nep-cna New Economics Papers
on China
Issue of 2010‒10‒09
one paper chosen by
Zheng Fang
Ohio State University

  1. Gender Discrimination in Job Ads: Theory and Evidence By Kuhn, Peter J.; Shen, Kailing

  1. By: Kuhn, Peter J. (University of California, Santa Barbara); Shen, Kailing (Xiamen University)
    Abstract: We study firms' advertised gender preferences in a population of ads on a Chinese internet job board, and interpret these patterns using a simple employer search model. The model allows us to distinguish firms’ underlying gender preferences from firms’ propensities to restrict their search to their preferred gender. The model also predicts that higher job skill requirements should reduce the tendency to gender-target a job ad; this is strongly confirmed in our data. We also find that firms' underlying gender preferences are highly job-specific, with many firms requesting men for some jobs and women for others, and with one third of the variation in gender preferences within firm*occupation cells.
    Keywords: discrimination, gender, China, internet, search
    JEL: J71
    Date: 2010–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5195&r=cna

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