Women tend to concentrate in jobs that require lower investments in specific skills and this has negative consequences for their earnings. This paper proposes a supply-side model with macro-level effects to explain why this is the case. The job-allocation decision is modeled as a discrete choice between two ideal job-types, one that requires high investments in the job and one that does not. Individuals consider the tenure-reward profiles of each job-type and choose rationally on the basis of their expected job tenure. Women’s tenure expectations are influenced by individual-level characteristics, including their gender attitudes and preferences, but also by two types of social structures from which information is drawn: 1) macro-level distributions —in particular, the presence of professional women and housework-cooperative men in women’s region of residence—, and 2) past family experiences —in particular, the employment histories of women’s own mothers. This model is tested using data from 17 industrialized European societies comprising 164 different regions. Results suggest that the informational structure influences individuals’ job-allocation decisions.
Presented by:
Javier Polavieja, Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, ICREA, and Institute for Economic Analysis, IAE-CSIC
Date & time:
June 24, 2009 12:00 pm - June 24, 2009 1:00 pm
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