifferential entlang der Lohnverteilung, um den Beitrag der beobachteten individuellen Produktivität zu ermitteln. Die Ergebnisse zeigen einen Rückgang im Lohndifferential am unteren Dezil der Verteilung um 13 Prozent, während der Rückgang am höchsten Dezil unter 4 Prozent liegt. Die Dekompositionsergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass Änderungen im Lohndifferential zwischen Männern und Frauen am oberen Ende der Verteilung hauptsächlich auf Änderungen im Bildungsniveau zurückzuführen sind, während ein großer Teil der Änderungen am unteren Ende der Verteilung durch Änderungen in der Arbeitsmarkthistorie erklärt werden kann. Unsere Ergebnisse deuten an, dass der Bildungserfolg von Frauen das Lohndifferential am unteren Ende der Verteilung bereits vor und während der 90er Jahre reduzieren, aber keinen starken Rückgang am oberen Ende der Verteilung auslösen konnte." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Lee, Jin Young (2014): The plateau in U.S. women's labor force participation. A cohort analysis. In: Industrial relations, Jg. 53, H. 1, S. 46-71. DOI:10.1111/irel.12046

Abstract

"After going up steadily for the last century, the female labor force participation (FLFP) rate in the United States suddenly leveled off in the early 1990s. Using March Current Population Survey data, I find that the FLFP stopped rising for birth cohorts from the 1950s on. My shift-share analyses show that both the plateau and the earlier upward trend in FLFP appeared within almost every category broken down by education, marital status, and child-rearing." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Lembcke, Alexander C. (2014): Home computers and married women's labor supply. (CEP discussion paper 1260), London, 42 S.

Abstract

"I consider how the availability of a personal computer at home changed employment for married women. I develop a theoretical model that motivates the empirical specifications. Using data from the US CPS from 1984 to 2003, I find that employment is 1.5 to 7 percentage points higher for women in households with a computer. The model predicts that the increase in employment is driven by higher wages. I find having a computer at home is associated with higher wages, and employment in more computer intensive occupations, which is consistent with the model. Decomposing the changes by educational attainment shows that both women with low levels of education (high school diploma or less) and women with the highest levels of education (Master's degree or more) have high returns from home computers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Mazzocco, Maurizio, Claudia Ruiz & Shintaro Yamaguchi (2014): Labor supply and household dynamics. In: The American economic review, Jg. 104, H. 5, S. 354-359. DOI:10.1257/aer.104.5.354

Abstract

"Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we provide evidence that to understand household decisions and evaluate policies designed to affect individual welfare, it is important to add an intertemporal dimension to the by-now standard static collective models of the household. Specifically, we document that the observed differences in labor supply by gender and marital status do not arise suddenly at the time of marriage, but rather emerge gradually over time. We then propose an intertemporal collective model that has the potential of explaining the observed patterns." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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McGee, Andrew, Peter McGee & Jessica Pan (2014): Performance pay, competitiveness, and the gender wage gap. Evidence from the United States. (IZA discussion paper 8563), Bonn, 11 S.

Abstract

"Evidence that women are less likely to opt into competitive compensation schemes in the laboratory has generated speculation that a gender difference in competitiveness contributes to the gender wage gap. Using data from the NLSY79 and NLSY97, we show that women are less likely to be employed in jobs using competitive compensation. The portion of the gender wage gap explained by gender segregation in compensation schemes is small in the NLSY79 but somewhat larger in the NLSY97 - suggesting an increasing role for competitiveness in explaining the gender wage gap." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Ngai, L. Rachel & Barbara Petrongolo (2014): Gender gaps and the rise of the service economy. (IZA discussion paper 8134), Bonn, 48 S.

Abstract

"This paper explains the narrowing of gender gaps in wages and market hours in recent decades by the growth of the service economy. We propose a model with three sectors: goods, services and home production. Women have a comparative advantage in the production of services in the market and at home. The growth of the services sector, in turn driven by structural transformation and marketization of home services, acts as a gender-biased demand shift and leads to a rise in women's wages and market hours relative to men. Quantitatively, the model accounts for an important share of the observed rise in women's relative wage and market hours and the fall in men's market hours." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Nuevo-Chiquero, Ana (2014): The labor force effects of unplanned childbearing. In: Labour economics, Jg. 29, H. August, S. 91-101. DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2014.07.006

Abstract

"This paper explores the impact of unplanned births on female labor force participation and income. I estimate the causal effect of birth analyzing a sample of unplanned pregnancies, defined as those that happened while the woman was using contraception. Women with high labor force attachment may be more likely to use contraception or to have an induced abortion if contraception fails. I use spontaneous fetal losses as a source of exogenous variation in births. Unplanned births significantly reduce labor force participation, especially at the beginning of the sample period (1973 - 2004) and when the child is below 6 years of age. This effect is remarkably higher than the estimates traditionally reported in the literature, suggesting that family planning plays a key role in the limited magnitude of previous estimates. The negative impact decreases over the sample period. There are no significant differences in the effect of an unplanned birth by level of education and its impact on income is small." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Oreffice, Sonia (2014): Culture and household decision making. Balance of power and labor supply choices of US-born and foreign-born couples. In: Journal of labor research, Jg. 35, H. 2, S. 162-184. DOI:10.1007/s12122-014-9177-5

Abstract

"This study investigates how spouses' cultural backgrounds mediate the role of intra-household bargaining in the labor supply decisions of foreign-born and US-born couples, in a collective-household framework. Using data from the 2000 US Census, I show that the hours worked by US-born couples, and by those foreign-born coming from countries with gender roles similar to the US, are significantly related to common bargaining power forces such as differences between spouses in age and non-labor income, controlling for both spouses' demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Households whose culture of origin supports strict and unequal gender roles do not exhibit any association of these power factors with their labor supply decisions. This cultural asymmetry suggests that spousal attributes are assessed differently across couples within the US, and that how spouses make use of their outside opportunities and economic and institutional environment may depend on their ethnicities." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Schwenkenberg, Julia M. (2014): Occupations and the evolution of gender differences in intergenerational socioeconomic mobility. In: Economics letters, Jg. 124, H. 3, S. 348-352. DOI:10.1016/j.econlet.2014.06.017

Abstract

"This paper analyzes intergenerational mobility experiences of daughters and sons with respect to their fathers' occupational status and documents changes in gender differences over time. While women have been in occupations with lower overall earnings potential, men are more likely to be in occupations characterized by long hours and low returns. The mobility gap in earnings has been closing and a mobility advantage with respect to education has been emerging." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Sicilian, Paul & Adam J. Grossberg (2014): Does supervisor gender affect wages? In: Empirical economics, Jg. 46, H. 2, S. 479-500. DOI:10.1007/s00181-013-0695-4

Abstract

"This paper uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 (NLSY79) and the Current Population Survey to estimate the wage effects of having a female supervisor. Existing studies, using OLSto estimate the supervisor gender effect, find wage penalties for both men and women associated with working for a female supervisor. We extend this research in two important ways. First, we control for gender segregation at job level as opposed to the broader occupation level. This is important because of the concern that supervisor gender is simply a proxy for the gender-type of the job. Second, we apply fixed effects estimation to control for selection effects of supervisor gender. When using OLS we find estimates of the supervisor gender effect similar to those in the existing literature. However, when using fixed effects we find no evidence of a supervisor gender effect for women and only a small, marginally significant effect for men. We conclude that existing OLS estimates overstate the importance of the impact of supervisor gender on wages." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Smith, Kristin E. (2014): The ups and downs in women's employment. Shifting composition or behavior from 1970 to 2010? (Upjohn Institute working paper 211), Kalamazoo, Mich., 54 S.

Abstract

"This paper tracks factors contributing to the ups and downs in women's employment from 1970 to 2010 using regression decompositions focusing on whether changes are due to shifts in the means (composition of women) or due to shifts in coefficients (inclinations of women to work for pay). Compositional shifts in education exerted a positive effect on women's employment across all decades, while shifts in the composition of other family income, particularly at the highest deciles, depressed married women's employment over the 1990s contributing to the slowdown in this decade. A positive coefficient effect of education was found in all decades, except the 1990s, when the effect was negative, depressing women's employment. Further, positive coefficient results for other family income at the highest deciles bolstered married women's employment over the 1990s. Models are run separately for married and single women demonstrating the varying results of other family income by marital status. This research was supported in part by an Upjohn Institute Early Career Research Award." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Stam, Kirsten, Ellen Verbakel & Paul M. de Graaf (2014): Do values matter? The impact of work ethic and traditional gender role values on female labour market supply. In: Social indicators research, Jg. 116, H. 2, S. 593-610. DOI:10.1007/s11205-013-0287-x

Abstract

"This article aims to gain a better understanding of the explanatory value of work ethic and traditional gender role values with regard to variation in female labour market supply. Although women's labour market participation has increased dramatically over the past decades, it still lacks behind that of men. A high female participation rate is desirable for several reasons, for instance to cover rising costs due to the ageing of society. The existing literature has mostly focused on micro-economic and macro factors to explain differences between women in participation rate. However, more recently it has been argued that women's values may also play an important role in women's labour market decisions. Work ethic, expressing the moral duty to work in terms of paid employment, is argued to positively affect women's labour supply. However, it is argued that it can have negative implications too if women who hold more traditional gender role values interpret work and work ethic in terms of housework or in terms of paid employment for men only. This exemplifies the need to study both values at the same time. We used longitudinal Dutch data (LISS panel, 2007 - 2010) and estimated both cross-sectional and longitudinal models. Both types of models revealed a similar pattern: work ethic is positively associated with women's labour market participation, but only if we take into account women's gender role values, which negatively relate to women's labour market supply." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Starr, Martha A. (2014): Gender, added-worker effects, and the 2007-2009 recession. Looking within the household. In: Review of Economics of the Household, Jg. 12, H. 2, S. 209-235. DOI:10.1007/s11150-013-9181-1

Abstract

"The U.S. recession of 2007 - 2009 saw unemployment rates for men rise by significantly more than those for women, resulting in the downturn's characterization as a 'mancession'. This paper uses data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey to reexamine gender-related dimensions of the 2007 - 2009 recession. Unlike most previous work, we analyze data that connects men's and women's employment status to that of their spouses. A difference-in-difference framework is used to characterize how labor-market outcomes for one spouse varied according to outcomes for the other. Results show that that employment rates of women whose husbands were non-employed rose significantly in the recession, while those for people in other situations held steady or fell -- consistent with the view that women took on additional bread-winning responsibilities to make up for lost income. However, probabilities of non-participation did not rise by more for men with working wives than they did for other men, casting doubt on ideas that men in this situation made weaker efforts to return to work because they could count on their wives' paychecks to support the household." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Wang, Shu-wen & Rena L. Repetti (2014): Psychological well-being and job stress predict marital support interactions. A naturalistic observational study of dual-earner couples in their homes. In: Journal of personality and social psychology, Jg. 107, H. 5, S. 864-878. DOI:10.1037/a0037869

Abstract

"Video recordings of couples in their everyday lives at home were used to study how supportive interactions relate to psychological well-being and experiences of job stress. Thirty dual-earner, middle-class, heterosexual couples with school-age children were videotaped in their homes over 4 days and completed self-report measures of depressive symptoms, trait neuroticism, and job stress. After isolating the specific instances of marital support in the video recordings, the support role assumed by each partner (recipient vs. provider) and the method of support initiation (solicitations vs. offers) in each interaction were coded. Actor-partner interdependence models (APIMs), which accounted for interdependence within couples, tested linkages between husbands' and wives' scores on the psychological well-being and job stress variables, and husbands' and wives' supportive behavior. Analyses suggested sex differences in the way that psychological well-being and job stress influence support transactions. Wives' depressive symptoms predicted more support received from husbands, due both to more support solicitations by wives as well as more support offers by husbands. However, for husbands, it was neuroticism that predicted support receipt -- both more solicitations (by husbands) and more offers (by wives). In addition, men married to women under greater job stress appeared to increase their unprompted offers of support to their wives, whereas wives did not appear to be similarly responsive to husbands' job stress. This study provides unique insights into couple support processes as they spontaneously unfold in everyday settings, and highlights the utility of naturalistic observation for better understanding social behavior in close relationships." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Aaberge, Rolf & Lennart Flood (2013): U.S. versus Sweden. The effect of alternative in-work tax credit policies on labour supply of single mothers. (IZA discussion paper 7706), Bonn, 39 S.

Abstract

"An essential difference between the design of the Swedish and the US in-work tax credit systems relates to their functional forms. Where the US earned income tax credit (EITC) is phased out and favours low and medium earnings, the Swedish system is not phased out and offers 17 and 7 per cent tax credit for low and medium low incomes and a lump-sum tax deduction equal to approximately 2300 USD for medium and higher incomes. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the efficiency and distributional effects of these two alternative tax credit designs. We pay particular attention to labour market exclusion; i.e. individuals within as well as outside the labour force are included in the analysis. To highlight the importance of the joint effects from the tax and the benefit systems it appears particular relevant to analyse the labour supply behaviour of single mothers. To this end, we estimate a structural random utility model of labour supply and welfare participation. The model accounts for heterogeneity in consumption-leisure preferences as well as for heterogeneity and constraints in job opportunities. The results of the evaluation show that the Swedish system without phase-out generates substantial larger labour supply responses than the US version of the tax credit. Due to increased labour supply and decline in welfare participation we find that the Swedish reform is self-financing for single mothers, whereas a 10 per cent deficit follows from the adapted EITC version used in this study. However, where income inequality rises modestly under the Swedish tax credit system, the US version with phase-out leads to a significant reduction in the income inequality." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Akchurin, Maria & Cheol-Sung Lee (2013): Pathways to empowerment. Repertoires of women's activism and gender earnings equality. In: American Sociological Review, Jg. 78, H. 4, S. 679-701. DOI:10.1177/0003122413494759

Abstract

"This article examines how different repertoires of women's activism influence gender earnings equality across countries. We develop a typology of three forms of mobilization - professionalized women's activism, labor women's activism, and women's activism in popular movements - emphasizing distinct actors, patterns of claims-making, and inter-organizational ties among women's organizations and other civil society groups in multi-organizational fields. Based on data on membership and co-membership ties built using World Values Surveys, we test the effects of different repertoires of women's activism on earnings equality between women and men in 51 countries. We also consider a gendered development model and the role of welfare states as main explanatory variables in accounting for the gap in earnings. Our findings suggest that even in the presence of these alternative explanations, women's activism matters. Furthermore, women's organizations with access to institutional politics, through either direct advocacy or ties to unions or professional associations, have had the most success in promoting gender earnings equality. Our research contributes to prior work on social movement outcomes by conceptualizing women's mobilization in the context of fields and further testing its effects on distributional outcomes in a comparative perspective." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Baum, Charles L. & Christopher J. Ruhm (2013): The effects of paid family leave in California on labor market outcomes. (NBER working paper 19741), Cambridge, Mass., 48 S. DOI:10.3386/w19741

Abstract

"Using data from the 1997 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY-97), we examine the effects of California's first in the nation government-mandated paid family leave program (CA-PFL) on mothers' and fathers' use of leave during the period surrounding child birth, and on the timing of mothers' return to work, the probability of eventually returning to pre-childbirth jobs, and subsequent labor market outcomes. Our results show that CA-PFL raised leave-taking by around 2.4 weeks for the average mother and just under one week for the average father. The timing of the increased leave use - immediately after birth for men and around the time that temporary disability insurance benefits are exhausted for women - is consistent with causal effects of CA-PFL. Rights to paid leave are also associated with higher work and employment probabilities for mothers nine to twelve months after birth, possibly because they increase job continuity among those with relatively weak labor force attachments. We also find positive effects of California's program on hours and weeks of work during their child's second year of life and possibly also on wages." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Blau, Francine D., Peter Brummund & Albert Yung-Hsu Liu (2013): Trends in occupational segregation by gender 1970-2009. Adjusting for the impact of changes in the occupational coding system. In: Demography, Jg. 50, H. 2, S. 471-492. DOI:10.1007/s13524-012-0151-7

Abstract

"In this article, we develop a gender-specific crosswalk based on dual-coded Current Population Survey data to bridge the change in the census occupational coding system that occurred in 2000 and use it to provide the first analysis of the trends in occupational segregation by sex for the 1970 - 2009 period based on a consistent set of occupational codes and data sources. We show that our gender-specific crosswalk more accurately captures the trends in occupational segregation that are masked using the aggregate crosswalk (based on combined male and female employment) provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. Using the 2000 occupational codes, we find that segregation by sex declined substantially over the period but at a diminished pace over the decades, falling by only 1.1 percentage points (on a decadal basis) in the 2000s. A primary mechanism by which segregation was reduced was through the entry of new cohorts of women, presumably better prepared than their predecessors and/or encountering less labor market discrimination; during the 1970s and 1980s, however, occupational segregation also decreased within cohorts. Reductions in segregation were correlated with education, with the largest decrease among college graduates and very little change in segregation among high school dropouts." (Author's abstract, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

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Blau, Francine D. & Lawrence M. Kahn (2013): Female labor supply. Why is the US falling behind? (NBER working paper 18702), Cambridge, Mass., 17 S. DOI:10.3386/w18702

Abstract

"In 1990, the US had the sixth highest female labor participation rate among 22 OECD countries. By 2010, its rank had fallen to 17th. We find that the expansion of 'family-friendly' policies including parental leave and part-time work entitlements in other OECD countries explains 28-29% of the decrease in US women's labor force participation relative to these other countries. However, these policies also appear to encourage part-time work and employment in lower level positions: US women are more likely than women in other countries to have full time jobs and to work as managers or professionals." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Blundell, Richard, Monica Costa Dias, Costas Meghir & Jonathan Shaw (2013): Female labour supply, human capital and welfare reform. (NBER working paper 19007), Cambridge, Mass., 57 S. DOI:10.3386/w19007

Abstract

"We consider the impact of tax credits and income support programs on female education choice, employment, hours and human capital accumulation over the life-cycle. We analyze both the short run incentive effects and the longer run implications of such programs. By allowing for risk aversion and savings, we quantify the insurance value of alternative programs. We find important incentive effects on education choice and labor supply, with single mothers having the most elastic labor supply. Returns to labor market experience are found to be substantial but only for full-time employment, and especially for women with more than basic formal education. For those with lower education the welfare programs are shown to have substantial insurance value. Based on the model, marginal increases to tax credits are preferred to equally costly increases in income support and to tax cuts, except by those in the highest education group." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Boyd-Swan, Casey, Chris M. Herbst, John Ifcher & Homa Zarghamee (2013): The Earned Income Tax Credit, health, and happiness. (IZA discussion paper 7261), Bonn, 41 S.

Abstract

"This paper contributes to the small but growing literature evaluating the health effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). In particular, we use data from the National Survey of Families and Households to study the impact of the 1990 federal EITC expansion on several outcomes related to mental health and subjective well-being. The identification strategy relies on a difference-in-differences framework to estimate intent-to-treat effects for the post-reform period. Our results suggest that the 1990 EITC reform generated sizeable health benefits for low-skilled mothers. Such women experienced lower depression symptomatology, an increase in self-reported happiness, and improved self-efficacy relative to their childless counterparts. Consistent with previous work, we find that married mothers captured most of the health benefits, with unmarried mothers' health changing very little following the 1990 EITC reform." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Buttet, Sebastien & Alice Schoonbroodt (2013): An accounting exercise for the shift in life-cycle employment profiles of married women born between 1940 and 1960. In: Journal for labour market research, Jg. 46, H. 3, S. 253-271., 2013-02-01. DOI:10.1007/s12651-013-0130-5

Abstract

"Lebensverlauf-Beschäftigungsprofile verheirateter Frauen der Jahrgänge zwischen 1940 und 1960 haben sich nach oben verschoben und sind flacher geworden. Wir kalibrieren ein dynamisches Lebenszyklusmodell von Beschäftigungsentscheidungen verheirateter Frauen, um die quantitative Bedeutung von drei konkurrierenden Erklärungen der veränderten Beschäftigungsprofile einzuschätzen: Geburtenrückgang und später eintretende Geburten, Zunahme relativer Löhne von Frauen zu Männern und gesunkene Kosten für Kinderbetreuung. Wir stellen fest, dass Geburtenrückgang und später eintretende Geburten sowie gesunkene Kosten für Kinderbetreuung Beschäftigung in jungen Jahren beeinflussen, wohingegen steigende relative Löhne Beschäftigung im Alter verstärkt beeinflussen. Veränderungen relativer Löhne, vor allem Entlohnung gemäß Erfahrung, stellen den Großteil (67 Prozent) der Veränderungen der Lebenszyklus-Beschäftigungsprofile verheirateter Frauen dar." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Cech, Erin A. (2013): The self-expressive edge of occupational sex segregation. In: American Journal of Sociology, Jg. 119, H. 3, S. 747-789. DOI:10.1086/673969

Abstract

"Recent gender scholarship speculates that occupational sex segregation is reproduced in large part through the gendered, self-expressive career decisions of men and women. This article examines the effects of college students' expression of their self-conceptions on their likelihood of entering occupations with a high or low proportion of women and theorizes the consequences of this mechanism for gender inequality. The author uses unique longitudinal data on students from four U.S. colleges to examine how the gender composition of students' field at career launch is influenced by their earlier self-conceptions. Students with emotional, unsystematic, or people-oriented self-conceptions enter fields that are more 'female,' even net of their cultural gender beliefs. Results suggest that cultural ideals of self-expression reinforce occupational sex segregation by converting gender-stereotypical self-conceptions into self-expressive career choices. The discussion section broadens this theoretical framework for understanding the role of self-expression in occupational sex segregation and notes the difficulty of addressing this mechanism through social or policy actions." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Chatterji, Pinka, Sara Markowitz & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn (2013): Effects of early maternal employment on maternal health and well-being. In: Journal of population economics, Jg. 26, H. 1, S. 285-301. DOI:10.1007/s00148-012-0437-5

Abstract

"This study uses data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study on Early Child Care to examine the effects of maternal employment on maternal mental and overall health, self-reported parenting stress, and parenting quality. These outcomes are measured when children are 6 months old. Among mothers of 6-month-old infants, maternal work hours are positively associated with depressive symptoms and parenting stress and negatively associated with self-rated overall health. However, maternal employment is not associated with quality of parenting at 6 months, based on trained assessors' observations of maternal sensitivity." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Cohen, Philip N. (2013): The persistence of workplace gender segregation in the US. In: Sociology compass, Jg. 7, H. 11, S. 889-899. DOI:10.1111/soc4.12083

Abstract

"Occupational gender segregation remains one of the defining elements of gender inequality in modern societies. Recent trends for the United States show that occupational segregation remains high and did not substantially decline in the decade of the 2000s for the first time since 1960. Men and women work in different occupations because of a combination of forces, including culturally defined choices by workers themselves, discrimination by employers, and differences in skill levels and qualities. Research has shown that occupational segregation is an important aspect of gender inequality in earnings and contributes to other forms of inequality as well. The prospects for reducing gender segregation in the short term appear slim, based on the weak effects of educational attainment, cultural attitudes, and state intervention in the current period." (Author's abstract, © 2013 Hogrefe Verlag, © Hogrefe Publishing) ((en))

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Cooke, Lynn Prince, Jani Erola, Marie Evertsson, Michael Gähler, Juho Härkönen, Belinda Hewitt, Marika Jalovaara, Man-Yee Kan, Torkild Hovde Lyngstad, Letizia Mencarini, Jean-Francois Mignot, Dimitri Mortelmans, Anne-Rigt Poortman, Christian Schmitt & Heike Trappe (2013): Labor and love. Wives' employment and divorce risk in its socio-political context. In: Social Politics, Jg. 20, H. 4, S. 482-509. DOI:10.1093/sp/jxt016

Abstract

"We theorize how social policy affects marital stability vis-a-vis macro and micro effects of wives' employment on divorce risk in 11 Western countries. Correlations among 1990s aggregate data on marriage, divorce, and wives' employment rates, along with attitudinal and social policy information, seem to support specialization hypotheses that divorce rates are higher where more wives are employed and where policies support that employment. This is an ecological fallacy, however, because of the nature of the changes in specific countries. At the micro level, we harmonize national longitudinal data on the most recent cohort of wives marrying for the first time and find that the stabilizing effects of a gendered division of labor have ebbed. In the United States with its lack of policy support, a wife's employment still significantly increases the risk of divorce. A wife's employment has no significant effect on divorce risk in Australia, Flanders, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. In Finland, Norway, and Sweden, wives' employment predicts a significantly lower risk of divorce when compared with wives who are out of the labor force. The results indicate that greater policy support for equality reduces and may even reverse the relative divorce risk associated with a wife's employment." (Text excerpt, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Corak, Miles (2013): Income inequality, equality of opportunity, and intergenerational mobility. In: The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Jg. 27, H. 3, S. 79-102. DOI:10.1257/jep.27.3.79

Abstract

"My focus is on the degree to which increasing inequality in the high-income countries, particularly in the United States, is likely to limit economic mobility for the next generation of young adults. I discuss the underlying drivers of opportunity that generate the relationship between inequality and intergenerational mobility. The goal is to explain why America differs from other countries, how intergenerational mobility will change in an era of higher inequality, and how the process is different for the top 1 percent. I begin by presenting evidence that countries with more inequality at one point in time also experience less earnings mobility across the generations, a relationship that has been called 'The Great Gatsby Curve.' The interaction between families, labor markets, and public policies all structure a child's opportunities and determine the extent to which adult earnings are related to family background -- but they do so in different ways across national contexts. Both cross-country comparisons and the underlying trends suggest that these drivers are all configured most likely to lower, or at least not raise, the degree of intergenerational earnings mobility for the next generation of Americans coming of age in a more polarized labor market. This trend will likely continue unless there are changes in public policy that promote the human capital of children in a way that offers relatively greater benefits to the relatively disadvantaged." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Dunifon, Rachel, Anne Toft Hansen, Sean Nicholson & Lisbeth Palmhoj Nielsen (2013): The effect of maternal employment on children's academic performance. (NBER working paper 19364), Cambridge, Mass., 47 S. DOI:10.3386/w19364

Abstract

"Using a Danish data set that follows 135,000 Danish children from birth through 9th grade, we examine the effect of maternal employment during a child's first three and first 15 years on that child's grade point average in 9th grade. We address the endogeneity of employment by including a rich set of household control variables, instrumenting for employment with the gender- and education-specific local unemployment rate, and by including maternal fixed effects. We find that maternal employment has a positive effect on children's academic performance in all specifications, particularly when women work part-time. This is in contrast with the larger literature on maternal employment, much of which takes place in other contexts, and which finds no or a small negative effect of maternal employment on children's cognitive development and academic performance." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Forlani, Emanuele, Elisabetta Lodigiani & Concetta Mendolicchio (2013): The impact of low-skilled immigration on female labour supply. (IAB-Discussion Paper 20/2013), Nürnberg, 43 S.

Abstract

"Wir untersuchen die Auswirkungen von Zuwanderung auf das Arbeitsangebot einheimischer Frauen. Insbesondere betrachten wir die Auswirkung des Anstiegs geringqualifzierter Zuwanderer, die im Haushaltssektor arbeiten, auf hoch- und geringqualifzierte einheimische Frauen. Wir modellieren individuelle Entscheidungen über die Haushaltsproduktion und testen die wichtigsten Aussagen dieses Modells anhand eines harmonisierten Datensatzes (CNEF). Unsere Stichprobe enthält Länder mit unterschiedlich großzügiger Familienpolitik. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass mit einem höheren Anteil an Migranten im Dienstleistungssektor eines lokal begrenzten Arbeitsmarktes die einheimischen hochqualifzierten Frauen ihr Arbeitsangebot erhöhen. Gleichzeitig steigt die Partizipationsrate unqualifizierter einheimischer Frauen. Darüber hinaus zeigen wir, dass diese Effekte in Ländern mit restriktiverer Familienpolitik stärker ausfallen." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Gicheva, Dora (2013): Working long hours and early career outcomes in the high-end labor market. In: Journal of labor economics, Jg. 31, H. 4, S. 785-824. DOI:10.1086/669971

Abstract

"This study establishes empirically a positive but nonlinear relationship between weekly hours and hourly wage growth. For workers who put in over 47 hours per week, 5 extra hours are associated with a 1% increase in annual wage growth. This correlation is not present when hours are lower. The relationship is especially strong for young professionals. Data on promotions provide evidence in support of a job-ladder model that combines higher skill sensitivity of output in higher-level jobs with heterogeneous preferences for leisure. The results can be used to account for part of the gender wage gap." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Goldin, Claudia & Claudia Olivetti (2013): Shocking labor supply. A reassessment of the role of World War II on U.S. women's labor supply. (NBER working paper 18676), Cambridge, Mass., 32 S. DOI:10.3386/w18676

Abstract

"The most prominent feature of the female labor force across the past hundred years is its enormous growth. But many believe that the increase was discontinuous. Our purpose is to identify the short- and long-run impacts of WWII on the labor supply of women who were currently married in 1950 and 1960. We use mobilization rates for various groups of men (by age, race, fatherhood) to see whether there was a wartime impact. We find that an aggregate mobilization rate produces the largest and most robust impacts on both weeks worked and the labor force participation of married white (non-farm) women. The impact, moreover, was experienced primarily by women in the top half of the education distribution. Women who were married but without children during WWII were the group most impacted by the mobilization rate in 1950, although by 1960 WWII still influenced the labor supply decisions of them as well as those with children during WWII. We end the paper with a resolution between the watershed and revisionist views of the role of WWII on female labor supply." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gordon, Judith R. & Elizabeth D. Rouse (2013): The relationship of job and elder caregiving involvement to work-caregiving conflict and work costs. In: Research on Aging, Jg. 35, H. 1, S. 96-117. DOI:10.1177/0164027511424293

Abstract

"This article examines the relationship between job and elder caregiving involvement, bi-directional work-caregiving conflict (work interfering with caregiving [WIC] and caregiving interfering with work [CIW]), and work costs (job interruptions and job changes). Specifically, we consider the effects of both behavioral and psychological involvement and external and internal work caregiving conflict in a sample of 583 women between the ages of 50 and 64 who work full-time and have significant elder caregiving responsibilities. A telephone survey was administered using random-digit-dial procedures. Structural equation model analyses confirmed that behavioral job involvement was associated with external CIW, psychological job involvement was associated with internal WIC and internal CIW, behavioral caregiving involvement was associated with external CIW and work costs, and psychological caregiving involvement was associated with internal CIW. Internal WIC, external CIW, and internal CIW were associated with job costs. Some mediation, particularly through external and internal CIW, occurred." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Herbst, Chris M. (2013): Universal child care, maternal employment, and children's long-run outcomes. Evidence from the U.S. Lanham Act of 1940. (IZA discussion paper 7846), Bonn, 61 S.

Abstract

"This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the Lanham Act of 1940, a heavily subsidized and universal child care program that was administered throughout the U.S. during World War II. I begin by estimating the impact of the Lanham Act on maternal employment using 1940 and 1950 Census data in a difference-in-difference-in-differences framework. The evidence suggests that mothers' paid work increased substantially following the introduction of the child care program. I then study the implications of the Lanham Act for children's long-run outcomes related to educational attainment, family formation, and labor market participation. Using Census data from 1970 to 1990, I assess well-being in a lifecycle framework by tracking cohorts of treated individuals throughout their prime working years. Results from difference-in-differences models suggest that the Lanham Act had strong and persistent positive effects on well-being, equivalent to a 0.36 standard deviation increase in a summary index of adult outcomes. In addition, a supplementary analysis of distributional effects shows that the benefits of the Lanham Act accrued largely to the most economically disadvantaged adults. Together, these findings shed light on the design of contemporary child care systems that balance the twin goals of increasing parental employment and enhancing child well-being." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Johnson, Matthew & Michael P. Keane (2013): A dynamic equilibrium model of the US wage structure, 1968-1996. In: Journal of labor economics, Jg. 31, H. 1, S. 1-49. DOI:10.1086/666698

Abstract

"We develop an equilibrium model of the US labor market, fit to Panel Study of Income Dynamics data from 1968-96. Our main innovation is a finer differentiation of types of labor than in prior work (i.e., by occupation, education, gender, and age). This lets us fit wage and employment patterns better than simpler models. We obtain a good fit to wages and occupational choices over the 29-year period while also explaining college attendance rates. We use the model to assess factors driving changes in the wage structure. Occupational demand shifts and shifts in demand for college labor and female labor within occupations are key factors." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Lambert Griggs, Tracy, Wendy J. Casper & Lillian T. Eby (2013): Work, family and community support as predictors of work-family conflict. A study of low-income workers. In: Journal of vocational behavior, Jg. 82, H. 1, S. 59-68. DOI:10.1016/j.jvb.2012.11.006

Abstract

"This study examines relationships between support from work, family and community domains with time- and strain-based work - family conflict in a sample of low-income workers. Results reveal significant within-domain and cross-domain relationships between support from all three life domains with work-family conflict. With respect to family support, support from children was associated with lower time- and strain-based family interfering with work and extended family support was associated with lower strain-based work interfering with family. Non-work support other than family was also important. Neighbor support was related to lower time-based family interfering with work. Community support was related to reduced time and strain-based work interfering with family and strain based family interfering with work. At work, family-supportive organizational perceptions and supervisor support were related to lower time-based work interfering with family. Findings highlight the need to adopt a more comprehensive approach when examining sources from which low-income employees draw social support." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Lehrer, Evelyn L. & Lu Chen (2013): The labor market behavior of married women with young children in the U.S. Have differences by religion disappeared? (IZA discussion paper 7254), Bonn, 32 S.

Abstract

"Using data from the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth, conducted in the United States, we study the role of religious affiliation and participation in the labor supply behavior of non-Hispanic married women with young children. We estimate ordered probit models with a trichotomous dependent variable indicating full-time employment, part-time employment or non-employment. We find that the labor market decisions of Catholic women are not significantly different from those of their mainline Protestant counterparts, and that women affiliated with conservative Protestant denominations continue to stand out for their low levels of labor market attachment. With regard to religious participation, we find a non-linear association: the probability of non-employment is high both among women who have zero attendance at religious services and among those who attend more than once a week - the latter especially. Reasons for these non-linearities are explored. Our results suggest that future research on relationships between religious participation and various economic and demographic outcomes should be based on models that allow for non-linearities and also for differences in the effects of religious participation by religious affiliation." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Levine, Judith A. (2013): Ain't no trust - How bosses, boyfriends, and bureaucrats fail low-income mothers and why it matters. Berkeley: University of California Press, 297 S.

Abstract

"Ain't No Trust explores issues of trust and distrust among low-income women in the U.S. - at work, around childcare, in their relationships, and with caseworkers - and presents richly detailed evidence from in-depth interviews about our welfare system and why it's failing the very people it is designed to help.
By comparing low-income mothers' experiences before and after welfare reform, Judith A. Levine probes women's struggles to gain or keep jobs while they simultaneously care for their children, often as single mothers. By offering a new way to understand how structural factors impact the daily experiences of poor women, Ain't No Trust highlights the pervasiveness of distrust in their lives, uncovering its hidden sources and documenting its most corrosive and paralyzing effects. Levine's critique and conclusions hold powerful implications for scholars and policymakers alike." (Publisher's text, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Li, Guo & Thomas A. Mroz (2013): Expected income and labor market choices of US married couples. A locally weighted regression approach. In: Regional science and urban economics, Jg. 43, H. 6, S. 985-995. DOI:10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2013.09.011

Abstract

"This paper applies a locally weighted scatterplot smoothing (loess) method to estimate the spatially heterogeneous wages of demographic groups of workers across precisely defined US labor markets. We estimate a location choice model using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) using these estimates of labor market specific wages for men and women as determinants of their place of residence. We compare estimates of this model to a model using more aggregated measures of wages and locations from CPS. We show that potential wages based on these more refined definitions of labor markets and demographic groups provide more explanatory power in a simple migration model than do those based upon less detailed definitions of labor markets and demographic groups." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Markowitz, Sara, E. Kathleen Adams, Patricia M. Dietz, Viji Kannan & Van T. Tong (2013): Tobacco control policies, birth outcomes, and maternal human capital. In: Journal of Human Capital, Jg. 7, H. 2, S. 130-160. DOI:10.1086/671020

Abstract

"Smoking during pregnancy can have significant adverse health effects for babies, yet many women smoke during pregnancy. In this paper, we examine whether state tobacco control policies lead to improved birth outcomes and to what extent the success of these policies depends on accumulated maternal human capital. We use data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System in a time period when states significantly changed their tobacco control policies. Results show that the smoking policies are limited in their effectiveness. The largest improvements in birth outcomes from higher cigarette prices are among babies of women who have accumulated the least human capital." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Ngai, L. Rachel & Barbara Petrongolo (2013): Gender gaps and the rise of the service economy. (CEP discussion paper 1204), London, 44 S.

Abstract

"This paper explains the narrowing of gender gaps in wages and market hours in recent decades by the growth of the service economy. We propose a model with three sectors: goods, services and home production. Women have a comparative advantage in the production of services in the market and at home. The growth of the services sector, in turn driven by structural transformation and marketization of home services, acts as a gender-biased demand shift and leads to a rise in women's wages and market hours relative to men. Quantitatively, the model accounts for an important share of the observed rise in women's relative wage and market hours and the fall in men's market hours." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Olivetti, Claudia, Eleonora Patacchini & Yves Zenou (2013): Mothers, friends and gender identity. (NBER working paper 19610), Cambridge, Mass., 28 S. DOI:10.3386/w19610

Abstract

"This paper explores a novel mechanism of gender identity formation. Specifically, we explore how the work behavior of a teenager┐s own mother, as well as that of her friends┐ mothers, affects her work decisions in adulthood. The first mechanism is commonly included in economic models. The second, which in social psychology is also emphasized as an important factor in gender identity formation, has so far been overlooked. Accordingly, our key theoretical innovation is how the utility function is modeled. It is assumed that an adult woman's work decisions are influenced by her own mother's choices as well as her friends' mothers' choices when she was a teenager, and the interaction between the two. The empirical salience of this behavioral model is tested using a network model specification together with the longitudinal structure of the AddHealth data set. We find that both intergenerational channels positively affect a woman's work hours in adulthood, but the cross effect is negative, indicating the existence of cultural substitutability. That is, the mother's role model effect is larger the more distant she is (in terms of working hours) from the friends' mothers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Salamaliki, Paraskevi K., Ioannis A. Venetis & Nicholas Giannakopoulos (2013): The causal relationship between female labor supply and fertility in the USA. Updated evidence via a time series multi-horizon approach. In: Journal of population economics, Jg. 26, H. 1, S. 109-145. DOI:10.1007/s00148-012-0418-8

Abstract

"The purpose of this paper is to investigate the causality between female labor supply and fertility in the presence of auxiliary variables such as education, female wages, and male relative cohort size. We employ annual time series data spanning the period 1948 to 2007 for both an aggregate and an age-specific group. Our econometric specification follows closely the concepts and procedures proposed by Dufour and Renault (Econometrica 66(5):1099 - 1125, 1998) and Dufour et al. (J Econom 132:337 - 362, 2006) in that we conduct multi-horizon causality tests that allow for direct and indirect effects to take place. The sign and economic importance of our results is assessed via the estimation of impulse response functions. Our results establish bidirectional indirect causality between female labor supply and fertility and suggest interesting causal chains among the system variables. Causality effects are stronger for the age-specific group." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Shreffler, Karina M. & David R. Johnson (2013): Fertility intentions, career considerations and subsequent births. The moderating effects of women's work hours. In: Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Jg. 34, H. 3, S. 285-295. DOI:10.1007/s10834-012-9331-2

Abstract

"Prior research indicates a negative relationship between women's labor force participation and fertility at the individual level in the United States, but little is known about the reasons for this relationship beyond work hours. We employed discrete event history models using panel data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 2,411) and found that the importance of career considerations mediates the work hours/fertility relationship. Further, fertility intentions and the importance of career considerations were more predictive of birth outcomes as women's work hours increase. Ultimately, our findings challenge the assumption that working more hours is the direct cause for employed women having fewer children and highlight the importance of career and fertility preferences in fertility outcomes." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Webber, Douglas A. (2013): Firm-level monopsony and the gender pay gap. (IZA discussion paper 7343), Bonn, 29 S.

Abstract

"Using a dynamic labor supply model and linked employer-employee data, I find evidence of substantial search frictions, with females facing a higher level of frictions than males. However, the majority of the gender gap in labor supply elasticities is driven by across firm sorting rather than within firm differences, a feature predicted in the search theory literature, but which has not been previously documented. The gender differential in supply elasticities leads to 3.3% lower earnings for women. Roughly 60% of the elasticity differential can be explained by marriage and children penalties faced by women but not men." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Yetis-Bayraktar, Ayse, Michelle J. Budig & Donald Tomaskovic-Devey (2013): From the shop floor to the kitchen floor. Maternal occupational complexity and children's reading and math skills. In: Work and occupations, Jg. 40, H. 1, S. 37-64. DOI:10.1177/0730888412465879

Abstract

"Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics we explore the relationship between current and early maternal occupational complexity and preadolescent children's academic achievement in mathematics and reading. We measure white-collar occupational complexity with an index that incorporates task complexity, authority, and autonomy. Blue-collar occupational complexity is observed with a measure of task complexity with things. Controlling for differential selection into employment, we find that current maternal occupational complexity has positive associations with reading and mathematics scores for children, with stronger associations for sons. We find mixed associations between early maternal employment and children's academic achievement, suggesting that the influence of early maternal employment on child development declines as children age." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Abstract

"A new cohort of young women - members of the so-called Millennial generation - has been entering the workforce for the past decade. At the starting line of their careers, they are better educated than their mothers and grandmothers had been - or than their young male counterparts are now. But when they look ahead, they see roadblocks to their success. They believe that women are paid less than men for doing the same job. They think it's easier for men to get top executive jobs than it is for women. And they assume that if and when they have children, it will be harder for them to advance in their careers." (Text excerpt, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Addison, John T., Orgul Demet Ozturk & Si Wang (2012): Promotion and wages in mid-career. Gender, unionism, and sector. (IZA discussion paper 6873), Bonn, 48 S.

Abstract

"This paper considers the role of gender in the promotion process and the impact of promotion on wages and wage growth, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79). Its focus is upon mid-career promotion and wages, thereby complementing extant studies of the NLSY that relate to differences between men and women at an earlier stage in their careers. The paper is further differentiated from these studies and the wider promotions literature in paying especial attention to the role of unionism and the public sector. It is reported that mid-career females are more likely than males to be promoted in the private sector (and no less likely in the public sector); that wages are increasing in promotion, and the effect is generally higher for females; and that female wage growth from contemporaneous promotion is almost as high as that for males the private sector and much higher in the public sector. These rather positive results for females represent in most cases an improvement over the early-career findings but in mid-career the mediating influence of unionism is more negative, and not just for females." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Azmat, Ghazala & Rosa Ferrer (2012): Gender gaps in performance. Evidence from young lawyers. (CEP discussion paper 1136), London, 42 S.

Abstract

"This paper documents and studies the gender gap in performance among associate lawyers in the United States. Unlike most high-skilled professions, the legal profession uses widely-accepted and objective methods to measure and reward lawyers' productivity: the number of hours billed to clients and the amount of new client revenue generated. We find clear evidence of a gender gap in annual performance. Male lawyers bill ten-percent more hours and bring in more than double the new client revenue. We show that the differential impact across genders in the presence of young children and the differences in aspirations to become a law-firm partner account for a large part of the difference in performance. These gaps in performance have important consequences for gender gaps in earnings. While individual and firm characteristics explain up to 50 percent of the gap in earnings, the inclusion of performance measures explains most of the remainder." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bailey, Martha J., Brad Hershbein & Amalia R. Miller (2012): The opt-in revolution? Contraception and the gender gap in wages. (NBER working paper 17922), Cambridge, Mass., 42 S. DOI:10.3386/w17922

Abstract

"Decades of research on the U.S. gender gap in wages describes its correlates, but little is known about why women changed their career paths in the 1960s and 1970s. This paper explores the role of 'the Pill' in altering women's human capital investments and its ultimate implications for life-cycle wages. Using state-by-birth-cohort variation in legal access to contraception, we show that younger access to the Pill conferred an 8-percent hourly wage premium by age fifty. Our estimates imply that the Pill can account for 10 percent of the convergence of the gender gap in the 1980s and 30 percent in the 1990s." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bang, James T. & Bharati Basu (2012): Marriage, fertility and the selection of women into high-skill industries. In: Applied Economics Letters, Jg. 19, H. 9, S. 829-834. DOI:10.1080/13504851.2011.607108

Abstract

"This article focuses on the selection of women into industries of different skill intensities as another dimension in the discussion of the differences in wages among similarly skilled women. Using the Current Population Survey (CPS) data and controlling for education and other factors, we find evidence that married women tend to work in industries that are less skill intensive and that pay lower wages. We also find that education and experience affect this selection process less favourably for married women compared with single women. Since less skill-intensive industries often pay lower wages for similar occupations, our results contribute to the broader debate over the gaps in wages between single and married women as well as men and women." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Beaudry, Paul & Ethan Lewis (2012): Do male-female wage differentials reflect differences in the return to skill? Cross-city evidence from 1980-2000. (NBER working paper 18159), Cambridge, Mass., 51 S. DOI:10.3386/w18159

Abstract

"Over the 1980s and 1990s the wage differentials between men and women (with similar observable characteristics) declined significantly. At the same time, the returns to education increased. It has been suggested that these two trends may reflect a common change in the relative price of a skill which is more abundant in both women and more educated workers. In this paper we explore the relevance of this hypothesis by examining the cross-city co-movement in both male-female wage differentials and returns to education over the 1980-2000 period. In parallel to the aggregate pattern, we find that male-female wage differentials at the city levels moved in opposite direction to the changes in the return to education. We also find this relationship to be particularly strong when we isolate data variation which most likely reflects the effect of technological change on relative prices. We take considerable care of controlling for potential selection issues which could bias our interpretation. Overall, our cross-city estimates suggest that most of the aggregate reduction in the male-female wage differential observed over the 1980-2000 period was likely due to a change in the relative price of skill that both females and educated workers have in greater abundance." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Belley, Philippe, Nathalie Havet & Guy Lacroix (2012): Wage growth and job mobility in the early career. Testing a statistical discrimination model of the gender wage gap. (IZA discussion paper 6893), Bonn, 36 S.

Abstract

"The paper focuses on the early career patterns of young male and female workers. It investigates potential dynamic links between statistical discrimination, mobility, tenure and wage profiles. The model assumes that it is more costly for an employer to assess female workers' productivity and that the noise/signal ratio tapers off more rapidly for male workers. These two assumptions yield numerous theoretical predictions pertaining to gender wage gaps. These predictions are tested using data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. As predicted by our statistical discrimination model, we find that men and women have the same wage at the start of their career, but that female wages grow at a slower rate, creating a gender wage gap. Also consistent with our model, we find that mean wages are higher for workers who keep their job, while wage growth is stronger for workers who change job." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Blau, Francine D., Peter Brummund & Albert Yung-Hsu Liu (2012): Trends in occupational segregation by gender 1970-2009. Adjusting for the impact of changes in the occupational coding system. (NBER working paper 17993), Cambridge, Mass., 44 S. DOI:10.3386/w17993

Abstract

"In this paper, we develop a gender-specific crosswalk based on dual-coded Current Population Survey data to bridge the change in the Census occupational coding system that occurred in 2000 and use it to provide the first analysis of the trends in occupational segregation by sex for the 1970-2009 period based on a consistent set of occupational codes and data sources. We show that our gender-specific crosswalk more accurately captures the trends in occupational segregation that are masked using the aggregate crosswalk (based on combined male and female employment) provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. Using the 2000 occupational codes, we find that segregation by sex declined over the period but at a diminished pace over the decades, falling by 6.1 percentage points over the 1970s, 4.3 percentage points over the 1980s, 2.1 percentage points over the 1990s, and only 1.1 percentage points (on a decadal basis) over the 2000s. A primary mechanism by which occupational segregation was reduced over the 1970-2009 period was through the entry of new cohorts of women, presumably better prepared than their predecessors and/or encountering less labor market discrimination; during the 1970s and 1980s, however, there were also decreases in occupational segregation within cohorts. Reductions in segregation were correlated with education, with the largest decrease among college graduates and very little change in segregation among high school dropouts." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Chen, Keith M. & Judith A. Chevalier (2012): Are women overinvesting in education? Evidence from the medical profession. In: Journal of Human Capital, Jg. 6, H. 2, S. 124-149. DOI:10.1086/665536

Abstract

"Recent literature finds that women earn significantly lower returns to professional degrees. Does this render these degrees poor investments for women? We compare physicians to physician assistants, a similar profession with lower wages and training costs, mitigating some selection issues. The median female (but not male) primary-care physician would have been financially better off becoming a physician assistant. While there is a wage gap, our result occurs primarily because most female physicians do not work enough hours to rationalize medical school whereas most men do. We discuss robustness issues and nonwage returns to education that may rationalize these investments by women." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Eckstein, Zvi & Osnat Lifshitz (2012): Household interaction and the labor supply of married women. (IZA discussion paper 7067), Bonn, 33 S.

Abstract

"Changing social norms, as reflected in the interactions between spouses, are hypothesized to affect the employment rates of married women. A model is built in order to estimate this effect, in which the employment of married men and women is the outcome of an internal household game. The type of the household game is exogenously determined as either Classical or Modern. In the former type of household, the spouses play a Stackelberg leader game in which the wife's labor supply decision is based on her husband's employment outcome while the latter type of household is characterized by a symmetric and simultaneous game that determines the spouses' joint labor supply as Nash equilibrium. Females in Modern households are predicted to have higher employment rates than women in Classical households if they have narrower labor market opportunities and/or higher relative risk aversion. The household type is exogenously determined when the couple gets married and is treated as unobserved heterogeneity. The model is estimated using the Simulated Moments Method (SMM) and data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) survey for the years 1983-93. The estimated model provides a good fit to the trends in employment rates and wages. We estimate that 38 percent of households are Modern and that the participation rate of women in those households is almost 80 percent, which is about 10 higher than in Classical households. Meanwhile, the employment rate among men is almost identical in the two types of household." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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England, Paula, Janet Gornick & Emily Fitzgibbons Shafer (2012): Women's employment, education, and the gender gap in 17 countries. In: Monthly labor review, Jg. 135, H. 4, S. 3-12.

Abstract

"This article uses data from a number of high- and middle-income countries to investigate how women's employment and hours worked, and the gender gap in annual and hourly earnings, vary by educational level. Focusing on commonalities across countries, the analyses presented are limited to adults 25 to 54 years of age who have a marital or cohabiting partner of the other gender and, for some considerations, to the subset of these adults who have children in the household. The countries examined are Austria, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Ireland, Israel, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom (U.K.), the United States (U.S.), and Uruguay.
The data from the Luxembourg Income Study show that, among married or cohabiting mothers, better educated women are more likely to be employed; gender inequality in annual earnings is thus less extreme among the well educated than among those with less education, driven largely by educated women's higher employment." (Text excerpt, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Fitzpatrick, Maria Donovan (2012): Revising our thinking about the relationship between maternal labor supply and preschool. In: The Journal of Human Resources, Jg. 47, H. 3, S. 583-612.

Abstract

"Many argue that childcare costs limit the labor supply of mothers, though existing evidence has been mixed. Using a child's eligibility for public kindergarten in a regression discontinuity instrumental variables framework, I estimate how use of a particular subsidy, public school, affects maternal labor supply. I find public school enrollment increases only the employment of single mothers without additional young children. I compare this result to previous work, focusing on striking increases in a similar setting but earlier period (Gelabch 2002). Differences in the population of mothers, labor supply, and patterns of lifecycle events likely drive the discrepancy in results." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gayle, George-Levi & Limor Golan (2012): Mating a dynamic adverse-selection model. Labour-force experience and the changing gender earnings gap 1968-1997. In: The Review of Economic Studies, Jg. 79, H. 1, S. 227-267. DOI:10.1093/restud/rdr019

Abstract

"This paper addresses two questions: What accounts for the gender gap in labour-market outcomes? What are the driving forces behind the changes in the gender labour-market outcomes over the period 1968-1997? It formulates a dynamic general equilibrium model of labour supply, occupational sorting, and human-capital accumulation in which gender discrimination and an earnings gap arise endogenously. It uses this model to quantify the driving forces behind the decline in the gender earnings gap and the increase in female labour-force participation, the proportion of women working in professional occupations, and hours worked. It finds that labour-market experience is the most important factor explaining the gender earnings gap. In addition, statistical discrimination accounts for a large fraction of the observed gender earnings gap and its decline. It also finds that a large increase in aggregate productivity in professional occupations plays a major role in the increase in female labourforce participation, number of hours worked, and the proportion of females working in professional occupations. Although of less importance, demographic changes account for a substantial part of the increase in female labour-force participation and hours worked, whereas home production technology shocks do not." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Glauber, Rebecca (2012): Women's work and working conditions. Are mothers compensated for lost wages? In: Work and occupations, Jg. 39, H. 2, S. 115-138. DOI:10.1177/0730888411422948

Abstract

"Few studies have analyzed variation in the motherhood wage penalty by the sex composition of women's jobs. This study draws on nationally representative data to investigate the motherhood wage penalty for women who work in female-dominated, male-dominated, and integrated jobs. Fixed-effects estimates reveal that women who work in female-dominated jobs pay a larger motherhood wage penalty than women who work in other jobs. This larger penalty is not offset by measurable compensating differentials, such as flexible scheduling or part-time work hours." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Kurtulus, Fidan Ana (2012): Affirmative action and the occupational advancement of minorities and women during 1973-2003. In: Industrial relations, Jg. 51, H. 2, S. 213-246. DOI:10.1111/j.1468-232X.2012.00675.x

Abstract

"The share of minorities and women comprising high-paying skilled occupations such as management, professional, and technical occupations has been increasing since the 1960s, while the proportion of white men in such occupations has been declining. What has been the contribution of affirmative action to the occupational advancement of minorities and women from low-wage unskilled occupations into high-wage skilled ones in U.S. firms? I examine this by comparing the occupational position of minorities and women at firms holding federal contracts, and thereby mandated to implement affirmative action, and noncontracting firms, over the course of 31 years during 1973 - 2003. I use a new longitudinal dataset of over 100,000 large private-sector firms across all industries and regions uniquely suited for the exploration of this question obtained from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. My key findings show that the share of minorities and women in highpaying skilled occupations grew more at federal contractors subject to affirmative action obligation than at noncontracting firms during the three decades under study, but these advances took place primarily during the pre- and early Reagan years and during the decade following the Glass Ceiling Act of 1991." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Lee, Jungmin & Sokbae Lee (2012): Does it matter who responded to the survey? Trends in the U.S. gender earnings gap revisited. In: ILR review, Jg. 65, H. 1, S. 148-160. DOI:10.1177/001979391206500108

Abstract

"Studies have shown a decreasing trend in the U.S. gender earnings gap since the 1980s. The authors work with a framework established by Blau and Kahn (1997 JOLE; 2006 ILRR), who used the Michigan Panel of Income Dynamics (PSID) to decompose that gap into observable and unobservable components in order to determine which contributing factors are gender-specific and which can be attributed to the wage structure. They extend the Blau and Kahn framework to consider measurement error due to the use of proxy/ representative respondents of the survey's earnings variable. First, they find a trend toward more females in the gender composition of the household respondents, and second, they estimate the impact of that change on Blau and Kahn's decomposition. They determine that some of the changes in the gender earnings gap could actually be attributed to whether the surverys were self- or proxy-responded. That is, the actual reduction in the gender pay gap may be smaller than what the estimates -- without taking into account the measurement error -- might indicate. The authors suggest the need for a careful validation study to ascertain the extent of the spurious measurement error effects." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Lovejoy, Meg & Pamela Stone (2012): Opting back in. The influence of time at home on professional women's career redirection after opting out. In: Gender, Work and Organization, Jg. 19, H. 6, S. 631-653. DOI:10.1111/j.1468-0432.2010.00550.x

Abstract

"Limited research on professional women's labour force re-entry after a career break (so-called 'opting out') finds that women redirect away from former careers. Little is known about why this occurs. Our study, based on in-depth interviews with 54 at-home mothers, extends prior research to address this question. We find that among women who intended to return to work (who constitute the majority), most planned to pursue alternative careers, typically in traditionally female-dominated professions or were uncertain about their career direction; few planned to return to their former employers. The reasons for this redirection were women's negative experiences in family inflexible occupations, skill depreciation and perceived age discrimination. Equally or more important, however, was their adaptation to new constraints and opportunities at home (such as increased involvement in mothering and community work), which engendered an aspirational shift towards new, care-oriented professions that were lower paid and had lower status. We discuss the policy implications of these findings." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Machado, Cecilia (2012): Selection, heterogeneity and the gender wage gap. (IZA discussion paper 7005), Bonn, 62 S.

Abstract

"Selection correction methods usually make assumptions about selection itself. In the case of gender wage gap estimation, those assumptions are specially tenuous because of high female non-participation and because selection could be different in different parts of the labor market. This paper proposes an estimator for the wage gap that allows for arbitrary heterogeneity in selection. It applies to the subpopulation of 'always employed' women, which is similar to men in labor force attachment. Using CPS data from 1976 to 2005, I show that the gap has narrowed substantially from a -.521 to a -.263 log wage points differential for this population." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Mandel, Hadas (2012): Winners and losers: the consequences of welfare state policies for gender wage inequality. In: European Sociological Review, Jg. 28, H. 2, S. 241-262. DOI:10.1093/esr/jcq061

Abstract

"Cross-national studies of the impact of welfare states on gender inequality tend to overlook socio-economic divisions among women. This article challenges the implicit assumption that welfare states have uniform effects on the economic attainments of women, arguing that the impact of state intervention is necessarily conditioned by women's relative advantage or disadvantage in the labour market. Based on Luxembourg Income Study microdata for 21 advanced countries, the paper analyses gender wage gaps among highly skilled and low skilled men and women. The findings suggest that welfare state policies interact with socio-economic position: they limit the economic rewards of highly skilled women, but do not adversely affect, and by some measures actually benefit, those who are less skilled. Highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of social policies for different groups of women, the article concludes that more research is needed to explore differentiated approaches to reconciling work and family, rather than addressing universal work - family tensions." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Minnotte, Krista Lynn (2012): Family structure, gender, and the work-family interface. Work-to-family conflict among single and partnered parents. In: Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Jg. 33, H. 1, S. 95-107. DOI:10.1007/s10834-011-9261-4

Abstract

"This study examined whether single parents experience greater reductions in work-to-family conflict from using resources than partnered parents do. The question of whether single mothers, single fathers, partnered mothers, or partnered fathers experienced differing levels of work-to-family conflict was also addressed. Data were from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce, and only those respondents with at least one child under the age of 18 living in the household were included in the analysis (N=1325). Findings indicated that single-parent status was not directly related to work-to-family conflict. Rather single-parent status interacted with other variables, including gender, control over work hours, and the number of other adults in the home, in predicting work-to-family conflict." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Posadas, Josefina & Marian Vidal-Fernandez (2012): Grandparents' childcare and female labor force participation. (IZA discussion paper 6398), Bonn, 25 S.

Abstract

"In the U.S., grandparents look after one in five preschool children of employed women. Does this source of informal childcare increase female labor force participation and if so, up to what extent? The main challenge to answer this question is that a positive relationship between grandparents' childcare and female labor force participation might not be causal. We use the maternal grandmother's death as an instrument of grandparents' childcare to measure the effect of grandparents' childcare on maternal labor force participation (MLFP). We compare OLS and IV estimates and find that grandparents' childcare increases MLFP by 15 percentage points on average. We argue that most of the effect is driven by families from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))