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Home Production, Market Production and the Gender Wage Gap: Incentives and Expectations

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Author Info
Claudia Olivetti () (Department of Economics, Boston University)
Stefania Albanesi () (Duke University.)

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Abstract

This paper explores the hypothesis that gender wage differentials arise from the interaction between the intra-household allocation of labor and the contractual relation between firms and workers in the presence of private information on workers’ labor market attachment. In our model, if firms believe women to be less attached to market work than men, they will offer them labor contracts with lower earnings and lower hours even in the absence of gender differences in productivity. This implies that it is efficient for wives to allocate more time to home production. Hence, women will be less attached to market work and firms’ expectations are confirmed. If firms instead believe that labor market attachment is the same across genders, they will offer the same labor contracts to male and female workers. Then, the efficient intra-household allocation of labor will not be related to gender. It is statistical discrimination that determines gender differentials in the first type of equilibrium. Given that firms may use gender as a screening device, discrimination actually reduces the incentive problem for firms, eliminating adverse selection. Additionally, our model predicts that, in equilibria with female discrimination, gender earning gaps should be higher in industries/occupations in which the incentive problem is more severe. We use Census data for year 2000 to show that this is the case.

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Paper provided by Boston University - Department of Economics in its series Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series with number WP2005-013.

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Length: 25 pages
Date of creation: Apr 2005
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Handle: RePEc:bos:wpaper:wp2005-013

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
D91 - Microeconomics - - Intertemporal Choice and Growth - - - Intertemporal Consumer Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Raquel Fernandez, 2007. "Culture as Learning: The Evolution of Female Labor Force Participation over a Century," NBER Working Papers 13373, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. de la Rica, Sara & Dolado, Juan J. & García-Peñalosa, Cecilia, 2008. "On Gender Gaps and Self-fulfilling Expectations: Theory, Policies and Some Empirical Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 6883, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Elisabeth Hermann Frederiksen, 2006. "An Equilibrium Analysis of the Gender Wage Gap," EPRU Working Paper Series 06-08, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  4. Pierre-André Chiappori & Murat Iyigun & Yoram Weiss, 2006. "Investment in Schooling and the Marriage Market," IZA Discussion Papers 2454, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Fogli, Alessandra & Veldkamp, Laura, 2007. "Nature or Nurture? Learning and Female Labour Force Dynamics," CEPR Discussion Papers 6324, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Alberto Alesina & Andrea Ichino & Loukas Karabarbounis, 2007. "Gender Based Taxation and the Division of Family Chores," IZA Discussion Papers 3233, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Stefania Albanesi & Claudia Olivetti, 2006. "Home Production, Market Production and the Gender Wage Gap: Incentives and Expectations," NBER Working Papers 12212, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Doepke, Matthias & Hazan, Moshe & Maoz, Yishay D, 2008. "The Baby Boom and World War II: A Macroeconomic Analysis," CEPR Discussion Papers 6628, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Mariapia Mendola & Gero Carletto, 2008. "International migration and gender differentials in the home labor market: evidence from Albania," Working Papers 148, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Dec 2008. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. Albanesi, Stefania & Olivetti, Claudia, 2007. "Gender Roles and Technological Progress," CEPR Discussion Papers 6352, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  11. Schindler, Kati, 2006. "Credit for what? Informal credit as a coping strategy of market women in northern Ghana," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Berlin 2006 24, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  12. Fernández, Raquel, 2007. "Culture as Learning: The Evolution of Female Labour Force Participation Over a Century," CEPR Discussion Papers 6451, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Hanno Lustig & Stijn Van Nieuwerburg & Adrien Verdelhan, 2007. "The Wealth-Consumption Ratio: A Litmus Test for Consumption-based Asset Pricing Models¤," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2007-030, Boston University - Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  14. Pere Gomis-Porqueras & Adrian Peralta-Alva, 2008. "A macroeconomic analysis of obesity," Working Papers 2008-017, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
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