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on Gender |
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Issue of 2022‒11‒07
fourteen papers chosen by Jan Sauermann Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering |
| By: | Doris Weichselbaumer; Juliane Ransmayr (Johannes Kepler Universtiy Linz) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine the gender wage gap among university graduates in Germany from 1997 to 2013 based on the DZHW (the German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies) Absolventenpanel. We focus in particular on the effect of female presence in a subject or occupation on wage inequality. Earlier research has shown not only that female-dominated university subjects or occupations pay less, but also that men face a higher wage penalty than women when they graduated in a female-dominated subject and experience a lower penalty for working in a female-dominated occupation. For the five waves considered, we confirm the very strong negative association between female presence in a subject or occupation and wages. However, no consistent pattern emerges with regard to whether men’s or women’s wages suffer larger penalties. There is also no time trend observable with regard to the wage penalty that is associated with female-dominated fields. We further show that significant gender wage gaps exist within fields of studies, especially in male-dominated fields like engineering and natural science. |
| Keywords: | gender wage gap, sex segregation, university graduates |
| JEL: | J16 J3 J7 |
| Date: | 2022–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2022-12&r= |
| By: | Goldstein,Markus P.; Gonzalez Martinez,Paula Lorena; Papineni,Sreelakshmi; Wimpey,Joshua Seth |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the impact of a large negative childcare shock on gender gaps inentrepreneurship using the shock created by national COVID-19 school closure policies. The paper leverages aunique data set of monthly enterprise data collected from a repeated cross-section of business owners across 50countries via Facebook throughout 2020 and in 2021. The paper shows that, globally, female-led firms were, onaverage, 4 percentage points more likely to close their business and experienced larger revenue declines thanmale-led firms during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 (male firms closed at a rate of 17 percent in 2020, and 12 percentin 2021). The gender gap in firm closures persisted into 2021. The closing of schools, a key part of the careinfrastructure, led to higher business closures, and women with children were more likely to close their business inresponse to a school closure policy than men with children. Female entrepreneurs were found to take on a greater shareof the increase in the domestic and care work burden than male entrepreneurs. Finally, the paper finds that womenentrepreneurs in societies with more conservative norms with respect to gender equality were significantly more likely toclose their business and increase the time spent on domestic and care responsibilities in response to a school closurepolicy, relative to women in more liberal societies. The paper provides global evidence of a motherhood penalty andchildcare constraint to help explain gender inequalities in an entrepreneurship context. |
| Date: | 2022–04–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10012&r= |
| By: | Kuhn, Andreas (Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training) |
| Abstract: | Data on job advertisements from 1950 up to 2020 reveal that there was a significant change among Swiss employers' stated preferences regarding their prospective employees' gender. More specifically, the proportion of gender-neutral job posts increased from 5 to almost 95 percent within the observation period. To further corroborate and contextualize this finding, I complement it with time series on the relative frequency of several specific queries, such as equality between men and women, from Google's German language book corpus. These additional series are broadly consistent with the evolution of the share of gender-neutral job posts. However, it also appears that there are two distinct narratives, one concerned with the personal sphere, identity and intimate relationships, the other with the political and public realm. Interestingly, the narrative on personal relations set off considerably earlier than the change in the proportion of gender-neutral job ads. Overall, the evidence from the different data series shows that gender norms have changed substantively, yet in a complex manner, over the past decades. |
| Keywords: | social norms, gender norms, gender equality, job advertisements, narratives, cultural change, Google books |
| JEL: | D91 J16 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15621&r= |
| By: | Lepinteur, Anthony; Clark, Andrew E.; Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada; Piper, Alan; Schröder, Carsten; D’Ambrosio, Conchita |
| Abstract: | We analyse a measure of loneliness from a representative sample of German individuals interviewed in both 2017 and at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Both men and women felt lonelier during the COVID-19 pandemic than they did in 2017. The pandemic more than doubled the gender loneliness gap: women were lonelier than men in 2017, and the 2017-2020 rise in loneliness was far larger for women. This rise is mirrored in life-satisfaction scores. Men’s life satisfaction changed only little between 2017 and 2020; yet that of women fell dramatically, and sufficiently so to produce a female penalty in life satisfaction. We estimate that almost all of this female penalty is explained by the disproportionate rise in loneliness for women during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| Keywords: | Loneliness, Life Satisfaction, Gender, COVID-19, SOEP |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpm:docweb:2210&r= |
| By: | Abdulla, Eman (Department of Economics, University of Warwick); Lim, King Yoong (International Business School Suzhou, Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University); Morris, Diego (Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University); Saliba, Faten (International Monetary Fund) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the nexus between gender equality, climate change, and innovation at the firm level. Based on three hypotheses derived from a novel theoretical framework linking climate change and gender equality to within-firm innovation activities, we use a cross-section dataset of 87, 996 firms across 36 industries in 103 countries, surveyed across different waves during the 2010-2020 periods to implement an instrumental variable strategy and show that environmental policies unambiguously induce firm-level process and product innovation, through its influence on the endogenous bargaining power of women in society and firms. We document that female productivity has both a direct effect on innovation (0.1-1.3% increase in the likelihood of innovation) and an indirect effect (serving as the intermediation for the environment-innovation nexus). Contrarily, greenhouse gas emissions by themselves have an ambiguous effect on innovation. The type of greenhouse gas emissions and the measure of innovation both contribute to this ambiguity. Overall, our results show that it is not the physics of climate change that induces innovation but rather the countervailing human responses to policies that mitigate climate change that stimulate innovation. |
| Keywords: | Climate change ; firm-level analysis ; gender equality ; innovation. JEL Codes: D24 ; J16 ; L25 ; O32 ; Q58 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1429&r= |
| By: | Gambacorta, Leonardo; Pancotto, Livia; Reghezza, Alessio; Spaggiari, Martina |
| Abstract: | Do female directors on banks’ boards influence lending decisions toward less polluting firms? By using granular credit register data matched with information on firm-level greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensities, we isolate credit supply shifts and find that banks with more gender-diverse boards provide less credit to browner companies. This evidence is robust when we differentiate among types of GHG emissions and control for endogeneity concerns. In addition, we also show that female director-specific characteristics matter for lending behavior to polluting firms as better-educated directors grant lower credit volumes to more polluting firms. Finally, we document that the “greening” effect of the female members in banks’ boardrooms is stronger in countries with more female climate-oriented politicians. JEL Classification: G01, G21, G30, Q50 |
| Keywords: | bank lending, board diversity, credit registry, gender, GHG emissions |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20222741&r= |
| By: | Corekcioglu, Gozde (Kadir Has University); Francesconi, Marco (University of Essex); Kunze, Astrid (Norwegian School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We examine the impact of government-funded universal paid parental leave extensions on the likelihood that mothers reach top-pay jobs and executive positions, using eight Norwegian reforms. Up to a quarter of a century after childbirth, such reforms neither helped nor hurt mothers' chances to be at the top of their companies' pay ranking or in leadership positions. We detect no differential effect across many characteristics, and no impact on other outcomes, such as hours worked and promotions. No reform affected fathers' pay or the gender pay gaps between mothers and their male colleagues and between mothers and their partners. |
| Keywords: | gender inequality, within-firm pay ranking, glass ceiling, leadership, top executives |
| JEL: | H42 J13 J16 J18 M12 M14 |
| Date: | 2022–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15585&r= |
| By: | Samaniego,Roberto; Jedwab,Remi Camille; Romer,Paul M; Islam,Asif Mohammed |
| Abstract: | Pandemic shocks disrupt human capital accumulation through schooling and work experience. Thisstudy quantifies the long-term economic impact of these disruptions in the case of COVID-19, focusing on countriesat different levels of development and using returns to education and experience by college status that are globallyestimated using 1,084 household surveys across 145 countries. The results show that both lost schooling andexperience contribute to significant losses in global learning and output. Developed countries incur greaterlosses than developing countries, because they have more schooling to start with and higher returns to experience.The returns to education and experience are also separately estimated for men and women, to explore the differentialeffects by gender of the COVID-19 pandemic. Surprisingly, while the study uncovers gender differences in returns toeducation and schooling, gender differences in the impact of COVID-19 are small and short-lived, with a loss in femalerelative income of only 2.5 percent or less, mainly due to the greater severity of the employment shock on impact.These findings might challenge some of the ongoing narratives in policy circles. The methodology employed in this study is easily implementable for future pandemics. |
| Keywords: | Educational Sciences,Employment and Unemployment,Public Health Promotion,Gender and Development |
| Date: | 2022–02–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9932&r= |
| By: | Xu,Yuanwei; Delius,Antonia Johanna Sophie; Pape,Utz Johann |
| Abstract: | Understanding how different households cope with COVID-19 among a vulnerable populationis important for the policy design aiming at relieving hunger and poverty in a low income setting. This paper usesoriginal household data from five waves of a phone survey conducted between May 2020 and June 2021 in Kenya (samplesize 31,715) and investigates the gender differences in household coping strategies during the COVID-19 shock. Itfinds that female-headed households are less likely to cope by selling assets or taking loans, compared with male-headedhouseholds. Instead, femaleheaded households rely more on social networks to cope. No difference in coping by reducingmeals is observed across these two types of households. This paper documents that the reasons behind the genderdifference include that female-headed households are poorer, and they are more likely to rely on friends and family tocope with shocks even prior to the COVID-19 shock. The findings suggest that widowed and divorced women are in highneed of relief programs, and governments should provide easily accessible loans to avoid negative impacts in thelong term from households selling assets. |
| Keywords: | Gender and Development,Economics and Gender,Gender and Poverty,Gender and Economics,Gender and Economic Policy,Inequality,Livestock and Animal Husbandry |
| Date: | 2022–03–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9959&r= |
| By: | Islam,Asif Mohammed; Amin,Mohammad |
| Abstract: | This study uncovers a gender labor productivity gap among informal firms in 14 developing economies. The results show that labor productivity isapproximately 15.2 percent (or 0.165 log point) lower among women-owned than men-owned informal firms. Decompositiontechniques reveal several factors that contribute to lower labor productivity of women-owned informal firms relative tomen-owned informal firms. These include lower education, lower experience, lower capitalization, and less protectionfrom crime among women owners than men owners of informal firms. However, the smaller size of the women-owned firmsand their greater return from producing or selling under contract and from security payments narrows the productivitygap. The results provide several specific and general policy recommendations for improving the labor productivity ofwomen-owned informal firms and closing the gap with male-owned informal firms. For one, a substantial amount ofthe productivity gap can be closed by providing more resources to women such as education, managerial experience,and physical capital. The study also provides some preliminary results on another important policy objective—the costs and benefits of formalization as perceived by women-owned versus men-owned informal firms. |
| Date: | 2022–04–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10011&r= |
| By: | Chen,Daniel Li; Graham,Jimmy; Ramos Maqueda,Manuel; Singh,Shashank - DIME3 |
| Abstract: | Evidence from high-income countries suggests that judges often exhibit in-group bias, favoringlitigants that share an identity with the judge. However, there is little evidence on this phenomenon from the GlobalSouth. Collecting the available universe of High Court decisions in Kenya, this paper leverages the randomassignment of cases to judges to evaluate the existence of in-group bias along gender and ethnic lines. It finds that,relative to a baseline win rate of 43 percent, defendants are 4 percentage points more likely to win if they share thejudge's gender and 5 percentage points more likely to win if they share the judge's ethnicity. The paperfinds that the written judgements are on average shorter and less likely to be cited when defendants who are of the samegender or ethnicity as the judge win their case. This is consistent with in-group biased decisions being of lowerquality. In addition, the findings show that female defendants are less likely to win the case if the judgeexhibits stereotypical or negative attitudes towards women in their writings. |
| Keywords: | Gender and Development,Labor Markets,Inequality,Human Rights,Judicial System Reform |
| Date: | 2022–03–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9956&r= |
| By: | Gassier,Marine; Rouanet,Lea Marie; Traore,Lacina |
| Abstract: | This paper describes a randomized experiment that used a sample of men and women who wereeligible for a vocational training program in the Republic of Congo to test the effect of providing information ontrade-specific earnings on trade choice. The analysis finds that women are 28.6 percent more likely to apply to atraditionally male- dominated trade when receiving this information. Men and women are also both more likely toapply to more lucrative trades. This may in part be driven by the intervention filling an information gap. The analysissuggests, however, that behavioral mechanisms, which make trade-specific returns more salient in the decision processof applicants, play an even bigger role. Indeed, there are much larger treatment effects among women who have technicalknowledge and experience or male role models, even though the information does not impact their expectations ofearnings in male-dominated trades. The treatment is thus most effective among women who are already well positionedto cross over into male-dominated trades and can give greater weight to earning considerations when choosing atrade. The results indicate that this low-cost intervention can be a useful tool to encourage women to cross over tomore lucrative trades in which their presence has been limited, and thereby contribute to reducing the gender gapin earnings. There is also a high potential for interventions that would pair information on returns andtrade exposure. |
| Keywords: | International Trade and Trade Rules,Gender and Development,Educational Sciences,Vocational Education & Technical Training,Vocational & Technical Education |
| Date: | 2022–02–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9934&r= |
| By: | Pennings,Steven Michael |
| Abstract: | Despite a policy consensus that closing gender employment gaps will boost economic growth,relatively little is known about the size of these gains in many developing countries. This paper develops a new GenderEmployment Gap Index (GEGI), which is equal to the size of long-run GDP per capita gains from closing gender employmentgaps. The GEGI is simple and transparent and can be easily constructed using closed-form expressions for almost allcountries using macroeconomic employment rate data by gender. The basic variant of the GEGI is the gap betweenmale and female employment as a share of total employment. The full GEGI is similar, but instead of using an aggregateemployment gap, the full GEGI is the weighted average of a “better employment gap” and “other employment gap.” Thebasic and full GEGIs are similar (correlation of 0.97), and both average 19 percent across countries. This means thatGDP per capita in the long run would be almost 20 percent higher if female employment were exogenously increased to bethe same as men’s (other things being equal). The paper also provides an application for the Pacific Islands, for which asimple measure like the GEGI is particularly important given the lack of alternative estimates. |
| Keywords: | Gender and Development,Inequality,Employment and Unemployment,Labor Markets |
| Date: | 2022–02–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9942&r= |
| By: | Bhalotra, Sonia R. (University of Warwick); Clarke, Damian (University of Chile); Walther, Selma |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses research on the relationship between fertility and women's labour force participation. It surveys methods used to obtain causal identification, and provides an overview of the evidence of causal effects in both directions. We highlight a few themes that we regard as important in guiding research and in reading the evidence. These include the importance of distinguishing between extensive and intensive margin changes in both variables; consideration not only of women's participation but also of occupational and sectoral choice and of relative earnings; the relevance of studying dynamic effects and of analysing changes across the lifecycle and across successive cohorts; and of recognizing that women's choices over both fertility and labour force participation are subject to multiple constraints. We observe that, while technological innovations in reproductive health technologies have muted the familycareer tradeoff primarily by allowing women to time their fertility, policy has not achieved as much as it might. |
| Keywords: | fertility, birth spacing, abortion, ART, IVF, contraception, female labour force participation, gender wage gap, job loss, recession |
| JEL: | J01 J13 O15 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15639&r= |