Legal Origins and Labor Market Outcomes of Men and Women

Abstract

The paper exploits variation in institutional environment and regulation of labor across legal origins to explain international differences in gender-gender income ratio, income inequality, labor force participation, unemployment, and selfemployment. Relative to common law countries, women have higher relative incomes in French (16%), Scandinavian (14%), and Post-socialist (15%) countries, but not so i German law countries. In Scandinavian and Post-socialist countries, female labor-force participation is about 15% higher relative to common law countries, whereas in French law countries, women exhibit lower participation and tend to be more often unemployed (4%) or self-employed (6%). Women are also more often self-employed in German law countries. A plausible interpretation is that in strong (past) active labor market policies may be driving results in Scandinavian and Post-socialist countries, whereas labor regulation in French law countries burdens marginal workers while their observed relative wages are pushed up.