Gender Differences in Labour Supply in Australian Physicians

Abstract

We study gender differences in labour supply among general practitioners, internists, surgeons and other specialists in Australia using the MABEL data from 2008 to 2017. Across all doctor types, we find no reduction in female labour supply due to marital status. For general practitioners, female physicians typically work fewer hours than male physicians and this difference extends to an average of one standard workday when parental duties are present. For internal specialists, in contrast, there is no compositional difference between female and male physicians. However, a similar average gender difference of one standard workday exists when internists have at least one dependent child. For surgical specialists, the magnitude of the gender gap due to parental status is markedly smaller at an average of a few hours per week. Furthermore, there is no reductions in hours by female surgeons and the difference is instead due to male surgeons’ increased labour supply. Finally, for specialists otherwise not classified into internal or surgical, we find patterns highly similar to general practitioners.