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Abrahams, Scott (2024): An analysis of the gender layoff gap implied by a gender gap in wage bargaining. In: Economics Letters, Jg. 234. DOI:10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111505

Abstract

"The assumption that wage bargaining power is greater for men than for women yields a novel, mechanical implication regarding the gender wage gap: there should also be a gender layoff gap. If women with the same marginal product of labor as men exercise less bargaining power and consequently earn lower wages, then female workers should on average be more profitable for a firm. When conditions reduce labor demand, the firm should therefore prefer to lay off its male workers first. I show that this is consistent with the data for the United States from 1982–2019. A calibration exercise based on the gender gap in layoff rates suggests that the female bargaining share has risen from 14% lower to 6% lower than the male share over time." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2024 Elsevier) ((en))

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Averkamp, Dorothée, Christian Bredemeier & Falko Juessen (2024): Decomposing gender wage gaps: a family economics perspective. In: The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Jg. 126, H. 1, S. 3-37. DOI:10.1111/sjoe.12542

Abstract

"We propose a simple way to embed family-economics arguments for pay differences between genders into standard decomposition techniques. To account appropriately for the role of the family in the determination of wages, one has to compare men and women with similar own characteristics – and with similar partners. In US survey data, we find that our extended decomposition explains considerably more of the wage gap than a standard approach, in line with our theory that highlights the role of career prioritization in dual-earner couples." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Avery, Mallory, Andreas Leibbrandt & Joseph Vecci (2024): Does Artificial Intelligence Help or Hurt Gender Diversity? Evidence from Two Field Experiments on Recruitment in Tech. (CESifo working paper 10996), München, 70 S.

Abstract

"The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in recruitment is rapidly increasing and drastically changing how people apply to jobs and how applications are reviewed. In this paper, we use two field experiments to study how AI recruitment tools can impact gender diversity in the male-dominated technology sector, both overall and separately for labor supply and demand. We find that the use of AI in recruitment changes the gender distribution of potential hires, in some cases more than doubling the fraction of top applicants that are women. This change is generated by better outcomes for women in both supply and demand. On the supply side, we observe that the use of AI reduces the gender gap in application completion rates. Complementary survey evidence suggests that anticipated bias is a driver of increased female application completion when assessed by AI instead of human evaluators. On the demand side, we find that providing evaluators with applicants' AI scores closes the gender gap in assessments that otherwise disadvantage female applicants. Finally, we show that the AI tool would have to be substantially biased against women to result in a lower level of gender diversity than found without AI." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Barth, Erling, Liza Reisel & Kjersti Misje Østbakken (2024): The Equality Hurdle: Resolving the Welfare State Paradox. In: Work, Employment and Society, Jg. 38, H. 3, S. 766-786. DOI:10.1177/09500170231155293

Abstract

"This article revisits a central tenet of the welfare state paradox, also known as the inclusion-equality trade-off. Using large-scale survey data for 31 European countries and the United States, collected over a recent 15-year period, the article re-investigates the relationship between female labour force participation and gender segregation. Emphasising the transitional role played by the monetisation of domestic tasks, the study identifies a ‘gender equality hurdle’ that countries with the highest levels of female labour force participation have already passed. The results show that occupational gender segregation is currently lower in countries with high female labour force participation, regardless of public sector size. However, the findings also indicate that high relative levels of public spending on health, education and care are particularly conducive to desegregation. Hence, rather than being paradoxical, more equality in participation begets more equality in the labour market, as well as in gendered tasks in society overall." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Carlson, Daniel L., Skye McPherson & Richard J. Petts (2024): Remote Work, Gender Ideologies, and Fathers’ Participation in Childcare during the COVID-19 Pandemic. In: Social Sciences, Jg. 13, H. 3. DOI:10.3390/socsci13030166

Abstract

"During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work became the new reality for many fathers. Though time availability theory suggests that this newfound flexibility should lead to more domestic labor on the part of fathers, many were skeptical that fathers would step up to shoulder the load at home. Indeed, the findings are decidedly mixed on the association of fathers’ remote work with their performance of housework and childcare. Nonetheless, research has yet to consider how contextual factors, such as fathers ’ gender ideologies and mothers’ employment, may condition these associations. Using data from Wave 1 of the Study on U.S. Parents’ Divisions of Labor During COVID-19 (SPDLC), we examine how gender ideology moderates the association between fathers’ remote work and their performance and share of childcare during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in both sole-earner and dual-earner families. The results show, for sole-earning fathers and dual-earner fathers with egalitarian gender attitudes, that the frequency of remote work was positively associated with fathers performing more, and a greater share of, childcare during the pandemic. Yet, only dual-earner fathers with egalitarian gender attitudes performed an equal share of childcare in their families. These findings suggest that the pandemic provided structural opportunities for fathers, particularly egalitarian-minded fathers, to be the equally engaged parents they desired." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Carlson, Lisa, Karen Benjamin Guzzo & Hsueh-Sheng Wu (2024): Birth Spacing and Working Mothers' Within-Organization Career Paths. In: Socius, Jg. 10. DOI:10.1177/23780231241230845

Abstract

"The mechanisms behind mothers’ wage penalties remain unclear. In this article, the authors consider the role of birth spacing and changes in employers after a second birth. Using the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and competing risk event history models, the authors investigate how spacing between first and second births influences the likelihood of returning to a pre–second birth employer, changing employers, or remaining outside of the labor force within six months of the second birth. The authors find no differences in the influence of birth spacing on the likelihood of returning to an employer versus changing employers but that shorter birth spacings relate to lower likelihoods of returning to the labor market. There is some evidence that birth spacing and postbirth employment varies by age at first birth, marital status, and occupation. Overall, the results suggest that although birth spacing is relevant for returning postbirth to employment, job changes are unlikely to drive mothers’ wage penalties." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Cho, Hyojin, Susan J. Lambert, Emily Ellis & Julia R. Henly (2024): How Work Hour Variability Matters for Work-to-Family Conflict. In: Work, Employment and Society online erschienen am 09.01.2024, S. 1-25. DOI:10.1177/09500170231218191

Abstract

"Variable work hours are an understudied source of work-to-family conflict (WFC). We examine the relationships between the magnitude and direction of work hour variability and WFC and whether work hour control and schedule predictability moderate these relationships. We estimate a series of linear regressions using the 2016 US General Social Survey, examining women and men workers separately and together. Findings indicate that as the magnitude of work hour variability increases, so does WFC, controlling for the usual number of hours worked. Work hour control helps to protect workers, especially women, from WFC when work hour variability is high and hours surge. Although schedule predictability tempers the relationship between work hour variability and WFC, its potency diminishes as variability increases. Our study emphasizes the potential benefit to workers and families of government policies and employer practices that promote work hour stability, schedule predictability, and equity in employee work hour control." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Dressel, Joanna, Paul Attewell, Liza Reisel & Kjersti Misje Østbakken (2024): Characteristics or Returns: Understanding Gender Pay Inequality among College Graduates in the USA. In: Work, Employment and Society online erschienen am 28.04.2024. DOI:10.1177/09500170241245329

Abstract

"Explanations for the persistent pay disparity between similarly qualified men and women vary between women’s different and devalued work characteristics and specific processes that result in unequal wage returns to the same characteristics. This article investigates how the gender wage gap is affected by gender differences in detailed work activities among full-time, year-round, college-graduate workers in the US using decomposition analysis in the National Survey of College Graduates. Differences in men’s and women’s characteristics account for a majority of the gender wage gap. Additionally, men and women receive different returns to several characteristics: occupational composition, marriage and work activities. While men are penalized more than women for having teaching as their primary work activity, women receive lower rewards for primary work activities such as finance and computer programming. The findings suggest that even with men and women becoming more similar on several characteristics, unequal returns to those characteristics will stall progress towards equality." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gottlieb, Charles, Cheryl Doss, Douglas Gollin & Markus Poschke (2024): The Gender Division of Work across Countries. (IZA discussion paper / Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit 16896), Bonn, 64 S.

Abstract

"Across countries, women and men allocate time differently between market work, domestic services, and care work. In this paper, we document the gender division of work, drawing on a new harmonized data set that provides us with high-quality time use data for 50 countries spanning the global income distribution. A striking feature of the data is the wide dispersion across countries at similar income levels. We use these data to motivate a macroeconomic model of household time use in which country-level allocations are shaped by wages and a set of "wedges" that resemble productivity, preferences, and disutilities. Taking the model to country-level observations, we find that a wedge related to the disutility of market work for women plays a crucial role in generating the observed dispersion of outcomes, particularly for middle-income countries. Variation in the division of non-market work is principally shaped by a wedge indicating greater disutility for men, which is especially large in some low- and middle-income countries." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Healy, Olivia & Jennifer A. Heissel (2024): Baby Bumps in the Road: The Impact of Parenthood on Job Performance, Human Capital, and Career Advancement. (IZA discussion paper / Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit 16743), Bonn, 79 S.

Abstract

"This paper explores whether and why a maternal "child penalty" to earnings would emerge even without changes in employment and hours worked. Using a matched event study design, we trace monthly changes in determinants of wages (job performance, human capital accumulation, and promotions). Data come from a usefully unusual setting with required multiyear employment and detailed personnel data: the United States Marine Corps. Mothers' job performance initially declines, and gaps in promotion grow through 24 months postbirth. Fathers' physical fitness performance drops somewhat but recovers. These patterns lead mothers to earn relatively lower wages, even absent changes in employment postbirth." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Jones, Kelly & Britni Wilcher (2024): Reducing maternal labor market detachment: A role for paid family leave. In: Labour Economics, Jg. 87. DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2023.102478

Abstract

"More than one quarter of working women leave the labor force when they have a child. Half of these detachments last at least 10 years and as many as 20 percent last 17 years or more, shrinking the U.S. workforce. Access to paid family leave (PFL) offers many private benefits, but may also offer the public benefit of increasing women’s participation in the labor force. We rely on the implementation of PFL in California in 2004 to examine long-term impacts on women’s labor force participation. We find that, prior to implementation of paid leave, maternal labor market detachment is 25 percent following a birth; it attenuates over time to five percent but takes 14 years to reach that level, and remains significantly different from zero. We find that access to PFL at the time of a birth significantly increases labor market participation by more than five percentage points (21 percent) in the year of a birth; its impact attenuates over time but remains significantly different from zero as much as nine years later. Impacts are greatest among women with bachelor’s degrees, for whom PFL reduces maternal detachment by 12 percentage points (38 percent) in the year of a birth and continues to impact participation for eleven years after a birth. This suggests that PFL offers public benefits of increasing the skilled labor force." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2024 Elsevier) ((en))

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Kamal, Fariha, Asha Sundaram & Cristina J. Tello-Trillo (2024): Family-Leave Mandates and Female Labor at U.S. Firms: Evidence from a Trade Shock. In: The Review of Economics and Statistics online erschienen am 18.03.2024, S. 1-50. DOI:10.1162/rest_a_01436

Abstract

"We examine how the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) impacts the gender composition at U.S. firms experiencing a negative demand shock. Combining changes in Chinese imports across industries between 2000 and 2003 and a sharp regression discontinuity to identify FMLA status, we find that an increase in import competition decreases the share of female employment, earnings, and promotions at FMLA relative to non-FMLA firms. This effect is driven by women in prime childbearing ages and without college degrees; and is pronounced at firms with all male managers. These results suggest that job-protected leave mandates may exacerbate gender inequalities in response to adverse shocks." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © MIT Press Journals) ((en))

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Marcén, Miriam & Marina Morales (2024): The effect of COVID-19 on the gender gap in remote work. (GLO discussion paper / Global Labor Organization 1379), Essen, 55 S.

Abstract

"We examine changes in the gender gap in working from home (WFH) in response to the unanticipated first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from the American Time Use Survey, we find a non-negligible widening of the gender gap with WFH being more prevalent among women than among men. Respondents' job traits played a significant role in the gender gap variations, those working in the private sector being the most affected. Young individuals, those more educated, and those living with a dependent person increased the gender gap more in terms of the proportion of time devoted to WFH. We further show evidence suggesting the mitigating effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions during the first wave of the pandemic, positively affecting the WFH tendency for men but not for women. Overall, the gender gap change proves robust to identification checks. In addition, the gender gap response has had a long-lasting impact on the gender gap." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Morales, Marina & Miriam Marcén (2024): The effect of gender norms on gender-based sorting across occupations. In: Review of Economics of the Household, Jg. 22, H. 2, S. 831-864. DOI:10.1007/s11150-023-09683-5

Abstract

"Despite the notable progress that has been made in bridging the gap between women and men in the world of work, women are still underrepresented in many occupations. In this article, the effect of gender norms on whether women enter male-dominated occupations is analysed using differences in gender equality among early-arrival migrants. The variations in gender norms according to the cultural backgrounds of those migrants by country of origin are exploited to identify their impact on occupational choices. Using data from the American Community Survey, it is found that greater gender equality in the country of origin reduces the gender gap in male-dominated occupations. Suggestive evidence is further shown on the roles of job flexibility and women’s relative preferences for family-friendlyjobs in shaping gender-based sorting across occupations." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

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Neef, Theresa (2024): The Long Way to Gender Equality: Gender Pay Differences in Germany, 1871-2021. (Working paper / World Inequality Lab 04424,48), Paris, 54 S.

Abstract

"This paper provides the first time series of the gender earnings ratio for the full-time employed workforce in Germany since the 1870s and compares Germany's path with the Swedish and U.S. cases. The industrialization period yielded slow advances in economic gender relations due to women's delayed inclusion in the industrial workforce. The first half of the 20th century exhibited a marked leap. In Germany, the gender earnings ratio increased from 47% in 1913 to 58% in 1937. Similar increases are visible in Sweden and the United States. In all three countries, the interplay between increased women's education and increased returns to education due to the expanding white-collar sector fueled pay convergence. Yet in Germany, women's educational catch-up was slowed due to the dominance of on-the-job vocational training. German women's migration from low-paid agricultural work to higher-paid white-collar jobs was predominantly increasing the gender pay ratio. The postwar period brought diverging developments between Germany, Sweden and the United States due to different economic conditions and policy action." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Schneider, William, Megan Feely & Jeehae Kang (2024): Maternal Employment Patterns and the Risk for Child Maltreatment. In: Social Service Review, Jg. 98, H. 1, S. 34-92. DOI:10.1086/728457

Abstract

"This study examines the complex, nonlinear, and understudied relationship between maternal employment, employment patterns, and four types of child maltreatment; describes the employment status and often nonstandard employment patterns of high-risk mothers at three child developmental ages; and applies the results in the context of three theories used in extant research to understand the relationship between economic hardship and child maltreatment. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we find that both too much and not enough paid employment are associated with increased risk for child maltreatment, neglect in particular. Our findings indicate that income-support programs tied to employment may be ineffective mechanisms for many families to balance time and money, key factors in the prevention of child maltreatment. As policy makers seek new approaches to prevent child maltreatment, scholars must understand and consider the employment patterns of at-risk mothers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Atal, Vidya, Orkideh Gharehgozli & Luis San Vicente Portes (2023): Higher labour market bargaining power, higher unemployment in recessions. In: Applied Economics Letters, Jg. 30, H. 15, S. 2086-2090. DOI:10.1080/13504851.2022.2092591

Abstract

"A well-known stylized fact about the US labour market is the behaviour of the female-to-male unemployment gap over the business cycle – in downturns, female unemployment rises at a slower pace than male unemployment, which reduces the gap between the genders; in upturns, the reverse is observed: men’s unemployment falls faster than women’s, thus rendering the gap pro-cyclical. In this paper, we model the labour market under a Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides framework where the labour supply consists of women and men, who differ in their equilibrium (Nash) bargaining agreement over the match’s surplus. We show that, in the presence of such asymmetry, a negative aggregate productivity shock leads to a pro-cyclical female-to-male unemployment rate gap." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bailey, Martha J., Thomas E. Helgerman & Bryan A. Stuart (2023): How the 1963 Equal Pay Act and 1964 Civil Rights Act Shaped the Gender Gap in Pay. (NBER working paper / National Bureau of Economic Research 31332), Cambridge, Mass, 44 S.

Abstract

"In the 1960s, two landmark statutes—the Equal Pay and Civil Rights Acts—targeted the long-standing practice of employment discrimination against U.S. women. For the next 15 years, the gender gap in median earnings among full-time, full-year workers changed little, leading many scholars and advocates to conclude the legislation was ineffectual. This paper uses two different research designs to show that women's relative wages grew rapidly in the aftermath of this legislation. The data show little evidence of short-term changes in women's employment, but some results suggest that firms reduced their hiring and promotion of women in the medium term." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bar-Haim, Eyal, Louis Chauvel, Janet Gornick & Anne Hartung (2023): The Persistence of the Gender Earnings Gap: Cohort Trends and the Role of Education in Twelve Countries. In: Social indicators research, Jg. 165, H. 3, S. 821-841. DOI:10.1007/s11205-022-03029-x

Abstract

"Studying twelve countries over 30 years, we examine whether women's educational expansion has translated into a narrowing of the gender gap in earnings when including persons with zero earnings. As educational attainment is cohort-dependent, an Age-Period-Cohort analysis is most appropriate in our view. Using the micro data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Database, we show that while, in terms of attainment of tertiary education, women have caught up and often even outperform men, substantial gender differences in our earnings measure persist in all countries. Using the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method in an innovative age-period-cohort approach, we demonstrate that the role of education in explaining gender earnings differences has been limited and even decreased over cohorts. We also conclude that, when including persons not receiving earnings, earnings differences at levels far from gender equality will likely persist in the future, even if the “rise of women” in terms of education continues—as the share of women in higher education increases and the returns to education in particular for women declines." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

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Belot, Michèle, Madina Kurmangaliyeva & Johanna Reuter (2023): Gender Diversity and Diversity of Ideas. (IZA discussion paper / Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit 16631), Bonn, 291 S.

Abstract

"Diversity in employee representation is often advocated for its potential to promote the diversity of ideas, and thereby innovation. In this study, we shed light on the phenomenon of 'idea homophily', which is a tendency to be more interested in ideas closer to one's own. We first document recent trends in the Economics Academic junior hiring showing that women specializing in traditionally male-dominated fields are faring significantly better than their counterparts in female-dominated fields and even outperform their male peers. We then examine the demand for ideas in a college educated population with an Online experiment involving 500 participants. We find substantial gender differences in which ideas people are choosing to engage with. Also, when decision-makers are predominantly male, incentives encouraging engagement with female ideas increase substantially their demand, but disproportionately in male-dominated fields. In contrast, incentives encouraging ideas in female-fields in general increase exposure to female ideas but do not lead to an over-representation of either gender conditional on field." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Binder, Ariel J., Amanda Eng, Kendall Houghton & Andrew Foote (2023): Is the Gender Pay Gap Largest at the Top? (Working papers / U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies 2023-61), Washington, DC, 10 S.

Abstract

"No: it is at least as large at bottom percentiles of the earnings distribution. Conditional quantile regressions reveal that while the gap at top percentiles is largest among the most-educated, the gap at bottom percentiles is largest among the least-educated. Gender differences in labor supply create more pay inequality among the least-educated than they do among the most-educated. The pay gap has declined throughout the distribution since 2006, but it declined more for the most-educated women. Current economics-of-gender research focuses heavily on the top end; equal emphasis should be placed on mechanisms driving gender inequality for noncollege-educated workers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Binder, Ariel J., Amanda Eng, Kendall Houghton & Andrew Foote (2023): The Gender Pay Gap and its Determinants across the Human Capital Distribution. (Working papers / U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies 2023-31), Washington, DCÐAWashington, DC, 31 S.

Abstract

"This paper leverages a unique linkage between American Community Survey data and postsecondary transcript records to examine how the gender pay gap, and its proximate determinants, varies across the distribution of education credentials in the 15 years following graduation. Although recent literature focuses on career disparities between the highest-educated women and men, we find evidence that the pay gap is smaller at higher education levels. Field-of-degree and occupation effects explain most of the gap among top bachelor's graduates, while labor supply and unobserved channels matter more for less-competitive bachelor's, associate's, and certificate graduates. This heterogeneity in gap levels and mechanisms is especially large in the first decade following graduation. Our results suggest that contemporary early-career gender inequality lacks a unified explanation and requires different policy interventions for different subgroups. More research is needed to understand the larger unexplained gender pay gap among less-educated individuals." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Blair, Peter Q. & Benjamin Posmanick (2023): Why Did Gender Wage Convergence in the United States Stall? (NBER working paper / National Bureau of Economic Research 30821), Cambridge, Mass, 63 S. DOI:10.3386/w30821

Abstract

"During the 1980s, the wage gap between white women and white men in the US declined by approximately 1 percentage point per year. In the decades since, the rate of gender wage convergence has stalled to less than one-third of its previous value. An outstanding puzzle in economics is "why did gender wage convergence in the US stall?" Using an event study design that exploits the timing of state and federal family-leave policies, we show that the introduction of the policies can explain 94% of the reduction in the rate of gender wage convergence that is unaccounted for after controlling for changes in observable characteristics of workers. If gender wage convergence had continued at the pre-family leave rate, wage parity between white women and white men would have been achieved as early as 2017." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Blau, Francine D., Lawrence M. Kahn, Nikolai Boboshko & Matthew Comey (2023): The Impact of Selection into the Labor Force on the Gender Wage Gap. In: Journal of labor economics online erschienen am 06.04.2023, S. 1-57. DOI:10.1086/725032

Abstract

"Using Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics data, we study selection bias and the gender wage gap. Employing several methods, we find large declines in the total and unexplained gender gaps in wage offers between 1981 and 2015. Under our preferred selection correction method, the median total and unexplained gaps fell by 0.378 and 0.204 log points, respectively. These are larger declines than if we had not corrected for selection and simply measured convergence in observed wage gaps. However, substantial selectivity-corrected median gender wage gaps remain in 2015: 0.242 log points (total gap) and 0.206 log points (unexplained gap)." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Blundell, Richard, Hugo Lopez & James P. Ziliak (2023): Labour market inequality and the changing life cycle profile of male and female wages. (IFS working paper / Institute for Fiscal Studies 2023/16), London, 82 S.

Abstract

"We estimate the distribution of life cycle wages for cohorts of prime-age men and women in the US. A quantile selection model is used to consistently recover the full distribution of wages accounting for systematic differences in employment, permitting us to construct gender and education-specific age-wage profiles, as well as measures of life cycle inequality within- and between-education groups and gender. Although common within-group time effects are shown to be a key driver of labor market inequalities, important additional differences by birth cohort emerge with older cohorts of higher educated men partly protected from the lower skill prices of the 1970s. The gender wage gap is found to increase sharply across the distribution in the first half of working life, coinciding with fertility cycles of women. After age 40, there has been substantial gender wage convergence in recent cohorts relative to those born prior to the 1950s." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Borjas, George J. (2023): Labor economics. New York: MacGraw-Hill, 494 S.

Abstract

"Labor Economics, ninth edition by George J. Borjas provides a modern introduction to labor economics, surveying the field with an emphasis on both theory and facts. Labor Economics is thoroughly integrated with the adaptive digital tools available in McGraw-Hill’s Connect, proven to increase student engagement and success in the course. All new Data Explorer questions using data simulation to help students grasp concepts Materials are fresh and up to date by introducing and discussing the latest research studies where conceptual or empirical contributions have increased our understanding of the labor market. The book has undergone Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion reviews to implement content around topics including generalizations and stereotypes, gender, abilities/disabilities, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, diversity of names, and age." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Brick, Carmen, Daniel Schneider & Kristen Harknett (2023): The Gender Wage Gap, Between-Firm Inequality, and Devaluation: Testing a New Hypothesis in the Service Sector. In: Work and occupations, Jg. 50, H. 4, S. 539-577. DOI:10.1177/07308884221141072

Abstract

"Unequal sorting of men and women into higher and lower-wage firms contributes significantly to the gender wage gap according to recent analysis of national labor markets. We confirm the importance of this between-firm gender segregation in wages and examine a second outcome of hours using unique employer–employee data from the service sector. We then examine what explains the relationship between firm gender composition and wages. In contrast to prevailing economic explanations that trace between-firm differences in wages to differences in firm surplus, we find evidence consistent with devaluation and potentially a gender-specific use of “low road” employment strategies." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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D'Angelis, Ilaria (2023): The Search for Parental Leave and the Early-Career Gender Wage Gap. (Working paper / University of Massachusetts Boston, Department of Economics 2023-01), Boston, 45 S.

Abstract

"I show that highly educated millennial Americans search for employers that provide parental leave, and that women's stronger willingness to pay for this benefit contributes to the early-career growth in the gender wage gap. Using an hedonic job search model, I estimate that workers are offered higher wages when hired by employers providing paid and unpaid parental leave, but women are willing to pay, respectively, 40% more and 56% more than men for these benefits. While all workers search for jobs and experience wage growth by entering firms offering both high pay and valuable benefits, the gender wage gap increases as young women accept lower wages, compared to men, upon receiving job offers from employers who provide parental leave. While the early-career growth in the gender wage gap would decline by 75% if willingness to pay for parental leave did not differ across genders, a policy mandating and subsidizing parental leave provision could itself halve the early-career wage-gap growth. The widespread availability of parental leave would lessen workers' need to accept lower wages in exchange for its provision, reducing the gap in accepted wages between men and women entering leave-providing firms." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Daiger von Gleichen, Rosa (2023): Employer-provided childcare across the 50 United States: the normative importance of public childcare and female leadership. In: Journal of Social Policy online erschienen am 23.10.2023, S. 1-21. DOI:10.1017/S0047279423000491

Abstract

"Employer family policy tends to be conceived as employers’ response to economic pressures, with the relevance of normative factors given comparatively little weight. This study questions this status quo, examining the normative relevance of public childcare and female leadership to employer childcare. Logistic regression analyses are performed on data from the 2016 National Study of Employers (NSE), a representative study of private sector employers in the United States. The findings show that public childcare is relevant for those forms of employer childcare more plausibly explained as the result of employers’ normative as opposed to economic considerations. The findings further suggest that female leaders are highly relevant for employer childcare, but that this significance differs depending on whether the form of employer childcare is more likely of economic versus normative importance to employers. The study provides an empirical contribution in that it is the first to use representative data of the United States to examine the relevance of state-level public childcare and female leadership. Its theoretical contribution is to show that normative explanations for employer childcare provision are likely underestimated in U.S. employer family policy research." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Dolado, Juan, Luigi Minale & Airam Guerra (2023): Uncovering the Roots of Obesity- Based Wage Discrimination: The Role of Job Characteristics. (CReAM discussion paper 2023,12), London, 37 S.

Abstract

"This paper investigates the roots of potential labour-market discrimination underlying the negative correlation between obesity and hourly wages. Using a panel dataset of white individuals drawn from the U.S. 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97), we test whether residual wage gaps could be attributed to prejudice (taste-based discrimination) and/or statistical discrimination. To this end, we examine how these two types of discrimination hinge on a wide range of obese individuals' specific job and occupational characteristics (drawn from the O*Net Online database). In particular, our analysis sheds light on whether discrimination originates from clients' attitudes, fellow workers or employers. Our findings are consistent with taste-based discrimination against obese females, especially as they become older, in jobs requiring frequent communication with either clients or employers. However, the evidence on this issue is weaker for males. We conjecture that these differences may originate from both an over-representation of males among employers and different image concerns against people of the same gender." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Eckstein, Zvi, Michael P. Keane & Osnat Lifshitz (2023): What Explains the Growing Gender Education Gap? The Effects of Parental Background, the Labor Market and the Marriage Market on College Attainment. (IZA discussion paper / Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit 16612), Bonn, 58 S.

Abstract

"In the 1960 cohort, American men and women graduated from college at the same rate, and this was true for Whites, Blacks and Hispanics. But in more recent cohorts, women graduate at much higher rates than men. To understand the emerging gender education gap, we formulate and estimate a model of individual and family decision-making where education, labor supply, marriage and fertility are all endogenous. Assuming preferences that are common across ethnic groups and fixed over cohorts, our model explains differences in all endogenous variables by gender/ethnicity for the '60-'80 cohorts based on three exogenous factors: family background, labor market and marriage market constraints. Changes in parental background are a key factor driving the growing gender education gap: Women with college educated mothers get greater utility from college, and are much more likely to graduate themselves. The marriage market also contributes: Women's chance of getting marriage offers at older ages has increased, enabling them to defer marriage. The labor market is the largest factor: Improvement in women's labor market return to college in recent cohorts accounts for 50% of the increase in their graduation rate. But the labor market returns to college are still greater for men. Women go to college more because their overall return is greater, after factoring in marriage market returns and their greater utility from college attendance. We predict the recent large increases in women's graduation rates will cause their children's graduation rates to increase further. But growth in the aggregate graduation rate will slow substantially, due to significant increases in the share of Hispanics – a group with a low graduation rate – in recent birth cohorts." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Farré, Lídia, Jordi Jofre-Monseny & Juan Torrecillas (2023): Commuting time and the gender gap in labor market participation. In: Journal of economic geography, Jg. 23, H. 4, S. 847-870. DOI:10.1093/jeg/lbac037

Abstract

"In this article, we investigate the contribution of increasing travel times to the persistent gender gap in labor market participation. In doing so, we estimate the effect of commuting times on the labor supply of men and women in the USA using microdata from the censuses of the last two decades. To address endogeneity concerns, we adopt an instrumental variables approach that exploits the shape of cities as an exogenous source of variation for travel times. Our estimates indicate that a 10-min increase in commuting time decreases the probability of married women participating in the labor market by 4.4 percentage points. In contrast, the estimated effect on men is small and statistically insignificant. When exploring potential mechanisms behind the gender asymmetry in our results, we do not find evidence that differences in labor market productivity within couples contribute to the larger penalty of commuting times on women. However, we do find that the negative effect on women increases with the number of children and is larger among those originating from countries with more gendered social norms. Based on this evidence, we conclude that in a context of increasing commuting costs the presence of gender norms that attribute to women the role of main caregivers may prevent gender convergence." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Garbinti, Bertrand, Cecilia García Peñalosa, Vladimir Pecheu & Frédérique Savignac (2023): Unobserved Components Model(s): Output Gaps and Financial Cycles. (Documents de travail / Banque de France 925), Paris, 35 S.

Abstract

"This paper is the first to compute lifetime earnings (LTE) in France for a large number of cohorts that entered the labour market between 1967 and 1987. We compare our results with evidence by Guvenen et al. (2022) for the US, documenting sharp differences between the two countries. Median LTE show similar flat trends in both countries, but in France this results from a moderate increase for both genders together with increased female participation, while in the US, LTE declines for men and sharply grows for women. There have been marked changes in age profiles, as for both genders younger cohorts have experienced a decrease in entry wages that has been more than offset by faster wage growth. Our analysis of inequality finds that it is lower when we focus on LTE than in the cross-section, and that it follows a U-shaped pattern, although the increase is much smaller in France than that observed in the US. Lastly, we also find that i) education (returns and changes in attainment) plays a key role in shaping LTE across cohorts, and ii) differences in working time explain an increasing part of the gender gap in LTE over time as both men and women have increased the number of years they work but women have done so largely through part-time employment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Giffin, Eric, Jessica B. Hoel & Prachi Jain (2023): Ill-informed beliefs: Misperceptions of the costs of unplanned parental absences. (SSRN papers), Rochester, NY, 109 S. DOI:10.2139/ssrn.4646861

Abstract

"While most couples say they want to divide childcare responsibilities evenly, different-sex couples tend to allocate childcare unevenly in practice. To explain this inconsistency, we focus on worker beliefs: parents anticipate (correctly or incorrectly) that employers penalize men and women differently for absences from work. We conduct an online hiring experiment with workers and employers. We elicit workers' beliefs about employer penalties and examine whether these beliefs align with employers' wage offers. Workers expect employers to penalize workers more harshly than employers do. Workers expect penalties are worse for men than women, but employers penalize women more than men." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Goldin, Claudia (2023): Why Women Won. (NBER working paper / National Bureau of Economic Research 31762), Cambridge, Mass, 66 S.

Abstract

"How, when, and why did women in the US obtain legal rights equal to men's regarding the workplace, marriage, family, Social Security, criminal justice, credit markets, and other parts of the economy and society, decades after they gained the right to vote? The story begins with the civil rights movement and the somewhat fortuitous nature of the early and key women's rights legislation. The women's movement formed and pressed for further rights. Of the 155 critical moments in women's rights history I've compiled from 1905 to 2023, 45% occurred between 1963 and 1973. The greatly increased employment of women, the formation of women's rights associations, the belief that women's votes mattered, and the unstinting efforts of various members of Congress were behind the advances. But women soon became splintered by marital status, employment, region, and religion far more than men. A substantial group of women emerged in the 1970s to oppose various rights for women, just as they did during the suffrage movement. They remain a potent force today." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gowen, Ohjae (2023): Becoming a Father, Staying a Father: An Examination of the Cumulative Wage Premium for U.S. Residential Fathers. In: Social forces, Jg. 102, H. 2, S. 475-495. DOI:10.1093/sf/soad066

Abstract

"The instability of fathers’ co-residence with children has become an increasingly prevalent experience for U.S. families. Despite long-standing scholarship examining the relationship between fatherhood and wage advantages, few studies have investigated how variation in fathers’ stable co-residence with a child may produce temporal changes in the wage premium over the life course. Building on prior explanations of the fatherhood wage premium, I test if the wage premium grows with time since the birth of a resident child and if the premium depends on fathers’ co-residence with a child. I use marginal structural models with repeated outcome measures and data from 4060 men in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 to assess the cumulative influence of co-residential biological fatherhood on wages. I find that each year of residential fatherhood is associated with a wage gain of 1.2 percent, while the immediate wage benefit to residential fatherhood is minor. Thus, the fatherhood premium is better understood as an unfolding process of cumulative advantage rather than a one-time bonus. Furthermore, the wage premium ceases to accumulate once fathers lose co-residential status with a child, which highlights the contingency of the premium on stable co-residence. Together, these findings shed light on one pathway through which family (in)stability—a phenomenon fundamentally embedded in individual life experiences—stratifies men’s wages across the life course." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Honore, Bo E., Luojia Hu, Ekaterini Kyriazidou & Martin Weidner (2023): Simultaneity in binary outcome models with an application to employment for couples. In: Empirical economics, Jg. 64, H. 6, S. 3197-3233. DOI:10.1007/s00181-023-02417-7

Abstract

"Two of Peter Schmidt's many contributions to econometrics have been to introduce a simultaneous logit model for bivariate binary outcomes and to study estimation of dynamic linear fixed effects panel data models using short panels. In this paper, we study a dynamic panel data version of the bivariate model introduced in Schmidt and Strauss (Econometrica 43:745–755, 1975) that allows for lagged dependent variables and fixed effects as in Ahn and Schmidt (J Econom 68:5–27, 1995). We combine a conditional likelihood approach with a method of moments approach to obtain an estimation strategy for the resulting model. We apply this estimation strategy to a simple model for the intra-household relationship in employment. Our main conclusion is that the within-household dependence in employment differs significantly by the ethnicity composition of the couple even after one allows for unobserved household specific heterogeneity." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

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Karpowitz, Christopher F., Stephen D. O'Connell, Jessica Preece & Olga B. Stoddard (2023): Strength in Numbers? Gender Composition, Leadership, and Women's Influence in Teams. (IZA discussion paper / Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit 16625), Bonn, 54 S.

Abstract

"Policies that increase women's representation often intend to provide women with influence over processes and decisions of the organization in which they are implemented. This paper studies the effect of gender composition and leadership on women's influence in two field experiments. Our first study finds that male-majority teams accord disproportionately less influence to women and are less likely to choose women to represent the team externally. We then replicate this finding in a new context and with a larger sample. To investigate the relationship between formal leadership and women's influence and authority, the second study also varied the gender of an assigned team leader. We find that a female leader substantially increases women's influence, even in male-majority teams. With a model of discriminatory voting, we show that either increasing the share of women or assigning a female leader reduces the rate at which individual teammates discriminate against women by more than 50%. These conditions both increase the influence of women and improve women's experience in work teams by creating an institutional environment that reduces the expression of discriminatory behavior at the individual level." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Kochhar, Rakesh (2023): The Enduring Grip of the Gender Pay Gap. Washington, DC, 15 S.

Abstract

"The gender pay gap – the difference between the earnings of men and women – has barely closed in the United States in the past two decades. In 2022, American women typically earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. That was about the same as in 2002, when they earned 80 cents to the dollar. The slow pace at which the gender pay gap has narrowed this century contrasts sharply with the progress in the preceding two decades: In 1982, women earned just 65 cents to each dollar earned by men. Line chart showing gender pay gap narrowed in the 1980s and ’90s, but progress has stalled since There is no single explanation for why progress toward narrowing the pay gap has all but stalled in the 21st century. Women generally begin their careers closer to wage parity with men, but they lose ground as they age and progress through their work lives, a pattern that has remained consistent over time. The pay gap persists even though women today are more likely than men to have graduated from college. In fact, the pay gap between college-educated women and men is not any narrower than the one between women and men who do not have a college degree. This points to the dominant role of other factors that still set women back or give men an advantage." (Text excerpt, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Kouki, Amairisa (2023): Beyond the “Comforts” of work from home: Child health and the female wage penalty. In: European Economic Review, Jg. 157. DOI:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2023.104527

Abstract

"Using data on American women and the health status of their children, this paper provides estimates of the effect of remote work on female wages. A temporary child health shock, which does not affect a woman's labor market outcomes beyond inducing her to work at home, is used as an instrument. Instrumental variable estimates indicate a substantial wage penalty that is more likely attributed to women's choices or assignments of less promotable job tasks when working from home. The findings are valuable in assessing the costs associated with remote flexibility, especially when children are required to stay at home during episodes of illness." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2023 Elsevier) ((en))

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Kowalewska, Helen (2023): Gendered employment patterns: Women's labour market outcomes across 24 countries. In: Journal of European Social Policy, Jg. 33, H. 2, S. 151-168. DOI:10.1177/09589287221148336

Abstract

"An accepted framework for ‘gendering’ the analysis of welfare regimes compares countries by degrees of ‘defamilialization’ or how far their family policies support or undermine women’s employment participation. This article develops an alternative framework that explicitly spotlights women’s labour market outcomes rather than policies. Using hierarchical clustering on principal components, it groups 24 industrialized countries by their simultaneous performance across multiple gendered employment outcomes spanning segregation and inequalities in employment participation, intensity, and pay, with further differences by class. The three core ‘worlds’ of welfare (social-democratic, corporatist, liberal) each displays a distinctive pattern of gendered employment outcomes. Only France diverges from expectations, as large gender pay gaps across the educational divide – likely due to fragmented wage-bargaining – place it with Anglophone countries. Nevertheless, the outcome-based clustering fails to support the idea of a homogeneous Mediterranean grouping or a singular Eastern European cluster. Furthermore, results underscore the complexity and idiosyncrasy of gender inequality: while certain groups of countries are ‘better’ overall performers, all have their flaws. Even the Nordics fall behind on some measures of segregation, despite narrow participatory and pay gaps for lower- and high-skilled groups. Accordingly, separately monitoring multiple measures of gender inequality, rather than relying on ‘headline’ indicators or gender equality indices, matters." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Kray, Laura, Jessica Kennedy & Margaret Lee (2023): Now, Women Do Ask: A Call to Update Beliefs about the Gender Pay Gap. In: The Academy of Management Discoveries online erschienen am 15.08.2023. DOI:10.5465/amd.2022.0021

Abstract

"For over two decades, gender differences in the propensity to negotiate have been thought to explain the gender pay gap. We ask whether a “women don’t ask” pattern holds today among working adults. We compare estimates of gender differences in negotiation propensity (Study 1) with actual patterns from MBA students (n = 1,435) and alumni (n = 1,939) from a top U.S. business school (Studies 2A-2B). Contrary to lay beliefs, women report negotiating their salaries more often (not less) than men. We then re-analyze meta-analytic data on self-reported initiation of salary negotiations to reconcile our findings with prior work (Study 2C). While men reported higher negotiation propensity than women prior to the twenty-first century, the gender difference grew neutral and then reversed since then. Negotiation propensity rose across time for both men and women, although to differing degrees. Finally, we explore the consequences of the now-outdated belief that “women don’t ask,” finding that it increases gender stereotyping, even on dimensions unrelated to negotiation, and it is associated with both greater system-justification and weaker support for legislation addressing pay equity (Studies 3 and 4). Our research calls for an updating of beliefs about gender and the propensity to negotiate for pay." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Nelson, Laura K., Alexandra Brewer, Anna S. Mueller, Daniel M. O'Connor, Arjun Dayal & Vineet M. Arora (2023): Taking the Time: The Implications of Workplace Assessment for Organizational Gender Inequality. In: American sociological review, Jg. 88, H. 4, S. 627-655. DOI:10.1177/00031224231184264

Abstract

"Gendered differences in workload distribution, in particular who spends time on low-promotability workplace tasks—tasks that are essential for organizations yet do not typically lead to promotions—contribute to persistent gender inequalities in workplaces. We examined how gender is implicated in the content, quality, and consequences of one low-promotability workplace task: assessment. By analyzing real-world behavioral data that include 33,456 in-the-moment numerical and textual evaluations of 359 resident physicians (subordinates) by 285 attending physicians (superordinates) in eight U.S. hospitals, and by combining qualitative methods and machine learning, we found that, compared to men, women attendings wrote more words in their comments to residents, used more job-related terms, and were more likely to provide helpful feedback, particularly when residents were struggling. Additionally, we found women residents were less likely to receive substantive evaluations, regardless of attending gender. Our findings suggest that workplace assessment is gendered in three ways: women (superordinates) spend more time on this low-promotability task, they are more cognitively engaged with assessment, and women (subordinates) are less likely to fully benefit from quality assessment. We conclude that workplaces would benefit from addressing pervasive inequalities hidden within workplace assessment, equalizing not only who provides this assessment work, but who does it well and equitably." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Pabilonia, Sabrina Wulff & Victoria Vernon (2023): Who Is Doing the Chores and Childcare in Dual-Earner Couples during the COVID-19 Era of Working from Home? In: Review of Economics of the Household, Jg. 21, H. 2, S. 519-565. DOI:10.1007/s11150-022-09642-6

Abstract

"In 2020–21, parents' work-from-home days increased three-and-a-half-fold following the initial COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns compared to 2015–19. At the same time, many schools offered virtual classrooms and daycares closed, increasing the demand for household-provided childcare. Using weekday workday time diaries from American Time Use Survey and looking at parents in dual-earner couples, we examine parents' time allocated to paid work, chores, and childcare in the COVID-19 era by the couple's joint work location arrangements. We determine the work location of the respondent directly from their diary and predict the partner's work-from-home status. Parents working from home alone spent more time on childcare compared to their counterparts working on-site, though only mothers worked fewer paid hours. When both parents worked from home compared to on-site, mothers and fathers maintained their paid hours and spent more time on childcare, though having a partner also working from home reduced child supervision time. On the average day, parents working from home did equally more household chores, regardless of their partner's work-from-home status; however, on the average school day, only fathers working from home alone spent more time on household chores compared to their counterparts working on-site. We also find that mothers combined paid work and child supervision to a greater extent than did fathers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

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Paek, Eunjeong (2023): Does Overwork Attenuate the Motherhood Earnings Penalty among Full-Time Workers? In: Work, Employment and Society, Jg. 37, H. 1, S. 78-96. DOI:10.1177/09500170211041293

Abstract

"This study examines whether working long hours alters the motherhood earnings penalty in the context of the United States. The author uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979–2014) to model the annual earnings penalty mothers incur per child in the United States. The results support that working long hours (50+ hours per week) reduces the negative effect of motherhood on earnings for white women. Once we control for human capital and labour supply, however, there is no difference in the effect of children on earnings between full-time workers and over workers. For Black full-time workers and over workers, having an additional child has little effect on earnings. The findings suggest that although overwork appears to attenuate the earnings penalty for white mothers, white mothers who work long hours exhibit a smaller penalty because they already have high levels of human capital and supply a great amount of labour." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Rotman, Assaf & Hadas Mandel (2023): Gender-Specific Wage Structure and the Gender Wage Gap in the U.S. Labor Market. In: Social indicators research, Jg. 165, H. 2, S. 585-606. DOI:10.1007/s11205-022-03030-4

Abstract

"This paper challenges the predominant conceptualization of the wage structure as gender-neutral, emphasizing the contribution that this makes to the gender wage gap. Unlike most decomposition analyses, which concentrated on gender differences in productivity-enhancing characteristics (the 'explained' portion), we concentrate on the 'wage structure' (the 'unexplained' portion), which can be defined as the market returns to productivity-enhancing characteristics. These returns are commonly considered a reflection of non-gendered economic forces of supply and demand, and gender differences in these returns are attributed to market failure or measurement error. Using PSID data on working-age employees from 1980 to 2010, we examine gender differences in returns to education and work experience in the U.S. labor market. Based on a threefold decomposition, we estimate the contribution of these differences to the overall pay gap. The results show that men's returns to education and work experience are higher than women's; and that in contrast to the well-documented trend of narrowing gender gaps in skills and earnings, the gaps in returns increase over time in men's favor. Furthermore, the existing gender differences in returns to skills explain a much larger proportion of the gender wage gap than differences in levels of education and experience between men and women. The paper discusses the mechanisms underlying these findings." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

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Sassler, Sharon & Pamela Meyerhofer (2023): Factors shaping the gender wage gap among college-educated computer science workers. In: PLoS ONE, Jg. 18. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0293300

Abstract

"Encouraging women to pursue STEM employment is frequently touted as a means of reducing the gender wage gap. We examine whether the attributes of computer science workers–who account for nearly half of those working in STEM jobs–explain the persistent gender wage gap in computer science, using American Community Survey (ACS) data from 2009 to 2019. Our analysis focuses on working-age respondents between the ages of 22 and 60 who had a college degree and were employed full-time. We use ordinary least squares (OLS) regression of logged wages on observed characteristics, before turning to regression decomposition techniques to estimate what proportion of the gender wage gap would remain if men and women were equally rewarded for the same attributes–such as parenthood or marital status, degree field, or occupation. Women employed in computer science jobs earned about 86.6 cents for every dollar that men earned–a raw gender gap that is smaller than it is for the overall labor force (where it was 82 percent). Controlling for compositional effects (family attributes, degree field and occupation) narrows the gender wage gap, though women continue to earn 9.1 cents per dollar less than their male counterparts. But differential returns to family characteristics and human capital measures account for almost two-thirds of the gender wage gap in computer science jobs. Women working in computer science receive both a marriage and parenthood premium relative to unmarried or childless women, but these are significantly smaller than the bonus that married men and fathers receive over their childless and unmarried peers. Men also receive sizable wage premiums for having STEM degrees in computer science and engineering when they work in computer science jobs, advantages that do not accrue to women. Closing the gender wage gap in computer science requires treating women more like men, not just increasing their representation." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Uemura, Yuki (2023): The Impacts of Family Policies on Labor Supply, Fertility, and Social Welfare. (KIER discussion paper series 1100), Kyoto, 40 S.

Abstract

"We quantitatively examine the impacts of family policies on labor supply, fertility, and social welfare in a heterogeneous agent overlapping-generations (OLG) economy. We extend a standard incomplete-market OLG model with married and single households by incorporating parental decisions on the number of children, child care, education spending, and time allocation between market work, parental care, and leisure. We use this extended model to examine the possible impacts of four major family policies: child subsidies, child care subsidies, education subsidies, and income tax deductions for dependent children. The results of all four policies suggest a tradeoff between fertility rates and female labor supply, although the individual effects of each policy on households and the macroeconomy differ significantly. Child care subsidies raise female labor supply but lower fertility rates. By contrast, child subsidies, education subsidies, and income tax deductions reduce female labor supply but raise fertility rates. Child care subsidies improve overall welfare the most among the four policies. This is because increased labor supply and a decrease in the number of children raise the consumption level in the long run, while lowering policy costs." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Akitoby, Bernardin, Jiro Honda & Hiroaki Miyamoto (2022): Countercyclical Fiscal Policy and Gender Employment: Evidence from the G-7 Countries. In: IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Jg. 12. DOI:10.2478/izajolp-2022-0005

Abstract

"Would countercyclical fiscal policy during recessions improve or worsen the gender employment gap? We answer this question by exploring the state-dependent impact of fiscal spending shocks on employment by gender in the G-7 countries. Using the local projection method, we find that, during recessions, a positive fiscal spending shock increases female employment more than male employment, contributing to gender employment equality. Our findings are driven by disproportionate employment changes in female-friendly industries, occupations, and part-time jobs in response to fiscal spending shocks. The analysis suggests that fiscal stimulus, particularly during recessions, could achieve the twin objectives of supporting aggregate demand and improving gender gaps." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Albanesi, Stefania & María José Prados (2022): Slowing Women's Labor Force Participation: The Role of Income Inequality. (HCEO working paper / Human capital and economic opportunity global working group 2022,037), Chicago, Ill., 47 S.

Abstract

"The entry of married women into the labor force and the rise in women's relative wages are amongst the most notable economic developments of the twentieth century. The growth in these indicators was particularly pronounced in the 1970s and 1980s, but it stalled since the early 1990s, especially for college graduates. In this paper, we argue that the discontinued growth in female labor supply and wages since the 1990s is a consequence of growing inequality. Our hypothesis is that the growth in top incomes for men generated a negative income effect on the labor supply of their spouses, which reduced their participation and wages. We show that the slowdown in participation and wage growth was concentrated among women married to highly educated and high income husbands, whose earnings grew dramatically over this period. We then develop a model of household labor supply with returns to experience that qualitatively reproduces this effect. A calibrated version of the model can account for a large fraction of the decline relative to trend in married women's participation in 1995-2005 particularly for college women. The model can also account for the rise in the gender wage gap for college graduates relative to trend in the same period." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Albanesi, Stefania & María José Prados (2022): Slowing Women’s Labor Force Participation: The Role of Income Inequality. (NBER working paper 29675), Cambridge, Mass, 48 S. DOI:10.3386/w29675

Abstract

"The entry of married women into the labor force and the rise in women's relative wages are amongst the most notable economic developments of the twentieth century. The growth in these indicators was particularly pronounced in the 1970s and 1980s, but it stalled since the early 1990s, especially for college graduates. In this paper, we argue that the discontinued growth in female labor supply and wages since the 1990s is a consequence of growing inequality. Our hypothesis is that the growth in top incomes for men generated a negative income effect on the labor supply of their spouses, which reduced their participation and wages. We show that the slowdown in participation and wage growth was concentrated among women married to highly educated and high income husbands, whose earnings grew dramatically over this period. We then develop a model of household labor supply with returns to experience that qualitatively reproduces this effect. A calibrated version of the model can account for a large fraction of the decline relative to trend in married women's participation in 1995-2005 particularly for college women. The model can also account for the rise in the gender wage gap for college graduates relative to trend in the same period." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Artz, Benjamin, Ilker Kaya & Ozgur Kaya (2022): Gender role perspectives and job burnout. In: Review of Economics of the Household, Jg. 20, H. 2, S. 447-470. DOI:10.1007/s11150-021-09579-2

Abstract

"Women are more likely than men to report physical and emotional exhaustion related to paid work. While this gender gap in job burnout is common in the literature, the mechanism is yet to be thoroughly understood. Our study offers a novel, and admittedly provocative, explanation for the difference in burnout between men and women. We leverage a US survey rich in job and personal information to test whether theoretically relevant factors explain the gender gap in job burnout. Our results suggest that they may not. Instead we find that workers' perspectives regarding women's role in society drive a large gender gap in job burnout. Specifically, “traditional” women are significantly more likely than men to report job burnout. Thus, providing support and resources to transform perceptions and attitudes regarding gender roles may help to reduce job-related burnout resulting from a mismatch between expectations and paid work experiences." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

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Baranowska-Rataj, Anna & Anna Matysiak (2022): Family Size and Men's Labor Market Outcomes: Do Social Beliefs About Men's Roles in the Family Matter? In: Feminist economics, Jg. 28, H. 2, S. 93-118. DOI:10.1080/13545701.2021.2015076

Abstract

"This article provides evidence on the relationship between fathers’ labor market outcomes and number of children. Using data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions and instrumental variable models, this study examines how family size is related to fathers’ probability of employment, number of paid working hours, job rank, wages, and job stability across European countries with diverse social beliefs about men’s financial and caregiving responsibilities. Results show that having a larger family is associated with increases in fathers’ share of paid working hours, chances of having a permanent contract and a managerial position, and wages. These findings are, however, largely due to selection. Net of selection, fathers tend to increase paid working hours and are more likely to be promoted after childbirth only in countries where they are considered the main income providers, and acceptance of involved fatherhood is weak. The magnitude of these effects is small, however." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bartnik, Dominica, Paul Edward Gabriel & Susanne Schmitz (2022): The impact of occupational feminization on the gender wage gap and estimates of wage discrimination. In: Applied Economics Letters, Jg. 29, H. 17, S. 1605-1609. DOI:10.1080/13504851.2021.1949429

Abstract

"This study assesses the male-female wage gap across occupational categories ranked by gender density using data from the U.S. Current Population Survey. Our empirical findings suggest a consistent relationship between occupational feminization and the gender wage gap: female-dominated occupations have the lowest average earnings for men and women, whereas male-dominated occupations have the lowest gender wage gap. Gender-neutral occupations have the highest male and female wages, the largest gender wage gap, and the lowest estimated levels of wage discrimination." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bastian, Jacob & Lance Lochner (2022): The Earned Income Tax Credit and Maternal Time Use: More Time Working and Less Time with Kids? In: Journal of labor economics, Jg. 40, H. 3, S. 573-611. DOI:10.1086/717729

Abstract

"Parents spend considerable time and resources investing in their children’s development. Given evidence that the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) affects maternal labor supply, we investigate how the maximum available EITC amount affects a broad array of time use activities, focusing on the amount and nature of time spent with children. Using 2003-18 time use data, we find that federal and state EITC expansions increase maternal work time, reducing time devoted to home production, leisure, and time with children. However, almost none of the reduction comes from time devoted to “investment” activities, such as active learning and development activities." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bellisle, Dylan J. F. (2022): How the Earned Income Tax Credit Sustains Informal Child-Care Arrangements with Family Members and Helps Maintain Intergenerational Relations. In: Social Service Review, Jg. 96, H. 4, S. 744-778. DOI:10.1086/722002

Abstract

"The earned income tax credit (EITC) is one of the largest antipoverty programs in the United States. Although extensive research suggests the EITC is linked to various positive parent and child outcomes, limited attention has been paid to how familial obligations shape ways in which the EITC is spent. Research indicates that social networks of extended family and friends can be vital to low-income families’ social and economic well-being, suggesting the importance of exploring their roles in shaping EITC spending decisions. Drawing from in-depth interviews with primarily women of color, this article reveals how some women maintain extended family caregiving arrangements through monetary gifts from their EITC. The women’s narratives illustrate how they identified the social and economic value of the caregiving and how caregiving and monetary reciprocity facilitated the maintenance of intergenerational social support; they also expose limitations of current policies designed to support care arrangements among low-income families." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bose, Gautam, Tarun Jain & Sarah Walker (2022): Women’s labor force participation and household technology adoption. In: European Economic Review, Jg. 147, H. August. DOI:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2022.104181

Abstract

"We examine how women’s employment leads to household technology adoption in the context of mid-century United States. Using World War II factories and male casualty rates as an instrument for female labor demand, we find that the rise in women’s labor force participation between 1940 and 1950 increased appliance ownership by 25 percent in the average county. This result holds in both panel and cross-sectional estimates, and for two different technologies. We find that increases in household income associated with women’s employment is a salient channel and that the results are not driven by changes in the skill profile or employment outcomes of men, or migration patterns. Together, the evidence is consistent with a historiography that suggests that as women went to work, they adopted appliances with new purchasing and bargaining power." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2022 Elsevier) ((en))

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Cobb, J. Adam, JR Keller & Samir Nurmohamed (2022): How Do I Compare? The Effect of Work-Unit Demographics on Reactions to Pay Inequality. In: ILR review, Jg. 75, H. 3, S. 665-692. DOI:10.1177/00197939211001874

Abstract

"Prior research suggests that individuals react negatively when they perceive they are underpaid. Moreover, individuals frequently select pay referents who share their race and gender, suggesting that demographic similarity affects one’s knowledge of pay differences. Leveraging these insights, the authors examine whether the gender and racial composition of a work unit shapes individuals’ reactions to pay deprivation. Using field data from a large health care organization, they find that pay deprivation resulting from workers receiving less pay than their same-sex and same-race coworkers prompts a significantly stronger response than does pay deprivation arising from workers receiving less pay than their demographically dissimilar colleagues. A supplemental experiment reveals that this relationship likely results from individuals’ propensity to select same-category others as pay referents, shaping workers’ information about their colleagues’ pay. The study’s findings underscore the need to theoretically and empirically account for how demographically driven social comparison processes affect reactions to pay inequality." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Coskun, Sena & Husnu Dalgic (2022): The Emergence of Procyclical Fertility: The Role of Gender Differences in Employment Risk. (IAB-Discussion Paper 27/2022), Nürnberg, 66 S. DOI:10.48720/IAB.DP.2227

Abstract

"Die Fertilität in den USA weist ein zunehmend prozyklisches Muster auf. Wir argumentieren, dass dieses Muster dem Ernährerstatus von Frauen geschuldet ist: (i) der Anteil der Frauen am gesamten Familieneinkommen ist über die Zeit gestiegen; (ii) Frauen arbeiten mit größerer Wahrscheinlichkeit in relativ stabilen und antizyklischen Branchen, während Männer eher in volatilen und prozyklischen Branchen tätig sind. Dies führt zu einem antizyklischen Einkommensgefälle zwischen den Geschlechtern, da Frauen in Rezessionen zu Ernährerinnen werden, was einen Versicherungseffekt des Fraueneinkommens bewirkt. Unser quantitativer Rahmen besteht aus einem allgemeinen Gleichgewichts-OLG-Modell mit endogener Fertilität und Humankapital. Wir zeigen, dass die Veränderung der Zyklizität der Geschlechterbeschäftigung 38 bis 44 Prozent des Auftretens von prozyklischer Fertilität erklären kann. Unsere kontrafaktische Analyse zeigt, dass in einer Welt, in der Männer Krankenpfleger und Frauen Bauarbeiter werden, eine antizyklische Fertilität zu beobachten sein würde, allerdings auf Kosten einer geringeren Humankapitalakkumulation, da sich die Familien bei der Abwägung zwischen Qualität und Quantität stärker auf die Quantität konzentrieren." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Das, Debasmita (2022): Child-rearing, Social Security and Married Women's Labor Supply over the Life Cycle. (MPRA paper / University Library of Munich 117614), München, 68 S.

Abstract

"This paper studies how career interruptions during child-rearing years affect the labor market trajectory, lifetime earnings, and Social Security benefits of married women in the United States. To this end, I develop a dynamic structural life-cycle model of female labor supply, savings, and Social Security benefit claiming and estimate the model using the Method of Simulated Moments for the 1943-1954 birth cohort. Utilizing the estimated model, I evaluate the effects of revenue-neutral introduction of the Social Security Caregiver Credits that cover lost earnings during early child-rearing years through change in retirement benefits. The model predicts that introducing the provision of earning credits for child care in the Social Security system would lead to a sizeable reduction in gender gap in average career earnings at the Social Security Early Retirement Age. The findings suggest that instituting caregiver credits for child-rearing in the absence of the marriage-based Social Security benefits would offset a substantial portion of the motherhood penalty in lifetime labor earnings of married women and increase their retirement benefit adequacy." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Day, Creina (2022): Increasing Inequality and Voting for Basic Income: Could Gender Inequality Worsen? (CAMA working paper series / Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, The Australian National University 2022-54), Canberra, 27 S.

Abstract

"This paper examines the link between political support for basic income funded by linear income taxation and income inequality by household and gender. We develop a model with an increasingly right-skewed distribution of skill across households and a gender wage gap within households. Household preference for basic income decreases as skill level increases and female labour supply decreases with time spent rearing children. Majority voting supports the basic income scheme as mean relative to median household skill increases. Household fertility and skill level are inversely related under the scheme. An increase in the marginal tax rate to fund required government revenue could excacerbate gender inequality by reducing female labour supply. Quantitative illustrations suggest that the recent peak in the mean to median wage gap would provide voting support for basic income from the majority of households in the United States. Basic income of $12,000 conditional on below-median wages would increase government spending by 10.8% which, if funded by progressive income taxation, could reduce the adverse effects on gender inequality." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Demirović, Melisa, Jonathan Rogers & Blaine G. Robbins (2022): Gender and Gender Role Attitudes in Wage Negotiations: Evidence from an Online Experiment. (SocArXiv papers), 59 S. DOI:10.31235/osf.io/7esb9

Abstract

"Gender differences in wage negotiations is a popular explanation for why the gender gap in pay persists in the United States. In this study, we use data from an artificial wage negotiation experiment (N = 330) to interrogate the gender-negotiation link, and to test whether gender role attitudes (GRAs) moderate this association. Our experiment yields three principal discoveries. First, men are more likely to select into negotiations than women, but this effect varies by GRAs. As GRAs become more traditional, men enter negotiations at a much higher rate than women, but for non-traditional GRAs we observe no gender differences in selection. Second, while men and women are proficient at knowing when to negotiate, men and women are much less proficient when they harbor traditional GRAs. Third, profits are equivalent for men and women, and traditional men are no more effective than women—regardless of their GRAs—at securing higher profits. Our findings suggest that traditional women should “lean-in”, and that traditional men should “lean-out”." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Doepke, Matthias, Anne Hannusch, Fabian Kindermann & Michèle Tertilt (2022): The Economics of Fertility: A New Era. (HCEO working paper / Human capital and economic opportunity global working group 2022,012), Chicago, Ill., 130 S.

Abstract

"In this survey, we argue that the economic analysis of fertility has entered a new era. First-generation models of fertility choice were designed to account for two empirical regularities that, in the past, held both across countries and across families in a given country: a negative relationship between income and fertility, and another negative relationship between women's labor force participation and fertility. The economics of fertility has entered a new era because these stylized facts no longer universally hold. In high-income countries, the income-fertility relationship has flattened and in some cases reversed, and the cross-country relationship between women's labor force participation and fertility is now positive. We summarize these new facts and describe new models that are designed to address them. The common theme of these new theories is that they view factors that determine the compatibility of women's career and family goals as key drivers of fertility. We highlight four factors that facilitate combining a career with a family: family policy, cooperative fathers, favorable social norms, and flexible labor markets. We also review other recent developments in the literature, and we point out promising new directions for future research on the economics of fertility." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Erosa, Andrés, Luisa Fuster, Gueorgui Kambourov & Richard Rogerson (2022): Hours, Occupations, and Gender Differences in Labor Market Outcomes. In: American Economic Journal. Macroeconomics, Jg. 14, H. 3, S. 543-590. DOI:10.1257/mac.20200318

Abstract

"Goldin (2014) offers a narrative in which gender differences in home production responsibilities create gender gaps in labor market outcomes. We carry out a model-based quantitative assessment of this narrative and find that it can account for a significant share of gender gaps in occupational choice, wages, and hours. Our analysis emphasizes the quantitative significance of two key elements not highlighted by Goldin: heterogeneity in comparative advantage and multimember households. Gender differences in nonmarket responsibilities have important aggregate effects on welfare and productivity, similar to those emphasized by Hsieh et al. (2019)." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Fernández-Val, Iván, Aico van Vuuren, Francis Vella & Franco Peracchi (2022): Selection and the Distribution of Female Hourly Wages in the U.S. (IZA discussion paper 15028), Bonn, 51 S.

Abstract

"We analyze the role of selection bias in generating the changes in the observed distribution of female hourly wages in the United States using CPS data for the years 1975 to 2020. We account for the selection bias from the employment decision by modeling the distribution of the number of working hours and estimating a nonseparable model of wages. We decompose changes in the wage distribution into composition, structural and selection effects. Composition effects have increased wages at all quantiles while the impact of the structural effects varies by time period and quantile. Changes in the role of selection only appear at the lower quantiles of the wage distribution. The evidence suggests that there is positive selection in the 1970s which diminishes until the later 1990s. This reduces wages at lower quantiles and increases wage inequality. Post 2000 there appears to be an increase in positive sorting which reduces the selection effects on wage inequality." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gao, Melody Ge & Hangqing Ruan (2022): Work-Family Policies and Gender Inequalities in Childcare Time. In: Socius, Jg. 8, S. 1-14. DOI:10.1177/23780231221142677

Abstract

"The United States is the only country to admit the majority of its immigrants on the basis of kinship ties. Although policy makers typically view family migration as less favorable and assume that family immigrants do not contribute to the U.S. economy, this argument is oversimplified and ignores the role of gender and the various ways that family immigration works. This study captures the multiple aspects of immigrants’ entry visas and its intersection with gender to examine the employment behavior of college-educated immigrant men and women who arrived in the United States via several family-based and skill-based categories. Using nationally representative data from 2010, 2013, and 2015 National Survey of College Graduates, the author finds that immigrants’ initial entry pathways into the United States continue to stratify their employment behavior and trajectories, especially for immigrant women. The conditions of family-sponsored immigration matter; temporary migration as a spouse is negatively associated with immigrant women’s employment but not permanent family migration." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))" (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gerber, Christine (2022): Gender and precarity in platform work: Old inequalities in the new world of work. In: New Technology, Work and Employment, Jg. 37, H. 2, S. 206-230. DOI:10.1111/ntwe.12233

Abstract

"Platform work creates a work model that is both a curse and a blessing for vulnerable labour market segments. Based on research on female precarity, the article expects that remote platform work—so-called crowdwork—could especially attract women who need to combine income and care responsibilities. This article investigates whether women experience more precarity on crowdwork platforms than men, and why their risks differ. It analyses data from a quantitative survey with crowdworkers in Germany and the United States. The results indicate higher precarity risks for women due to care work, which are also indirectly mediated via the employment status. The higher commodification of labour and weaker social infrastructure lead to generally greater precarity risks for platform workers in the United States. The high differences between women and men in Germany underline the gendered nature of labour market dualization and precarization as well as the traditional division of housework. Policy measures should address both platform work and these structural inequalities." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gihleb, Rania & Osnat Lifshitz (2022): Dynamic effects of educational assortative mating on labor supply. In: Review of Economic Dynamics, Jg. 46, S. 302-327. DOI:10.1016/j.red.2021.10.001

Abstract

"The gender education gap has undergone a transition in the post-war period, from favoring men to favoring women. As a result, in 30% of young American couples, the wife is more educated than the husband. These “married down” women display substantially higher employment rates, relative to women with husbands with the same or higher level of educational attainment. We argue that the interaction between work and marital decisions can explain the higher employment rates of women who marry down. Returns to experience are key in this mechanism, since they lock in early employment choices. We formulate a dynamic life cycle model of marriage and divorce, with endogenous labor supply decisions, and structurally estimate it using NLSY79. We show that returns to experience account for 45% of the employment gap between married down women and married up women. The estimates further suggest that the changes in educational sorting patterns across cohorts can explain 11% of the rise in married women's employment between the 1945 and 1965 cohorts. Finally, we simulate a shift from joint to individual taxation. The model predicts a larger increase in married down women's employment rate." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2022 Elsevier) ((en))

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Goldin, Claudia, Sari Pekkala Kerr & Claudia Olivetti (2022): When the Kids Grow Up: Women's Employment and Earnings across the Family Cycle. (NBER working paper 30323), Cambridge, Mass, 41 S. DOI:10.3386/w30323

Abstract

"Women earn less than men, and that is especially true of mothers relative to fathers. Much of the widening occurs after family formation when mothers reduce their hours of work. But what happens when the kids grow up? To answer that question, we estimate three earning gaps: the “motherhood penalty,” the “price of being female,” and the “fatherhood premium.” When added together these three produce the “parental gender gap,” defined as the difference in income between mothers and fathers. We estimate earnings gaps for two education groups (college graduates and high school graduates who did not complete college) using longitudinal data from the NLSY79 that tracks respondents from their twenties to their fifties. As the children grow up and as women work more hours, the motherhood penalty is greatly reduced, especially for the less-educated group. But fathers manage to expand their relative gains, particularly among college graduates. The parental gender gap in earnings remains substantial for both education groups." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Grossbard, Shoshana, Lucia Mangiavacchi, William Nilsson & Luca Piccoli (2022): Spouses' earnings association and inequality: A non-linear perspective. In: Journal of Economic Inequality, Jg. 20, H. 3, S. 611-638. DOI:10.1007/s10888-022-09539-5

Abstract

"We analyze the association between spouses' earnings taking account of non-linearities along both spouses' distribution of earnings. We also document the non-linearity of the relationships between earnings and labor force participation, earnings and couple formation, and earnings and number of children. Using simulations, we then analyze how changes in spouses' rank-dependence structure, labor force participation and couple formation contribute to the upsurge in inequality in the U.S between 1967 and 2018. We find that an increased tendency towards positive sorting contributed substantially to the rise in inequality only among dual-earner couples, while it contributed little to overall inequality across households. Temporal and distributional heterogeneity are important, as earnings association had a more substantial role in the bottom of the earnings distribution and in recent years. The decline in couple formation contributed substantially to the rise in inequality, while the increase in female labor force participation and the fertility decline had equalizing effects." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

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Groysberg, Boris, Paul Healy & Eric Lin (2022): Determinants of Gender Differences in Change in Pay among Job-Switching Executives. In: ILR review, Jg. 75, H. 1, S. 168-199. DOI:10.1177/0019793920930712

Abstract

"The authors investigate what determines differences in change in pay between men and women executives who move to new employers. Using proprietary data of 2,034 executive placements from a global search firm, the authors observe narrower pay differences between men and women after job moves. The unconditional gap shrinks from 21.5% in the prior employer to 15% in the new employer. After controlling for typical explanatory factors, the residual gap falls by almost 30%, from 8.5% at the prior employer to 6.1% in the new placement. This change reflects a relative increase in performance-based compensation for women and a lower level of unexplained pay inequality generally in external placements. Controlling for individual fixed effects, observed women have higher pay raises than do men. Finally, the authors find suggestive evidence that pay differences may also be moderated by differences in the supply and demand for women executives." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Kan, Man-Yee, Muzhi Zhou, Kamila Kolpashnikova, Ekaterina Hertog, Shohei Yoda & Jiweon Jun (2022): Revisiting the Gender Revolution: Time on Paid Work, Domestic Work, and Total Work in East Asian and Western Societies 1985–2016. In: Gender & Society, Jg. 36, H. 3, S. 368-396. DOI:10.1177/08912432221079664

Abstract

"We analyze time use data of four East Asian societies and 12 Western countries between 1985 and 2016 to investigate the gender revolution in paid work, domestic work, and total work. The closing of gender gaps in paid work, domestic work, and total work time has stalled in the most recent decade in several countries. The magnitude of the gender gaps, cultural contexts, and welfare policies plays a key role in determining whether the gender revolution in the division of labor will stall or continue. Women undertake more total work than men across all societies: The gender gap ranges from 30 minutes to 2 hours a day. Our findings suggest that cultural norms interact with institutional contexts to affect the patterns of gender convergence in time use, and gender equality might settle at differing levels of egalitarianism across countries." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Landivar, Liana Christin, William J. Scarborough, Caitlyn Collins & Leah Ruppanner (2022): Do high childcare costs and low access to Head Start and childcare subsidies limit mothers' employment? A state-level analysis. In: Social science research, Jg. 102. DOI:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2021.102627

Abstract

"Access to affordable childcare is crucial to mothers' employment. Yet, childcare costs and access to Head Start, childcare subsidies, and state-funded preschool vary dramatically across U.S. states. Using data from the 2016 American Community Survey five-year estimates, we apply hierarchical logistic regression models to show mothers are more likely to work in states with inexpensive childcare, higher Head Start enrollment and childcare subsidy participation, and increased availability of state-funded preschool. Childcare subsidy access is associated with higher maternal employment amongst those with lower levels of educational attainment, whereas state-funded preschool is associated with higher employment primarily among the college educated. Additionally, our analysis revealed that Head Start has a stronger association with maternal employment in states where childcare costs are high, reducing the negative relationship of employment with expensive childcare. As national discussions continue to center on the importance of childcare, our research adds evidence that public programs support maternal employment through reducing out-of-pocket childcare costs." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2022 Elsevier) ((en))

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Landivar, Liana Christin, Rose A. Woods & Gretchen M. Livingston (2022): Does part-time work offer flexibility to employed mothers? In: Monthly labor review H. February. DOI:10.21916/mlr.2022.7

Abstract

"Using data from the 2017-18 American Time Use Survey Leave and Job Flexibilities Module, we evaluate the relationship between part-time work and job flexibility among civilian employed mothers who are wage and salary workers. Results show that mothers working part time are employed in jobs that lack many of the attributes that would characterize these jobs as flexible. Mothers in part-time jobs were less likely to have paid leave, work-at-home access, and advanced schedule notice. Although part-time jobs require fewer work hours, these shorter work hours may come at a cost of reduced flexibility, pay, and availability of family-friendly benefits." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Lordan, Grace & Jörn-Steffen Pischke (2022): Does Rosie like riveting? Male and female occupational choices. In: Economica, Jg. 89, H. 353, S. 110-130. DOI:10.1111/ecca.12390

Abstract

"Occupational segregation and pay gaps by gender remain large, while many of the constraints traditionally believed to be responsible for these gaps seem to have weakened over time. We explore the possibility that women and men have different tastes for the content of the work that they do. We relate job satisfaction and job mobility to measures that proxy for the content of the work in an occupation, which we label ‘people’, ‘brains’ and ‘brawn’. The results suggest that women value jobs high on ‘people’ content and low on ‘brawn’. Men care about job content in a similar fashion, but have much weaker preferences. High school students show similar preferences in a discrete choice experiment and indicate that they make their choices based mainly on preferences for the work itself. We argue that the more pronounced preferences of women can account for occupational sorting, which often leads them into careers with large pay penalties for interruptions due to childbearing." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Lundberg, Shelly (2022): Gender Economics and the Meaning of Discrimination. In: AEA papers and proceedings, Jg. 112, S. 588-591. DOI:10.1257/pandp.20221086

Abstract

"Advances in economics hold much promise for an improved understanding of complex issues concerning gender and gender inequalities. A more realistic economics of choice based on behavioral economics, evidence of social influences on economic outcomes, and a recognition of the role of cultural persistence in patterns of behavior have blurred our traditional separation of preferences and constraints. However, in the analysis of gender gaps, we have continued to focus on the discrimination versus preferences dichotomy that this work has rendered both conceptually and empirically irrelevant. As the domain of economics continues to broaden, our approach to discrimination needs to change." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Mansour, Hani & Terra McKinnish (2022): Male Wage Inequality and Characteristics of "Early Mover" Marriages. (CESifo working paper 9619), München, 38 S.

Abstract

"Previous work shows that higher male wage inequality decreases the share of ever married women in their 20s, consistent with the theoretical prediction that greater male wage dispersion increases the return to marital search. Consequently, male wage inequality should be associated with higher husband quality among those “early-mover” women who choose to forgo these higher returns to search. We confirm using U.S. decennial Census and American Community Survey (ACS) data from 1980-2018 that married women ages 22-30 in marriage markets with greater male wage inequality are more likely to marry up in education and in husband’s occupation. We additionally consider whether male wage inequality increases wage uncertainty, leading women to prefer older husbands who can send stronger signals of lifetime earnings. We confirm that higher male wage inequality is also associated with a larger marital age gap." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Mertehikian, Yasmin A. & Pilar Gonalons-Pons (2022): Work and Family Disadvantage: Determinants of Gender Gaps in Paid Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic. In: Socius, Jg. 8, S. 1-12. DOI:10.1177/23780231221117649

Abstract

"This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the increase in gender inequality in paid work during the pandemic to unpack the relative relevance of labor market and work-family conflict processes. Using panel data from the United States Current Population Survey, we examine four mechanisms in an integrated analysis that explicitly includes single-parent households and assesses the moderating role of women’s economic position relative to their partners. The results indicate that increases in gender inequality during the pandemic were heavily concentrated in households with children but also partly connected to gender differences in prepandemic labor market positions and to the higher prevalence of women in lower earner position relative to their partners. Single parents were more negatively impacted than partnered parents, but the disproportionate concentration of this impact on women does not contribute much to increases in overall gender inequality due to the relatively smaller size of this group." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Ren, Yufei, Lin Xiu & Amy B. Hietapelto (2022): Dare to ask in front of others? Women initiating salary negotiations. In: Journal of Economic Psychology, Jg. 92. DOI:10.1016/j.joep.2022.102550

Abstract

"Previous research has shown that gender pay differences in the labor market may be caused by women's reluctance to initiate salary negotiations, which is often influenced by gender-related social norms and self-perceived gender identity. In the real world, others in work environments can know “who has asked.” In a laboratory experiment, we manipulated whether the decision to initiate salary negotiations was publicly observable. We found that in a context in which negotiation is not costly, women and men showed no difference in initiating salary negotiations. When asked to publicly express their willingness to negotiate salaries, a moderately lower number of women stepped up, an effect that was not significant for men. Furthermore, women tend to tie salary negotiation decisions to their self-perceived performance even when pay raises are not bound to performance. In contrast, men were not impacted by this factor." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2022 Elsevier) ((en))

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Rendall, Michelle (2022): The Link between Gender Gaps and Employment Polarization. In: CESifo forum, Jg. 23, H. 2, S. 12-16.

Abstract

"The increase in employment shares both at the bottom and at the top of the skill distribution, combined with a decline in the middle, has been extensively documented for the US and many OECD economies since the 1980s. This observed employment polarization has become a well-known stylized fact. Less well known are the characteristics of employment polarization by gender, as polarization is usually studied at an aggregate level. Nonetheless, when studying employment polarization, in Cerina et al. (2021) we also consider one of the most important and dramatic social phenomena of the 20th century: the rise in female labor force participation, coupled with a rise in broad college attainment and a closing of the gender wage gap." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Tocchioni, Valentina, Anna Rybińska, Monika Mynarska, Anna Matysiak & Daniele Vignoli (2022): Life-Course Trajectories of Childless Women: Country-Specific or Universal? In: European Journal of Population, Jg. 38, H. 5, S. 1315-1332. DOI:10.1007/s10680-022-09624-5

Abstract

"While existing research has documented complexities in biographies of childless women, few studies to date have systematically examined the life-course pathways of the childless from a comparative, cross-country perspective. In this paper, we analyse biographies of childless women in four countries - Germany, Italy, Poland, and the United States - in order to investigate whether pathways into childlessness are country-specific or commonly shared across institutional, cultural, and geographical settings. Partnership, education, and employment histories are examined using sequence analysis with dynamic Hamming distance and cluster analysis. Discrepancy analysis indicates a country-effect in women’s biographies although life-course patterns identified in each country share similarities. Overall, seven life-course trajectories have been identified, with the most numerous cluster comprising single, working women who completed their education at a relatively young age. The results highlight a marked variation in the life-courses of childless women. Put together, these findings provide descriptive evidence for both country-specificity and cross-country similarity in the pathways to childlessness." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

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Tomlin, Bryan (2022): Maternity breaks: Unemployment spells or relevant experience? In: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Jg. 198, S. 673-681. DOI:10.1016/j.jebo.2022.04.015

Abstract

"A correspondence study is used to determine how taking a maternity break from the labor force to raise a child affects a mother's ability to get an administrative job relative to mothers who did not take such a break. Relative to mothers who did not take a maternity break, those who did were about half as likely to receive a response to their application, as were those who spent the same time working as a nanny. Listing “stay-at-home mother” as relevant experience on one's resumé does nothing to shrink this gap. These results are consistent with the effect of unemployment on call-back rates as identified by previous research, suggesting that employers view maternity breaks as a form of unemployment rather than relevant experience." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2022 Elsevier) ((en))

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Torre, Margarita (2022): The Scarring Effect of "Women’s Work". The Determinants of Women’s Attrition from Male-dominated Occupations. (OSF preprints), 47 S.

Abstract

"Women's entry into formerly male-dominated occupations has increased in recent decades, yet a significant outflow remains. This study examines the determinants of women's exits from male-dominated occupations, focusing on the effect of previous occupational trajectories. In particular, it hypothesizes that occupational trajectories in female-dominated occupations are often imbued with meanings and beliefs about the (in)appropriateness of the worker, which adversely affect women's integration and chances when they enter the male sector. Using the NLSY79 data set, the study analyzes the job histories of women employed in the United States between 1979 and 2006. The results reveal a disproportionate risk of exit among newcomers from female-dominated occupations. Also, women who reenter the male field are more likely to leave it again. Altogether, the findings challenge explanations based on deficiencies in the information available to women at the moment of hiring. The evidence points to the existence of a “scar effect” of previous work in the female field, which hinders women's opportunities in the male sector and ends up increasing the likelihood of exit." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Winkler, Anne E. (2022): Women's labor force participation. Family-friendly policies increase women's labor force participation, benefiting them, their families, and society at large. (IZA world of labor 289), Bonn, 11 S. DOI:10.15185/izawol.289.v2

Abstract

"Die Arbeitsmarktaktivitäten von Frauen steigern deren „wirtschaftlichen Wert“ für die Familie und die Gesellschaft. Während die weibliche Erwerbsbeteiligung weltweit zugenommen hat, bleibt sie in einigen Ländern und Regionen nach wie vor niedrig. In den USA sind die Frauenerwerbsquoten seit den 1990er Jahren weitgehend konstant geblieben, im Vergleich zu anderen Staaten jedoch gefallen. Angesichts der gesamtgesellschaftlichen Vorteile sollte die Politik ein starkes Interesse daran haben, Maßnahmen zur Förderung der weiblichen Erwerbsbeteiligung durchzusetzen. Elternzeit und subventionierte Kinderbetreuung sind zwei Schritte in die richtige Richtung." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

Abstract

"The health sector, with its high potential for decent jobs growth, and with 67% of wage employees being women, has a key role to play in women’s economic empowerment and the broader SDG5 agenda. This report co-developed by ILO and WHO, is the first ever global sectoral gender pay gap report. Analyzing the gender pay gaps in the health and care sector and using this evidence to achieve equal pay for equal work across the sector is a critical step to attracting and retaining all workers in health and care. This is critical if we are to address the global shortfall of health and care workers and achieve Universal Health Coverage. The high degree of feminization in the health and care sector is a key factor behind the lower earnings for both women and men within the sector. It contributes to the overall prevailing gender pay gap in the economy. The results of this groundbreaking report suggest that once age, education, occupational category, and other such factors are considered, globally women face a 24 percentage point pay gap compared to men across the health and care sector. Furthermore, among women in the health and care sector there is evidence of a motherhood gap. Much of the gender pay gap in health and care is unexplained by labour market attributes that should be the sole factors determining wages. The report assesses gender wage gaps over time and finds a particular persistence in this unexplained portion of the gender pay gap. In addition, evidence indicates that the employment impact of COVID-19 in the sector disproportionately affected workers at the low end of the pay scale, most of whom are women. The evidence in the report shows significant variation in gender pay gaps in health and care across countries, suggesting that targeted action to close gender pay gaps is both possible and effective. The path forward includes: - improving the collection and analysis of targeted gender-disaggregated wage data for the health and care sector; - investing in decent jobs in the sector; - social dialogue; - promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers for young women; - attracting more men into middle occupation categories and more women to the top; - pay transparency and legal instruments against pay discrimination; - policies to redress the motherhood pay gap; - facilitating the transition of workers from the informal to the formal economy." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Ahrsjö, Ulrika, René Karadakic & Joachim Kahr Rasmussen (2021): Intergenerational Mobility Trends and the Changing Role of Female Labor. (CEBI working paper series 2021,19), Copenhagen, 54 S.

Abstract

"We present new evidence on the existence and drivers of trends in intergenerational income mobility using administrative income data from Scandinavia along with survey data from the United States. Harmonizing the data from Sweden, Denmark and Norway, we first find that intergenerational rank associations in income have increased uniformly across Scandinavia for cohorts of children born between 1951 and 1979. These trends are robust to a large set of empirical specifications that are common in the associated literature. However, splitting the trends by gender, we find that father-son mobility has been stable in all three countries, while correlations involving females display substantial trends. Similar patterns are confirmed in the US data, albeit with slightly different timing. Utilizing information about individual occupation, education and income in the Scandinavian data, we find that intergenerational mobility in latent economic status has remained relatively constant for all gender combinations. This suggests that a gradual reduction in gender-specific labor market segregation, increased female labor force participation and increased female access to higher education has strengthened the signal value that maternal income carries about productivity passed on to children. Based on these results, we argue that the observed decline in intergenerational mobility in Scandinavia is consistent with a socially desirable development where female skills are increasingly valued at the labor market, and that the same is likely to be true also in the US." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Barth, Erling, Sari Pekkala Kerr & Claudia Olivetti (2021): The dynamics of gender earnings differentials. Evidence from establishment data. In: European Economic Review, Jg. 134. DOI:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2021.103713

Abstract

"Despite dramatic workforce gains by women in recent decades, a substantial gender earnings gap persists and widens over the course of men's and women's careers. Since there are earnings differences across establishments, a key question is whether the widening of the gender pay gap arises from differences in career advances within the same establishment or from differential gains from job-to-job moves across establishments. Using a unique match between the 2000 Decennial Census of the United States and the Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics (LEHD) data, we find that both channels are important and affect workers differently by education. For the college educated, the increasing gap is for the most part due to differential earnings growth within establishment. The establishment component explains only 27% of the widening of the total gender pay gap for this group. For workers without college degree, the establishment component is the main driver of the, relatively small, widening of the gender earnings gap. For both education groups, marriage plays a crucial role in the establishment component of the increasing earnings gap." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2021 Elsevier) ((en))

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Behera, Sarthak & Divya Sadana (2021): Differing Labor Supply: A Study on the Role of Culture. (MPRA paper / University Library of Munich 110753), München, 41 S.

Abstract

"In this paper, we study the role of peoples' attitudes on their labor market behavior. Focusing within a household, we estimate how one's labor market decisions are dependent on their partner's labor market outcomes, and how these decisions are driven by their culture component. Historically, man has been associated as the primary earner in a family. We argue that culture might play a role in determining a person's labor market outcomes as it induces an aversion to the situation of when the wife earns more than the husband. We find that husbands increase their participation in the labor market if their wives earn more and this effect is even more prominent if they are from a country where people have the traditional view that man should be the primary bread-winner for the family. However, wives do not exhibit any such behavior. We argue that this irregularity is explained by the role that culture plays on forming labor market decisions. This result is important as it might contribute to the explanation of the slowdown in the convergence of the gender gap in the recent past." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Bernstein, David H. & Andrew B. Martinez (2021): Jointly Modeling Male and Female Labor Participation and Unemployment. (Working paper series / H. O. Stekler Research Program On Forecasting 2021,6), Washington, DC, 23 S.

Abstract

"The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the most abrupt changes in U.S. labor force participation and unemployment since the Second World War, and with different consequences for men and women. This paper models the U.S. labor market to help interpret the pandemic's effects. After replicating and extending Emerson's (2011) model of the labor market, we formulate a joint model of male and female unemployment and labor force participation rates for 1980-2019 and use it to forecast into the pandemic to understand the pandemic's labor-market consequences. Gender-specific differences were particularly large at the pandemic's outset; lower labor force participation persists." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Blau, Francine D., Lawrence M. Kahn, Nikolai Boboshko & Matthew Comey (2021): The Impact of Selection into the Labor Force on the Gender Wage Gap. (DIW-Diskussionspapiere 1946), Berlin, 73 S.

Abstract

"We study the impact of selection bias on estimates of the gender pay gap, focusing on whether the gender pay gap has fallen since 1981. Previous research has found divergent results across techniques, identification strategies, data sets, and time periods. Using Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics data and a number of different identification strategies, we find robust evidence that, after controlling for selection, there were large declines in the raw and the unexplained gender wage gaps over the 1981-2015 period. Under our preferred method of accounting for selection, we find that the raw median wage gap declined by 0.378 log points, while the median unexplained gap declined by a more modest but still substantial 0.204 log points. These declines are larger than estimates that do not account for selection. Our results suggest that women's relative wage offers have increased over this period, even after controlling for their measured covariates, including education and actual labor market experience. However, we note that substantial gender wage gaps remain. In 2015, at the median, the selectivity-corrected gaps were 0.242 log points (raw gap) and 0.206 log points (unexplained gap)." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Calarco, Jessica McCrory, Emily Meanwell, Elizabeth M. Anderson & Amelia S. Knopf (2021): By Default: How Mothers in Different-Sex Dual-Earner Couples Account for Inequalities in Pandemic Parenting. In: Socius, Jg. 7, S. 1-15. DOI:10.1177/23780231211038783

Abstract

"Mothers did a disproportionate share of the child care during the COVID-19 pandemic—an arrangement that negatively impacted their careers, relationships, and well-being. How did mothers account for these unequal roles? Through interviews and surveys with 55 mothers (and 14 fathers) in different-sex, prepandemic dual-earner couples, we found that mothers (and fathers) justified unequal parenting arrangements based on gendered structural and cultural conditions that made mothers’ disproportionate labor seem “practical” and “natural.” These justifications allowed couples to rely on mothers by default rather than through active negotiation. As a result, many mothers did not feel entitled to seek support with child care from fathers or nonparental caregivers and experienced guilt if they did so. These findings help explain why many mothers have not reentered the workforce, why fathers’ involvement at home waned as the pandemic progressed, and why the pandemic led to growing preferences for inegalitarian divisions of domestic and paid labor." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Carlson, Daniel L. & Richard J. Petts (2021): US Parents' Domestic Labor Over the Course of the COVID-19 Pandemic. (SocArXiv papers), 38 S. DOI:10.31235/osf.io/uwdz6

Abstract

"Objective: This study assesses changes in parents’ divisions of housework and childcare over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Background: Assessing the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for gender equality requires understanding how and why labor arrangements shifted as the pandemic progressed. Yet, we know little about US parents’ domestic arrangements beyond the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic or how simultaneous changes in men’s and women’s employment, earnings, telework, gender ideologies, and access to care supports may have altered domestic labor arrangements. Method: This study assesses change in parents’ domestic labor using fixed-effects regression on data from a longitudinal panel of 700 different-sex partnered US parents collected at three time points: March 2020, April 2020, and November 2020. Results: Partnered parents’ divisions of housework and childcare became more equal in the early days of the pandemic, but reverted toward pre-pandemic levels by the fall of 2020. Changes in parents’ divisions of domestic labor were largely driven by changes in parents’ labor force conditions, and especially by fathers’ labor force conditions. Decreases in fathers’ labor force participation and increases in telecommuting in April portended increases in partnered fathers’ shares of domestic tasks. As fathers increased time in paid work and returned to in-person work by fall, their shares of domestic labor fell. Conclusion: Overall, results suggest that promoting full-time employment among mothers and greater time at home for fathers are key in facilitating a more equal division of domestic labor within families post-pandemic" (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Cubas, German, Chinhui Juhn & Pedro Silos (2021): Work-Care Balance over the Day and the Gender Wage Gap. In: AEA papers and proceedings, Jg. 111, S. 149-153. DOI:10.1257/pandp.20211021

Abstract

"We focus on the timing of labor supplied during the day and its interaction with home care responsibilities. Using the American Time Use Survey, we measure the incidence of household care activities between 8 AM and 5 PM (the prime time of the day). Women experience more work interruptions during that time. These work interruptions imply wages that are about 9 percent lower. This result is consistent with occupations offering more flexibility but also a lower wage. We offer suggestive evidence that missing work due to household demands has a larger penalty in occupations with more coordinated work schedules." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Dey, Matthew, Mark A. Loewenstein & Hugette Sun (2021): A look at the new job-task information in the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth. In: Monthly labor review, Jg. 144, H. May. DOI:10.21916/mlr.2021.10

Abstract

"Using data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth 1979 and 1997, this article examines how the skill level and task content of U.S. jobs vary among workers born during the 1957–1964 and 1980–1984 periods. This article presents data on how job attributes vary by sex, race, Hispanic origin, and educational attainment as well as by performance on the Armed Forces Qualifying Test and type of occupation. It also examines the relationship between job attributes and wages." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Fernández-Kranz, Daniel & Jennifer Louise Roff (2021): The Effect of Alimony Reform on Married Women's Labor Supply: Evidence from the American Time Use Survey. (IZA discussion paper 14949), Bonn, 41 S.

Abstract

"Reforms that reduce alimony can affect married couples in two different ways. First, reduced alimony lowers the bargaining power of the payee, usually the wife. Second, reduced alimony lowers the incentives of wives to engage in the traditional male breadwinner model of household specialization. Using the American Time Use Survey and exploiting a series of recent reforms in several US states that reduced the entitlements of eligible spouses, we find that wives surprised by the reforms reacted by moving away from the traditional male breadwinner model of household specialization. We also find that highly educated women substituted work for time devoted to housework and childcare, while less educated wives substituted work for leisure and personal time. We find no effects for men. The fact that the reforms reduced fertility only among women with higher education suggests that the difference between them and less educated wives in the response to reduced alimony is due, at least in part, to differences in their preferences and costs for children. The estimated effects are larger among couples with a large difference in the earnings potential of spouses and are robust to several sensitivity tests." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Furman, Jason, Melissa Schettini Kearney & Wilson Powell (2021): The Role of Childcare Challenges in the US Jobs Market Recovery During the COVID-19 Pandemic. (NBER working paper 28934), Cambridge, MA, 26 S. DOI:10.3386/w28934

Abstract

"We examine how much of the overall decline in employment between the beginning of 2020 and 2021 can be explained by excess job loss among parents of young children, and mothers specifically. Using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), we confirm that, in general, mothers with young children have experienced a larger decline in employment, as compared (unconditionally) with other adults, including fathers. This excess job loss is driven by mothers without a four-year college (bachelor's) degree. The main point of the paper is to build off this observation and examine how much of the aggregate employment deficit in early 2021 can be explained by parent-specific issues, such as childcare struggles. To examine this question, we construct counterfactual employment rates and labor force participation rates that assign to mothers of young children the percent change in employment and labor force participation rates experienced by comparable women without young children. We consider multiple definition, sample, and counterfactual specification alternatives. Our analysis yields robust evidence that differential job loss among mothers of young children accounts for a negligible share of the ongoing aggregate employment deficit. The result is even stronger (and flips signs) if we consider all parents, since fathers with young children experienced less job loss than other men. The practical implication of these findings is that nearly all of the aggregate ongoing employment deficit is explained by factors that affect workers more broadly, as opposed to challenges specific to working parents." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Giménez-Nadal, José Ignacio, José Alberto Molina & Almudena Sevilla (2021): Temporal Flexibility, Breaks at Work, and the Motherhood Wage Gap. (IZA discussion paper 14578), Bonn, 27 S.

Abstract

"We analyze the relationship between temporal flexibility at work (i.e., the ability to vary or change the time of beginning or ending work) and the motherhood wage gap of working parents, in the US. To that end, we first characterize temporal flexibility at work using the 2017-2018 Leave and Job Flexibilities (LJF) Module of the American Time Use Survey, which contains self-reported information on temporal flexibility at work. We find cross-occupation differences in the ability to vary or change work-times, with more than 70% of full-time workers having flexibility, in occupations such as computer and mathematical science, management, architecture, and engineering. Less than 40% of full-time workers in construction and extraction, education, training and library, or production have temporal flexibility at work. We examine the temporal flexibility of the gender gap among full-time working parents, using the American Time Use Survey for the years 2003-2019. Our analysis reveals that temporal flexibility has a U-shaped relationship with the wage rates of both fathers and mothers, and that temporal flexibility has a concave relationship with the motherhood wage gap, with a maximum being reached at the level of 55% of temporal flexibility. Our analysis of the structure of work hours reveals that temporal flexibility is reflected in how work hours are structured throughout the working day, and also serves as evidence that our measure of temporal flexibility captures the technologies of production, rather than the characteristics or motivations of a given company policy. This paper posits temporal flexibility as a factor affecting the motherhood wage gap." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Goldin, Claudia (2021): Journey Across a Century of Women. In: The Milken Institute review, Jg. 23, H. 2, S. 36-45.

Abstract

"This article will take us on a 120-year odyssey of generations of college-graduate women from a time when they were only able to have either a family or a career, to now, when they anticipate having both a family and a career. More women than ever before are within striking distance of these goals. Fully 45 percent of young American women today will earn bachelor’s degrees, and more than 20 percent of them will eventually obtain an advanced degree above a master’s. In addition, more than 80 percent of 45-yearold college-graduate women have children, either biological or adopted. More women than men now graduate from college, and there is greater similarity in their ambitions and achievements than ever before. This should all make for a very pleasant ending to the journey. But that happy ending doesn’t seem to be happening." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Gornick, Janet & Eva Sierminska (2021): Wealth Accumulation and Retirement Preparedness in Cross-National Perspective: A Gendered Analysis of Outcomes among Single Adults. (IZA policy paper 181), Bonn, 30 S.

Abstract

"Wealth is an increasingly important dimension of economic well-being and is attracting rising attention in discussions of social inequality. In this paper, we compare – within and across countries – wealth outcomes, and link those to both employment-related factors and policy solutions that have the potential to improve wealth creation and retirement security for women. By constructing country-specific portraits of wealth outcomes and "retirement preparedness," we reveal extensive cross-national variation in multiple facets of wealth. Our regression analysis finds a statistically significant and positive effect of work experience on wealth, with that effect, in general, increasing over time. The effect of work experience for single women is greater than for single men, suggesting that, among men, other, stronger forces are at work in creating wealth. The retirement preparedness outcomes indicate that single women in all three countries are in a precarious position at retirement, with much lower expected annual wealth levels than single men. The second preparedness indicator, which links expected annual wealth to income, demonstrates that men have the potential to cover 1larger shares of their income at retirement – and thus are more able, than their female counterparts, to maintain standards of living achieved earlier in life. Our policy discussion indicates that employment remains a viable option for ultimately bolstering women's wealth accumulation. Many scholars, gender equality advocates, and policymakers have argued for raising women's employment rates – for a multitude of reasons – but few, if any, have made the case for strengthening women's employment in order to ultimately bolster women's wealth building. We hope to help reduce the gap in the literature on policy supports for women's employment and re-open the discussion on how women can create more wealth." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Hotchkiss, Julie L., Robert E. Moore & Fernando Rios-Avila (2021): Impact of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on Labor Supply and Welfare of Married Households. (Working papers / Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta 2021,18), Atlanta, Ga., 55 S. DOI:10.29338/wp2021-18

Abstract

"This paper calculates the change in optimal labor supply and total family welfare resulting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA). We estimate labor supply elasticities for married families in the Current Population Survey from 2015 to 2017, using a joint family utility model. These elasticities are then used to simulate changes in optimal labor supply and resulting change in welfare among families with different characteristics under the new TCJA tax code. We find that optimal hours are lower post-TCJA, relative to before. However, there are differences across family members and family types. Both men's and women's optimal hours decline with income starting in the second quintile, but the decline is more dramatic for men. Overall, all families' welfare increased post-TCJA, with the gains in welfare disproportionately benefiting the wealthy; families with any self-employment income; families with children; and families renting, versus owning, their home." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))