Female Wage Research Articles

Consumption Insurance against Wage Risk: Family Labor Supply and Optimal Progressive Income Taxation

We show that a calibrated life cycle two-earner household model with endogenous labor supply can rationalize the extent of consumption insurance against shocks to male and female wages, as estimated empirically by Blundell, Pistaferri, and Saporta-Eksten (2016) in US data. In the model, 35 percent of male and 18 percent of female permanent wage shocks pass through to consumption, compared to the empirical estimates of 32 percent and 19 percent. Most of the consumption insurance against permanent male wage shocks is provided through the presence and labor supply response of the female earner. Abstracting from this private intrahousehold income insurance mechanism strongly biases upward the welfare losses from idiosyncratic wage risk as well as the desired extent of public insurance through progressive income taxation. Relative to the standard one-earner life cycle model, the optimal degree of tax progressivity is significantly lower and the welfare gains from implementing the optimal system are cut roughly in half. (JEL D15, H21, H24, J16, J22, J31)

Does Pay Transparency Affect the Gender Wage Gap? Evidence From Austria

We study the 2011 Austrian Pay Transparency Law, which requires firms above a size threshold to publish internal reports on the gender pay gap. Using an event-study design, we show that the policy had no discernible effects on male and female wages, thus leaving the gender wage gap unchanged. The effects are precisely estimated and we rule out that the policy narrowed the gender wage gap by more than 0.4 p.p.. Moreover, we do not find evidence for wage compression within establishments. We discuss several possible reasons why the reform did not reduce the gender wage gap.

Implementing Quantile Selection Models in Stata

This article describes qregsel, a Stata module to implement a copula-based sample selection correction for quantile regression recently proposed by Arellano and Bonhomme (2017, Econometrica 85(1): 1-28). The command allows the user to model selection in quantile regressions using either a Gaussian or an one-dimensional Frank copula. We illustrate the use of qregsel with two examples. First, we apply the method to the fictional data set employed in the Stata base reference manual for the heckman command. Second, we replicate part of the empirical application of the original paper using data for the UK that covers the period 1978-2000 to compare wages of males and females at different quantiles.

Labor Market Institutions and the Distribution of Wages: The Role of Spillover Effects

This paper examines the role of spillover effects of minimum wages and threat effects of unionization in changes in wage inequality in the United States between 1979 and 2017. A distribution regression framework is introduced to estimate both types of spillover effects. Threat effects double the contribution of de-unionization to the increase in male wage inequality. Spillover effects magnify the explanatory power of declining minimum wages to two-thirds of the increase in inequality at the bottom end of the female wage distribution. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

Gender, Selection into Employment, and the Wage Impact of Immigration

Immigrant supply shocks are typically expected to reduce the wage of comparable workers. Natives may respond to the lower wage by moving to markets that were not directly targeted by immigrants and where presumably the wage did not drop. This paper argues that the wage change observed in the targeted market depends not only on the size of the native response, but also on which natives choose to respond. A non-random response alters the composition of the sample of native workers, mechanically changing the average native wage in affected markets and biasing the estimated wage impact of immigration. We document the importance of this selection bias in the French labor market, where women accounted for a rapidly increasing share of the foreign-born workforce since 1976. The raw correlations suggest that the immigrant supply shock did not change the wage of French women, but led to a sizable decline in their employment rate. In contrast, immigration had little impact on the employment rate of men, but led to a sizable drop in the male wage. We show that the near-zero correlation between immigration and female wages arises partly because the native women who left the labor force had relatively low wages. Adjusting for the selection bias results in a similar wage elasticity for both French men and women (between -0.8 and -1.0).

The Dynamics of Domestic Violence: Learning About the Match

We present a dynamic lifecycle model of women's choices with respect to partnership status, labour supply and fertility when they cannot directly observe whether a given male partner is of a violent type or not. The model is estimated by the method of simulated moments using longitudinal data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. The results indicate that uncertainty about a partner's abusive type creates incentives for women to delay fertility, reduce fertility overall, divorce more often and increase labour supply. We also study the impact of higher female wages, income support to single mothers, and subsidized childcare when the mother is working. While higher wages reduce women's overall exposure to abuse, both income support and subsidized childcare fail to do so because they encourage early fertility. Income support also leads to less accumulated labour market experience and hence higher abuse rates.

Taxes, Subsidies, and Gender Gaps in Hours and Wages

Using micro data from 17 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, this paper documents a negative cross-country correlation between gender ratios in market hours and wages. We find that market hours by women and the size of the service sector that produces close substitutes to home production are important for the gender differences in market hours across countries. We quantify the role played by taxes and subsidies to family care on the two gender ratios in a multisector model with home production. Higher taxes and lower subsidies reduce the marketization of home production and therefore reduce market hours. The effect is larger for women because of their comparative advantage in producing home services and the corresponding market substitutes. The larger fall in female market hours drives up the female wage relative to the male wage, resulting in higher gender wage ratios.

Gender, Selection into Employment, and the Wage Impact of Immigration

Immigrant supply shocks are typically expected to reduce the wage of comparable workers. Natives may respond to the lower wage by moving to markets that were not directly targeted by immigrants and where presumably the wage did not drop. This paper argues that the wage change observed in the targeted market depends not only on the size of the native response, but also on which natives choose to respond. A non-random response alters the composition of the sample of native workers, mechanically changing the average native wage in affected markets and biasing the estimated wage impact of immigration. We document the importance of this selection bias in the French labor market, where women accounted for a rapidly increasing share of the foreign-born workforce since 1976. The raw correlations suggest that the immigrant supply shock did not change the wage of French women, but led to a sizable decline in their employment rate. In contrast, immigration had little impact on the employment rate of men, but led to a sizable drop in the male wage. We show that the near-zero correlation between immigration and female wages arises partly because the native women who left the labor force had relatively low wages. Adjusting for the selection bias results in a similar wage elasticity for both French men and women (between -0.8 and -1.0).

Never married and earnings: evidence from Russia

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of civil status on wage earnings in post-Soviet Russia. Education and work experience are the key explanatory variables according to the Mincer function. In view of that, here, an extension of the Mincer equation is estimated, focusing on never married individuals versus other civil status (married people). Thus, testing the female wage penalty and the male wage premium hypotheses.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on dynamic panel data models, underlining the autoregressive nature of earnings, controlling for time-invariant independent variables and adding marriage as an explanatory variable. The models are estimated using longitudinal data over the years 2000–2017, taken from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey.FindingsThe results indicate that never married Russians do not obtain higher levels of wage earnings in comparison with those who are married or correspond to other civil status. However, there is evidence supporting a wage premium for men and weak evidence of a penalty for women. That is, the regression results indicate a wage penalty for never married men and a wage premium for never married women, yet this last finding is not robust. Therefore, the general findings of this research only partially agree with the most recent evidence in developed countries, where marriage is not anymore associated with wages.Originality/valueThese findings are highly relevant for public policies related to family development, a major concern for the Russian Government during the last two decades. There is a common idea that avoiding marriage is associated with intentions to obtain higher levels of earnings, but this is a problem of myopia.

Do you have time to take a walk together? Private and joint time within the household

AbstractWe develop a theoretical model for the intra-household allocation of time and consumption that distinguishes between partners’ joint and private leisure. Estimating the model using time-use data leads to five findings. First, the intra-household expenditure distribution correlates with relative wages, consistent with the collective model. Second, men put relatively more weight on private expenditure and composite leisure. Third, joint and private leisure are imperfect substitutes. Fourth, joint and private leisure are independent of the wage distribution, suggesting that togetherness does not substitute for economic factors. Fifth, higher female wages imply higher childcare hours for women, but lower for men.

Affordability of nutritious diets in rural India

In 2015–16 some 38% of preschool children in India were stunted, 21% wasted, and more than half of Indian mothers and young children were anemic. Though widely studied, surprisingly little research on malnutrition in India explores the role of diets, particularly the affordability of nutritious diets given low wages and the significant structural problems facing India’s agricultural sector. To explore this we used nationally representative rural price and wage data to estimate the least cost means of satisfying India’s national dietary guidelines, referred to as the Cost of a Recommended Diet (CoRD), and assessed the affordability of this diet relative to male and female wages for unskilled laborers. Although we find that dietary costs have increased substantially for both men and women, rural wage rates increased more rapidly, implying that nutritious diets became substantially more affordable over time. However, in absolute terms nutritious diets in 2011 were still expensive relative to unskilled wages, constituting approximately 80–90% of female and 50–60% of male daily wages. Overall, we estimate that 63–76% of the rural poor could not afford a recommended diet in 2011. Achieving nutritional security in India requires a much more holistic focus on improving the affordability of the full range of nutritious food groups (not just cereals), a reappraisal of social protection schemes in light of the cost of more complete nutrition, ensuring that economic growth results in sustained income growth for the poor, and more timely and transparent monitoring of food prices, incomes and dietary costs.

TRIBAL WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN AGRICULTURE AND ALLIED SECTORS IN GARIABAND DISTRICT OF CHHATTISGARH

Agriculture is the most important and significant part of our life. It plays a vital role in Indian economy. Farm women’s are backbone of Indian agriculture. Present study was conducted at Teka and Kopra villages of Fingeshwar block, Gariaband district, Chhattisgarh. The aim of study is to ascertain the participation rate of tribal women of farm, wage discrimination, and constraints faced. A sample size of 150 households seventy-five each from two village viz. Teka and Kopra through random sampling method. The data was collected through structured interview schedule. Findings of the study that the per year participation of tribal households in different operations of farm were 250.07 man-days on an overall basis. Participation rate of tribal women in agriculture and allied sectors is high as compared to their male counterparts. The study revealed that the difference in wages of female and male wages was found to be much lower than the government wage rate. Major constraints of tribal women in the study area was low wages, less awareness on developmental programmes, lack of education, lack of freedom to take decision, health issues etc. there is need to put more attention on awareness programmes government schemes of scheduled tribes by the extension services.

Gender Issues in Kaleckian Distribution and Growth Models: On the Macroeconomics of the Gender Wage Gap

ABSTRACT We introduce a gender wage gap into basic one-good textbook versions of the neo-Kaleckian distribution and growth model for a developed capitalist economy and examine the effects of improving gender wage equality on income distribution, aggregate demand, capital accumulation and productivity growth. For the closed economy model, reducing the gender wage gap has no effect on the profit share, and a gender equality-led regime requires the propensity to save out of female wages to fall short of the propensity to save out of male wages. For the open economy model, this condition is modified by the effects of improved gender wage equality on exports, and – through changes of the profit share – on domestic demand. Finally, for the open economy with productivity growth we find an unambiguously expansionary effect of narrowing the gender wage gap on long-run equilibrium capital accumulation and productivity growth if the demand growth regime is gender equality-led. A gender equality-burdened demand growth regime, however, may generate different long-run effects of improving gender wage equality on capital accumulation and productivity growth: expansionary, intermediate or contractionary.

Full-Time and Part-Time Work and the Gender Wage Gap

Using hourly and weekly wages from the Canadian Labour Force Survey from 2000 until 2018, workers were separated into full-time and part-time and the following striking observation was documented. The overall gender wage gap is larger than either the full-time pay gap or the part-time pay gap, even after controlling for detailed personal and job characteristics. This result is a consequence of two findings: (i) part-time wages are lower than full-time wages, and (ii) the majority of part-time workers are women. In aggregation, this brings down the average female wage, leading to a larger aggregate gender wage gap. This was further linked to a differential selection by gender into full-time and part-time work, with women of higher earnings potential being overrepresented in the pool of part-time workers, resulting in no gender pay gap in the part-time worker category. Policies targeted at encouraging full-time employment for women should therefore reduce the gender wage gap.

Robots, computers, and the gender wage gap

We analyze the effects of two automation technologies, industrial robots and computing equipment, on the gender wage gap in US local labor markets between 1990 and 2015. We find distinct impact of robot and computer capital: an increase in robots decreases male wage more than female wage, whereas an increase in computers reduces female wage more than male wage. According to our estimates, one additional unit of robot per thousand workers reduces gender wage gap by 0.3 log points, and by contrast an increase in computer capital by one million dollars per thousand workers increases gender wage gap by 4.1 log points.

Malthus's missing women and children: demography and wages in historical perspective, England 1280-1850

Abstract Malthus believed that rising real wages encouraged earlier marriage, higher fertility and a growing population. But diminishing returns in agriculture meant that an organic economy could not keep pace. Excess labour and rising food prices drove wages down and brought population growth to a halt. Studies testing this hypothesis have focussed on the relationship between population growth and men's wages, typically overlooking women and children's economic activities and influence on demographic outcomes. New daily and annual wage series, including women and children, enable these missing actors to be incorporated into a more complete account of Malthus's hypothesis. New findings emerge: the demographic reaction to wage changes was gendered. Early-modern bachelors responded to rising male wages by marrying earlier, whereas spinsters responded to rising female wages by delaying marriage. Our evidence suggests that women played a key role in England's low-fertility demographic regime and escape from the Malthusian trap. More tentatively, we consider the demographic regime in medieval England. Although marriage was related to earnings, the size of the population was a forceful determinant of economic outcomes. While superficially similar in terms of the prevalence of late marriage and low nuptiality, this regime was consolidated by poverty and social control absent the female agency of the later era.

A study on work-family compatibility of female wage workers with underage children

A study on work-family compatibility of female wage workers with underage children

Gender Segregation, Occupational Sorting, and Growth of Wage Disparities Between Women.

Average female wages in traditionally male occupations have steeply risen over the past couple of decades in Germany. This trend led to a new and substantial pay gap between women working in male-typed occupations and other women. I dissect the emergence of these wage disparities between women, using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1992-2015). Compositional change with respect to education is the main driver for growing inequality. Other factors are less influential but still relevant: marginal returns for several wage-related personal characteristics have grown faster in male-typed occupations. Net of individual-level heterogeneity, traditionally male occupations have also become more attractive because of rising returns to task-specific skills. Discrimination of women in typically male lines of work seems to have declined, too, which erased part of the wage penalty these women had previously experienced. In sum, I document changes in the occupational sorting behavior of women as well as shifts in occupation-level reward mechanisms that have had a profound impact on the state of inequality between working women.

Resource Misallocation from Childcare Policies

Childcare subsidies often attempt to allow low income families to work, but a problem arises when they generate unforeseen negative general equilibrium consequences. This paper focuses on a law in Chile that forces firms with more than 19 female workers to pay for childcare. We evaluate its effects through a model that features firm and household heterogeneity. Firms differ in productivity, and households in age, marital status, gender, skills, and number of children. In the model, the policy mis-allocates resources, driving firms to stop hiring females once they are close to the threshold. It also selects females with more skills into jobs that pay for childcare, leaving unskilled mothers un-subsidized. We calibrate the model and analyze the effects of this policy via counterfactual. The policy reduces both male and female wages by between 1.5% and 2.1%, and GDP per capita by 1.8%. Most of the change comes from mis-allocation, but some also from capital accumulation, that drops by 1.7%. The policy makes every household worse off, but the largest losers are low income mothers, precisely the group targeted by the policy, who lose up to 2% of consumption equivalent units each period. We evaluate two alternative policies: one currently being considered by the Chilean government that finances childcare through a labor tax and one where all firms must pay for childcare irrespective of size. Only the latter has sizable positive effects, suggesting that a better way to help cover childcare costs would be to extend the mandate to all firms.

Robots, Computers, and the Gender Wage Gap

We analyze the effects of two automation technologies, industrial robots and computing equipment, on the gender wage gap in US local labor markets between 1990 and 2015. We find distinct impact of robot and computer capital: an increase in robots decreases male wage more than female wage, whereas an increase in computers reduces female wage more than male wage. According to our estimates, one additional unit of robot per thousand workers reduces gender wage gap by 0.3 log points, and by contrast an increase in computer capital by one million dollars per thousand workers increases gender wage gap by 4.1 log points.