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Marriott Marquis, Torrey Pines 3
Hosted By:
American Economic Association
We analyze rich performance data from ninepin bowling, a non-professional sport where men and women compete directly against each other. Our unique data covers 11,000 individuals aged between 14 and 75 from the Czech Republic and Austria. We address whether the effect of playing against the opposite gender and performance under pressure vary over the life cycle. The panel structure of the data allows to construct detailed measures for individual, opponent, and team ability. Over 3 million observations enable us to precisely estimate gender differences in competitiveness. To identify the causal effect of playing against the opposite gender on performance, we use the female share of the opponent team as an instrument. Subgroup analyses shed light on the role experience plays for the age patterns in gender-specific competitiveness.
Using the National Immunization Survey and the Current Population Survey data, we find that workplace breastfeeding benefits increased the duration of breastfeeding by one week. On average, the hourly wages of mothers of infant children increased by 1.8%, and the hours of work increased by 3.4%, or 12 minutes per day, relative to male workers. The effects are even larger among the married mothers. Contrary to theoretical predictions, firms’ demand for the mothers of infant children increases due to a stronger job attachment.
The effects are stronger if the jobs have less “temporal flexibility,” defined as five occupational characteristic in the O*NET database following Goldin (2014): time pressure; contact with others; establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships; structured versus unstructured work; and freedom to make decisions. We find that if the occupations are less flexible, the increase in labor force participation is smaller, the increase in hours of work is larger, and the increase in the probability of working full-time is larger, than the changes when the occupations have more temporal flexibility. Transactions costs render workers imperfect substitutes for each other; the pumping breaks entice mothers to work longer hours and increase their job attachment. There exists nonlinear pay with respect to hours worked, and that firms reward individuals who are willing to work long hours and particular hours.
Gender Effects
Paper Session
Sunday, Jan. 5, 2020 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM (PDT)
- Chair: Heather Antecol, Claremont McKenna College
Gender Bias and Academic Outcomes in STEM: Pairwise Gender Interactions in Gateway Chemistry Labs
Abstract
A major concern among universities around the world is that female students face gender bias, discrimination and related barriers in male-dominated STEM fields. To investigate this concern, we conducted a novel large-scale experiment of interactions between female and male students in one of the most important gateway courses for the Sciences and a course in which students interact one-on-one extensively throughout the term. Over the past four years, at a large public research university, we randomly paired every student enrolled in an introductory Chemistry lab (3,902 students and total N = 5,537). Using precise estimates from the experiment, we show that female students are not negatively affected academically by male partners. When assigned a male partner, female students do not receive lower scores or grades, and they are no more likely to drop the course or lose interest in continuing in Chemistry or a STEM field. We also find that academically weaker female students are not negatively affected by male students and that female students are not negatively affected when paired with academically stronger male students. Although female students self-report experiencing gender bias from male peers, importantly, we do not find evidence that female students are academically affected by intensive term-long pairwise interactions with male students.Gendered Demand for Modern Cook-Stoves and the Environmental Health Complementarities
Abstract
The paper studies how the willingness to pay for a technology that improves environmental health is related to prior complementary health-related interventions. Using data from a Vickrey second price auction for electric cookstoves conducted in 40 rural communities in Odisha, India, we analyze how bids vary according to gender and prior randomized exposure to a sanitation intervention that increased adoption of household latrines and improved awareness about health practices. We find that female bidders bid lower than their male counterparts. However, in villages which experienced this other exogenous health intervention, the bids of female bidders are comparable to those of male bidders. These results point to interactions between information and bargaining power.In Youth We Learn; In Age We Understand - Gender-Specific Competitiveness over the Life Cycle
Abstract
Gender gaps in terms of wage and leadership positions are a persisting problem in today’s labor markets. The literature documents that differences in competitive behavior are part of the explanations for these gaps. Previous studies focus on very homogeneous groups, while little is known about the heterogeneity of gender-specific competitiveness. In particular, it is unclear whether age affects competition against the opposite gender and performance under pressure differently for men and women.We analyze rich performance data from ninepin bowling, a non-professional sport where men and women compete directly against each other. Our unique data covers 11,000 individuals aged between 14 and 75 from the Czech Republic and Austria. We address whether the effect of playing against the opposite gender and performance under pressure vary over the life cycle. The panel structure of the data allows to construct detailed measures for individual, opponent, and team ability. Over 3 million observations enable us to precisely estimate gender differences in competitiveness. To identify the causal effect of playing against the opposite gender on performance, we use the female share of the opponent team as an instrument. Subgroup analyses shed light on the role experience plays for the age patterns in gender-specific competitiveness.
That Extra Edge - Disadvantages of Potential Mothers in Contract Duration
Abstract
It is well-known that gender differences are a persisting phenomenon in today‘s labor markets. It has been shown that women face lower wages, lower promotion probabilities, and lower employer‘s investments in their human capital. Less well analyzed is the gender related disadvantage in contract duration. Only a part of the gender gap in contract duration can be explained by child-related leaves and the resulting lower labor market experience of women. I provide evidence for Germany that it is enough to be a potential mother without any additional child-related career breaks to increase the probability of being employed on a fixed-term basis rather than permanently. A reason could be that employers anticipate the risk of child-related leaves and the resulting costs when they employ women in the childbearing age. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), I show that women in the childbearing age are more likely to be employed on a fixed-term basis than men controlling for various personal and job characteristics. To identify the causal effects, I apply a difference-in-differences approach using a change in the legal regulations in Germany in 2007 as natural experiment which increased the parental benefits and therefore decreased financial disincentives to have children. I find that women in the childbearing age are significantly more likely than men to be employed fixed-term after the reform. The effect is even stronger for young women without children which supports the argument of an employer sided discrimination of potential mothers. Several robustness checks confirm my results.Workplace Breastfeeding Benefits and the Gender Wage Gap
Abstract
This paper exploits the temporal and geographic variation in the state mandates to estimate the causal effects of workplace breastfeeding benefits on the breastfeeding and labor market outcomes of mothers of infant children. Nursing workers may take a 20 to 30 minutes’ break every three to four hours to pump their breast milk in a private non-bathroom space at the workplace. 24 states and the D.C. mandated the provision in different years during the 1990s-2000s.Using the National Immunization Survey and the Current Population Survey data, we find that workplace breastfeeding benefits increased the duration of breastfeeding by one week. On average, the hourly wages of mothers of infant children increased by 1.8%, and the hours of work increased by 3.4%, or 12 minutes per day, relative to male workers. The effects are even larger among the married mothers. Contrary to theoretical predictions, firms’ demand for the mothers of infant children increases due to a stronger job attachment.
The effects are stronger if the jobs have less “temporal flexibility,” defined as five occupational characteristic in the O*NET database following Goldin (2014): time pressure; contact with others; establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships; structured versus unstructured work; and freedom to make decisions. We find that if the occupations are less flexible, the increase in labor force participation is smaller, the increase in hours of work is larger, and the increase in the probability of working full-time is larger, than the changes when the occupations have more temporal flexibility. Transactions costs render workers imperfect substitutes for each other; the pumping breaks entice mothers to work longer hours and increase their job attachment. There exists nonlinear pay with respect to hours worked, and that firms reward individuals who are willing to work long hours and particular hours.
JEL Classifications
- J1 - Demographic Economics