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on Gender |
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Issue of 2022‒07‒18
ten papers chosen by Jan Sauermann Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering |
| By: | Bamieh, Omar (University of Vienna); Ziegler, Lennart (University of Vienna) |
| Abstract: | Wage decompositions suggest that a large share of the gender wage gap can be explained by differences in occupation and employer choices. If female workers are not well informed about these pay differences, increasing wage transparency might alleviate the gender gap. We test this hypothesis by examining the impact of the 2011 Pay Transparency Law in Austria, which requires companies to state a wage figure in job advertisements. For the analysis, we combine vacancy postings from the largest Austrian job board with social security spells that record the gender of new hires. To compare the pay level of vacancies before and after the reform, we predict wage postings using detailed occupation-employer cells, which explain about 75 percent of the variation in posted wages. While we estimate a substantial gender wage gap of 15 log points, pay transparency did not affect gender sorting into better-paid occupation and firms. To study job transitions, we focus on a subsample of workers whose previous employment is also observed. Our estimates show that switching occupations is common, and it often entails significant wage changes. Yet, in line with our main estimates, we do not find that women become more likely to switch to better-paid jobs. We interpret the absence of effects as evidence that limited transparency does not explain the persistence of gender sorting in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | gender differences, wage postings, pay transparency, job vacancies, labor market sorting |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J62 J63 J68 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15363&r= |
| By: | Alfonsi, Livia; Namubiru, Mary; Spaziani, Sara |
| Abstract: | We investigate gender disparities in the effect of COVID-19 on the labor market outcomes of skilled Ugandan workers. Leveraging a high-frequency panel dataset, we find that the lockdowns imposed in Uganda reduced employment by 69% for women and by 45% for men, generating a previously nonexistent gender gap of 20 p.p. Eighteen months after the onset of the pandemic, the gap persisted: while men quickly recovered their pre-pandemic career trajectories, 10% of the previously employed women definitively separated from the labor market, and another 35% remained occasionally employed. Additionally, the lockdowns permanently shifted female workers to sectors misaligned with their skill sets, relocated them into agriculture and other unskilled sectors, and widened the gender pay gap. Pre-pandemic sorting of women into economic sectors subject to the strongest restrictions and childcare responsibilities induced by schools’ prolonged closure only explain up to 57% of the employment gap. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, female employment, gender gap, COVID-19, Sub-Saharan Africa, Shecession |
| Date: | 2022–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:indrel:qt44s4b2dk&r= |
| By: | Delaney, Judith (University of Bath); Devereux, Paul J. (University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | Much attention is focused on finding ways to encourage females to study STEM in school and college but what actually happens once women complete a STEM degree? We use the UK Quarterly Labour Force Survey to trace out gender differences in STEM persistence over the career. We find a continuous process whereby women are more likely to exit STEM than men. Among holders of STEM undergraduate degrees, women are more likely to obtain a non- STEM master's degree. Then, after entering the labour market, there is a gradual outflow of females during the first 15 years post-graduation so that females are about 20 percentage points less likely to work in STEM compared to their male counterparts. Conditional on leaving STEM, we find that females are more likely to enter the education and health sectors while males are more likely to enter the more lucrative business sector and that this can partly explain the gender pay gap for STEM graduates. Overall, our results suggest that policies that aim to increase the proportion of females studying STEM in school and college may have less effect than expected due to the lower attachment of females to STEM after graduation. Such policies may need to be augmented with efforts to tackle the greater propensity of females to exit STEM throughout the career. |
| Keywords: | STEM, gender, STEM gender gap, labour market, gender pay gap |
| JEL: | I23 I26 J16 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15352&r= |
| By: | Charlotte Goemans; Jennifer Sheahan; Seve Loudon |
| Abstract: | The Sahel and West Africa continue to face significant challenges in advancing towards gender equality and women’s empowerment. While much progress has been made in health and educational outcomes for women and girls in the region, much more has yet to be done. Official development assistance (ODA) can serve a crucial role in this respect, by mobilising support for gender equality. This paper aims to highlight the current financing for the gender equality landscape in the region. It points to a need to increase the share of ODA supporting gender equality objectives; to support local women’s organisations as key actors in reaching the most vulnerable women and girls; to invest in the evaluation of gender-sensitive programmes and learning around them; and to support the generation of gender-disaggregated data to identify where action can be most effective. |
| Keywords: | development co-operation, gender equality, humanitarian assistance, Official development assistance (ODA), peace and security (WPS), the Sahel and West Africa, women |
| JEL: | F50 I15 I25 L31 O10 |
| Date: | 2022–06–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:swacaa:35-en&r= |
| By: | Nisvan Erkal (Department of Economics, University of Melbourne); Lata Gangadharan (Department of Economics, Monash University); Boon Han Koh (School of Economics and Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Science, University of East Anglia) |
| Abstract: | We examine gender biases in the attribution of leaders’ outcomes to their choices versus luck. Leaders make unobservable investment choices that affect the payoffs of group members. High investment is costly to the leader but increases the probability of a good outcome (high payoff). We observe gender biases in the attribution of bad outcomes. Bad outcomes of male (female) leaders are attributed more to their decisions (luck). These biases are driven by male evaluators and evaluators who are prosocial. We find no gender differences in the attribution of good outcomes. We conjecture that benevolent sexism may be driving our results. |
| Keywords: | Gender biases; Beliefs; Attribution biases; Benevolent sexism; Social preferences; Laboratory experiments |
| JEL: | C92 D91 J16 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uea:ueaeco:2022-05&r= |
| By: | Natasha Burns; Kristina Minnick; Jeffry Netter; Laura Starks |
| Abstract: | We employ a cross-country sample to examine whether cultural differences help explain gender compensation variations across corporate executives. The results show that the cultural differences, which are embedded in societies from long prior to the compensation decisions, provide significant explanatory power to the observed gender gap in executive compensation. Using an Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition with variables that have previously been shown to be significant determinants of executive compensation, we find that adding cultural measures to the model increases the explanatory power from 44% to 95% of the gender compensation gap. |
| JEL: | J71 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30100&r= |
| By: | Andrea Bellucci (Universita' degli Studi dell'Insubria and Mo.Fi.R.); Gianluca Gucciardi (UniCredit and Universita' degli Studi di Milano); Rossella Locatelli (Universita' degli Studi dell'Insubria); Cristiana Schena (Universita' degli Studi dell'Insubria) |
| Abstract: | We study the relevance of the gender of contracting parties involved in equity early-stage financing using transaction-level data on Business Angel (BA) investments around the world between 2018 and 2020. In particular, we analyze whether the gender of BA investor has an impact on the size of the financial transaction and whether female-owned businesses are disadvantaged with respect to male-owned businesses. Then, we offer insights into possible channels and underlying mechanisms that could drive BAs' behaviors. According to our findings, female-owned businesses receive less equity financing than their male counterparts. This effect is independent from the information available to BAs on the target and persists even when unobservable individual factors are taken into consideration. This disadvantage seems to be linked to male Business Angels' taste prejudice, independently from the information available to the investor. |
| Keywords: | Gender-based discrimination, Female-owned enterprises, Access to finance, start-up; SME financing, Business Angel |
| JEL: | G21 G24 G32 J16 G41 M13 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wmofir:175&r= |
| By: | Van den bosch, Catherine; Mavrotas, George |
| Abstract: | Remittances are an important source of development finance, particularly in recent years due also to increased migration flows at global level. The recent COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a sudden drop of remittances and an alarming aspect of the pandemic is that it particularly affected female migrants. Despite the importance of gender for remittance sending and usage, research about international migration and remittances insufficiently takes into account its role. Against this background, the aim of this paper is to partially fill this gap in the relevant literature by trying to address the following important questions: (1) In what ways is gender important in understanding the sending and the usage of remittances?; and (2) what is the relationship between gender, COVID-19 and pandemic-induced remittance reductions? In doing so, we provide an overview of the (limited) literature on the vast influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on female migrants and we also assess whether gender has had an influence on the extent to which remittance inflows decreased as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic by conducting a preliminary empirical analysis based on some recent data (albeit limited) on the above nexus. Surprisingly, we found a negative correlation between COVID-19-induced changes in remittances and female emigration rates. This contrasts with insights about the higher vulnerability of female migrants for the pandemic. However, this finding seems to be in line with the stand of the literature which seems to suggest that female migrants remit more during periods of crisis than male ones, and that they tend to remit a larger percentage of their income than male migrants. This paper contributes to the relevant literature in multiple ways. First, our detailed discussion of the influence of gender on remittances and the impact of COVID-19 on female migrants has revealed other important aspects in the overall relationship that can stimulate further research on these topics and also raise important policy questions for policymakers. Second, our preliminary findings of a possible negative correlation between COVID-19-induced changes in remittances and female emigration rates is very relevant. In view of the insights we gained from the discussion of the relevant literature, these findings raise important concerns about female migrants’ well-being during the pandemic and call for further empirical research in this crucial area once more reliable data become available. |
| Keywords: | remittances, gender, COVID-19 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iob:wpaper:2022.02&r= |
| By: | Borisenko Yana (Department of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University) |
| Abstract: | The global fertility decline and the complex system of factors of fertility changes arouse interest in the study of these factors in countries at different stages of demographic transition. In previous studies on the determinants of fertility, a contradictory result was obtained about the relationship between gender equality and fertility. This paper examines the impact of gender equality on fertility levels in countries with a completed demographic transition (using the example of OECD countries). Data from the World Bank, the International Labour Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development for the period 2000-2018 are used. Based on the statistical analysis, an inverted J-shaped relationship between gender equality and fertility rate at the country level was revealed: high and low levels of gender equality development correspond to high fertility levels. The results of the econometric analysis for developed countries have shown a positive impact of equality between men and women in all spheres on fertility. |
| Keywords: | fertility, gender equality, determinants of fertility |
| JEL: | J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upa:wpaper:0038&r= |
| By: | Wanger, Susanne (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany) |
| Abstract: | "Even though women have been able to increase their participation in management positions to a small extent in recent years, they are still significantly underrepresented in management positions. Organisational measures to promote gender equality and work-life balance are seen as an option to reduce inequalities between men and women. However, there are relatively few firms that have formalised organisational gender equality policies. Against this background, I examine whether organisational measures may increase women's career opportunities or promote the assumption of management positions on a part-time basis. This is investigated using a German Linked-Employer-Employee dataset (LIAB) from 2012 to 2016 and logistic panel regression models. The results show that the targeted promotion of women in particular improves their chances of promotion. However, this is not the case for mothers and their chances of achieving a part-time management position: these are lower when targeted promotion of women is practised in a firm. Measures to improve reconciliation, such as firm support for childcare or for employees with dependents in need of care, have a positive effect on advancement to management positions. The effect of family-friendly working conditions in a firm is heterogeneous: while women have lower chances of promotion, their chances of obtaining a management position with reduced working hours are higher. In contrast, a firm’s membership in a family-friendly network has a negative effect on the career and promotion opportunities of women." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | IAB-Open-Access-Publikation ; IAB-Linked-Employer-Employee-Datensatz |
| JEL: | J16 J71 M12 M51 |
| Date: | 2022–06–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:202213&r= |