The `Gift' and 'Request' Network

Abstract

Women and men differ in their earnings. Even when the data are controlled for education, age and experience, differences in earnings between women and men are still found. In this study differences in search behaviour between women and men are examined as an explanation for this gender wage gap. To examine the kind of information women and men receive, their social networks are divided into the 'gift' network and the 'request' network. The gift network-family and close friends - provide information about the labour market. The hypothesis was formulated that members of the gift network are more willing to give this information to men than to women. In the request network giving information to men than to women. In the request network, giving information is due to a specific procedure: men and women ask for information and members of this network (i.e. teachers, employers) give information about the labour market. Assuming that it is more important for men to have a job than it is for women, men ask and get more information from this request network According to the U-curve between finding a job and position on the labour market the hypothesis was formulated that respondents who find their jobs by means of formal search behaviour get better jobs than those who find their jobs by means of informal search behaviour. To test the above-mentioned hypothesis a study was carried out. A sample of 54 male and female respondents who ezxpected to graduate from a higher vocational course kept a diary In this diary we asked the women and men to write down every day if they received information about the labour market and from whom they received it. The results support most of the hypothesis. This means, however, that differences in search behaviour do not explain differences in salary between women and men: men receive more information but this is not effective in finding the best jobs. For the distribution of the best jobs, search behaviour is, however, more important for women than for men.