Search Results
Report
Preference for the workplace, investment in human capital, and gender
We use a hypothetical choice methodology to estimate preferences for workplace attributes and quantify how much these preferences influence pre-labor-market human capital investments. This method robustly identifies preferences for various job attributes, free from omitted variable bias and free from considering the equilibrium job match. Women on average have a higher willingness to pay (WTP) for jobs with greater work flexibility and job stability, and men have a higher WTP for jobs with higher earnings growth. These job preferences relate to college major choices and actual job choices, ...
Working Paper
Gender and Professional Networks on Bank Boards
Women are underrepresented on bank boards. Using a newly compiled dataset of bank board membership over the 1999-2018 period, we find that within-board professional networks are extensive, but female board members are significantly less connected than male directors, both in number and length of connections. We also find that professional networks play an important role in determining the appointment of bank board directors. Connections also positively impact compensation for female directors, especially connections to other women. These results suggest that there are differences in the ...
The “She-Cession” Persists, Especially for Women of Color
During most of the pandemic, women have experienced higher unemployment rates than men. Women of color have been hit particularly hard.
Working Paper
Decomposing Gender Differences in Bankcard Credit Limits
Using linked mortgage application and credit bureau data, we document the existence of unconditional and conditional gender gaps in the distribution of total bankcard limits. We estimate that male borrowers have approximately $1,300 higher total bankcard limits than female borrowers. This gap is primarily driven by a large gender gap in the right tail of the limit distribution. At the median and in the left tail of the total limit distribution, women have larger limits than men. Results from a Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition show that 87 percent of the gap is explained by differences in ...
Report
Human capital investments and expectations about career and family
This paper studies how individuals believe human capital investments will affect their future career and family life. We conducted a survey of high-ability currently enrolled college students and elicited beliefs about how their choice of college major, and whether to complete their degree at all, would affect a wide array of future events, including future earnings, employment, marriage prospects, potential spousal characteristics, and fertility. We find that students perceive large ?returns" to human capital not only in their own future earnings, but also in a number of other dimensions ...
Journal Article
Parental Participation in a Pandemic Labor Market
Gender gaps in labor market outcomes during the pandemic largely reflect differences in parents’ experiences. Labor force participation fell much less for fathers compared with other men and all women at the onset of the pandemic; the recovery has been more pronounced for men and women without children. Meanwhile, labor force participation among mothers declined with the start of the school year. Evidence suggests flexibility in setting work schedules can offset some of the adverse impact on mothers’ employment, while the ability to work from home does not.
Discussion Paper
Valuing Workplace Benefits
Workplace benefits—such as parental leave, sick leave, and flexible work arrangements—are increasingly being recognized as important determinants of differences in labor supply behavior, education and occupation choice, inequality in wages, and gender disparities in labor market outcomes. Researchers have argued that the failure of the United States to keep pace in providing more generous workplace benefits accounts for 29 percent of the decline in the nation’s labor force participation rate for women relative to that of other high-income countries in the Organisation for Economic ...
Newsletter
Gender and Labor Markets
Interactions between employers and employees in the labor market underpin all production activities. The January 2022 issue of Page One Economics® discusses how gender influences workers’ experiences in the labor market, including their decisions to participate in the market, the types of jobs they hold, their decisions to exit the market, and ultimately their earnings.
Taking a Closer Look at Marital Status and the Earnings Gap
Research suggests that married men’s higher income account for a significant portion of the U.S. gender earnings gap. Does this also hold when race is considered?
Essay
Gender and Racial Disparities in Student Loan Debt
Student debt isn’t equally distributed among young adults, particularly Black adults and women, who are more likely to have loans and take longer to pay them down.