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on Gender |
| By: | Tejada, Mauricio (Universidad Alberto Hurtado); Piras, Claudia (Inter-American Development Bank); Flabbi, Luca (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill); Bustelo, Monserrat (Inter-American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | We develop and estimate a search model that captures the specific characteristics of Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) labor markets and the crucial differences between men and women. Labor force participation decisions are integrated in the labor market dynamics, taking into account sample selection over unobservables. The model is estimated on four LAC countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico) and on three education levels (Primary, Secondary and Tertiary). We use the estimated model to study changes in gender gaps and in output implied by policies that increase the labor force participation of women. We focus on four policies: an increase in the provision of child care, an increase in average female productivity, a gender-based contribution rate for formal employees, and changes in formality and informality costs. We find that the impact on the extensive margin of the female labor supply is the main channel responsible for the policy-induced increase in output. |
| Keywords: | gender gaps, female labor force participation, labor market frictions, search and matching, Nash bargaining, informality |
| JEL: | J24 J3 J64 O17 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14186&r=all |
| By: | Sharon Chen; Sebastian Doerr; Jon Frost; Leonardo Gambacorta; Hyun Song Shin |
| Abstract: | Fintech promises to spur financial inclusion and close the gender gap in access to financial services. Using novel survey data for 28 countries, this paper finds a large 'fintech gender gap': while 29% of men use fintech products and services, only 21% of women do. The gap is present in almost every country in our sample. Country characteristics and several individual-level controls explain about a third of the unconditional gap. Gender differences in the willingness to use new financial technology or fintech entrants if they offer cheaper services account for over half of the remaining gap. The paper concludes by suggesting potential explanations for the gender gap and implications for challenges in fostering financial inclusion with new technology. |
| Keywords: | fintech, gender, financial inclusion, personal data, privacy |
| JEL: | E51 J16 O32 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:931&r=all |
| By: | Megalokonomou, Rigissa (University of Queensland); Vidal-Fernández, Marian (University of Sydney); Yengin, Duygu (University of Adelaide) |
| Abstract: | In the last decade, the proportion and academic performance of women who pursue university degrees has increased relative to men in a range of developing countries (OECD, 2015). Nonetheless, the percentage of undergraduate economics degrees awarded to women has remained between 30% and 35% during 2001-2018 in the U.S. (Siegfried, 2019). In a recent work by Lundberg and Stearns (2019), they show that the gender gap worsens as women economists progress in their professional careers in the U.S., where they end up representing only 10% of university professors. European countries seem to have less of a "leaky pipeline," where the same figure sits at 22% (Auriol, Friebel, and Wilhelm, 2020). To put this figure into perspective, our paper describes the cross-country underrepresentation of women graduating in economics degrees in Europe relative to their country-specific women/men university graduation rates. Second, we compare the underrepresentation of women in economics to its closest alternative namely business, as well as its gender underrepresented counterpart, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Finally, we lean on recent evidence to suggest policies to increase the relative share of women pursuing undergraduate economics degrees in Europe with a strong focus on policies aimed at high schools. Overall, we find that, over the period 2013-2018, the underrepresentation of women in economics graduates has worsened in Europe and that on average two of every five students are women. While the gender representation of university graduates in STEM is worse than in economics, it has experienced a mild increase over the period of study. Unlike Economics, its closest alternative, business, has a slight women overrepresentation, with 1.1 women graduating for every man. |
| Keywords: | women, economics, STEM, university |
| JEL: | J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izapps:pp175&r=all |
| By: | Fabrizio Adriani (University of Leicester); Monika Pompeo (University of Nottingham); Silvia Sonderegger (University of Nottingham) |
| Abstract: | In a setting where inequality is ingrained and largely unavoidable (battle of the sexes), we investigate whether subjects condition their behaviour on the gender of their co-player. In order to identify the role of culture and gender norms, we run the experiment in two countries, Norway and India, characterised by very different levels of gender inequality. We find different patterns of gender effects in the two countries. In India, subjects are more 'hawkish' when facing a woman. This occurs only for lower education subjects and is observed primarily in female participants. Highly educated Indian participants do not discriminate between male and female co-players. In Norway, the gender effect is the opposite of what observed in India: it is present only in highly educated male participants, and takes the form of subjects becoming more 'hawkish' when facing a man. Our evidence suggests that these gender effects may be due to subjects experiencing different levels of inequality aversion depending on the gender of their co-player, in a manner that is mediated by their culture and gender norms. |
| Keywords: | gender, social norms, coordination, culture, inequality aversion |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notcdx:2021-02&r=all |
| By: | Jack Blundell |
| Abstract: | In this paper I study a policy in which employers are required to publicly report gender pay gap statistics. Proponents argue that increasing the information available to workers and consumers places pressure on firms to close pay gaps, but opponents argue that such policies are poorly targeted and ineffective. This paper contributes to the debate by analyzing the UK's recent reporting policy, in which employers are mandated to publicly report simple measures of their gender pay gap each year. Exploiting a discontinuous size threshold in the policy's coverage, I apply a difference-in-difference strategy to linked employer-employee payroll data. I find that the introduction of reporting requirements led to a 1.6 percentage-point narrowing of the gender pay gap at affected employers. This large-magnitude effect is primarily due to a decline in male wages within affected employers, and is not caused by a change in the composition of the workforce. To explain this effect, I propose that a worker preference against high pay gap employers induces the closing of pay gaps upon information revelation. Newly-gathered survey evidence shows that female workers in particular exhibit a significant preference for low pay gap employers. In a hypothetical choice experiment, over half of women accept a 2.5% lower salary to avoid a high pay gap employer. I also demonstrate substantial heterogeneity in the interpretation of pay gap statistics across workers, and show that this affects their valuation of jobs at employers with different pay gaps. |
| Keywords: | gender pay gap, gender pay gap reporting, transparency, discrimination, information, public policy |
| JEL: | J31 J38 J33 J71 J78 J16 D82 D83 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1750&r=all |
| By: | Andreas Gulyas; Sebastian Seitz; Sourav Sinha |
| Abstract: | We study the 2011 Austrian Pay Transparency Law, which requires firms above a size threshold to publish internal reports on the gender pay gap. Using an event-study design, we show that the policy had no discernible effects on male and female wages, thus leaving the gender wage gap unchanged. The effects are precisely estimated and we rule out that the policy narrowed the gender wage gap by more than 0.5 p.p.. Moreover, we do not find evidence for wage compression within firms. The Austrian transparency reform might have little 'bite' because wage reports are company secret and not public information. |
| Keywords: | Pay Transparency, Gender Pay Gap |
| JEL: | J08 J31 J38 J78 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2021_194v2&r=all |
| By: | Sorgner, Alina (John Cabot University) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the literature on the relationship between gender (in)equality and industrialization in the context of developing countries. It documents past developments, accounting for pre-industrial preconditions that might explain current differences in gender roles across societies. Moreover, it discusses the main drivers of the relationship between gender equality, economic development and structural change with a focus on the mechanisms driving this complex relationship. It provides novel empirical evidence of recent developments and the current state of gender equality in different spheres in developing countries at different stages of structural change. The study also identifies emerging trends, for instance, related to more recent technological advancements in Industry 4.0 and premature deindustrialization, and discusses their possible impacts on gender equality in developing countries. The ultimate aim of the paper is to identify knowledge gaps and to formulate relevant research questions that need to be addressed to design constructive policies aimed at promoting gender equality in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | gender, industrialization, developing economies |
| JEL: | J16 O14 O33 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14160&r=all |
| By: | René Böheim; Sarah Gust |
| Abstract: | In Austria, a gender pay transparency law was introduced in 2011, requiring companies with more than 1,000 employees to publish a pay report every other year. Firms with 500, 250, and 150 employees were subject to this requirement at later years. We estimate the impact of the law on men’s wages, women’s wages, and the gender pay gap using administrative data. The results from a regression discontinuity design suggest that the wage transparency law did not change wages or the gender wage gap. In larger firms, the wage of newly hired women increased more due to the reform than of newly hired men, suggesting that the gender wage gap decreased among newly hired workers. Our estimates of the effect of the law on employment growth or turnover are small, and statistically insignificant. For larger firms, we estimate that the transparency law led to a lower share of women in treated firms. These results are robust to several additional specifications. |
| Keywords: | wage transparency, gender wage gap |
| JEL: | J31 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2021-05&r=all |
| By: | Jones, Melanie K. (Cardiff University); Kaya, Ezgi (Cardiff University) |
| Abstract: | In this study we quantify the size and drivers of the contemporary gender pay gap among medical doctors employed in the UK public sector. In using nationally representative data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, we make comparisons to doctors employed in the private sector, as well as to other public sector medical professionals. We find that the substantial 20 per cent hourly gender pay gap among public sector doctors is far larger than in either of these comparator occupations. Decomposing the mean gender pay gap for public sector doctors, we find that it is largely unexplained by personal and work-related characteristics, consistent with evidence of potential substantial gender inequality in rewards. It is at the top end of the wage distribution where this is most pronounced indicating the presence of a 'glass ceiling' in UK medicine. |
| Keywords: | gender pay gap, medicine, public sector, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, wage decompositions, wage distribution |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J45 J71 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14177&r=all |
| By: | Andreas Gulyas; Sebastian Seitz; Sourav Sinha |
| Abstract: | We study the 2011 Austrian Pay Transparency Law, which requires firms above a size threshold to publish reports on the gender pay gap. We exploit variation across firm size and time, to study the effects of transparency on the gender wage gap and individual wages, using the universe of Austrian social security records. Our results show that the policy had no discernible effects on male and female wages, and therefore no significant effects on the gender wage gap. The effects are precisely estimated and we can rule out that the policy narrowed the gender wage gap by more than half a percentage point. We find no evidence for wage compression at the establishment level. The policy led to an increase in the retention rate of workers, which points towards higher job satisfaction due to pay transparency. |
| Keywords: | Pay Transparency, Gender Wage Gap |
| JEL: | J08 J31 J38 J78 |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2020_194v1&r=all |
| By: | Bonacini, Luca; Gallo, Giovanni; Scicchitano, Sergio |
| Abstract: | Working from home (WFH) has become a key factor during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in countries that have implemented severe social distancing measures. This paper investigates the potential influence of the working from home attitude of occupations on the gender wage gap (GWG) reported by Italian employees, on average and along the distribution. Based on Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions and unconditional quantile regressions, our results show that the GWG is greater among females working in an occupation with a high level of WFH attitude, thus among those more likely to be affected by a (probably) persistent spread of WFH procedures after the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we find evidence of both sticky floor and glass ceiling effects for employees with a high WFH attitude and only a sticky floor effect for the group with a low WFH attitude. The positive association revealed between the level of WFH attitude and the GWG appears particularly strong among older and married female employees, as well as among those working in the private sector. Finally, this study confirms that allocating adequate resources to programmes and instruments that aim to achieve genderrelated goals is strongly recommended. |
| Keywords: | working from home,gender wage gap,COVID-19,Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition,RIF regressions |
| JEL: | D31 J31 I24 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:771&r=all |