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The Labor Market Consequences of Gender Differences in Job Search

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  • Stefan Eriksson
  • Jonas Lagerström

Abstract

This paper uses data from an Internet-based CV database to investigate if women are more restrictive than men in their choice of search area, and if this is of importance in the early stages of the hiring process. We show that women are less likely to search in the metropolitan areas or far away from where they currently live. Moreover, our results indicate that these differences are important: Female searchers get fewer firm contacts, and we show that this is to a large extent explained by their more restrictive search area. When we include controls for the searchers’ search area, the negative gender effect disappears. However, the results differ somewhat across subgroups: For highly skilled women the search area is important, but there remains an unexplained negative gender effect. Our results suggest that gender differences in job search may be important to consider in studies of gender differences in labor market outcomes. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012

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  • Stefan Eriksson & Jonas Lagerström, 2012. "The Labor Market Consequences of Gender Differences in Job Search," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 303-327, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jlabre:v:33:y:2012:i:3:p:303-327
    DOI: 10.1007/s12122-012-9132-2
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    Cited by:

    1. McGee, Andrew & McGee, Peter, 2023. "Gender Differences in Reservation Wages in Search Experiments," Working Papers 2023-11, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    2. Xiao, Chaoqun & Tang, Wansheng & Zhao, Ruiqing & Zhou, Chi, 2013. "Equilibrium search with heterogeneous firms, workers and endogenous human capital," MPRA Paper 52136, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Kim, Jinyoung & Kim, Seonghoon & Koh, Kanghyock, 2022. "Labor market institutions and the incidence of payroll taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    4. Harkness, Susan & Popova, Daria & Avram, Silvia, 2023. "Gender differences in job mobility and pay progression in the UK," Centre for Microsimulation and Policy Analysis Working Paper Series CEMPA4/23, Centre for Microsimulation and Policy Analysis at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    5. Harkness, Susan & Popova, Daria & Avram, Silvia, 2023. "Gender differences in job mobility and pay progression in the UK," ISER Working Paper Series 2023-02, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    6. Jeffrey J. Yankow, 2017. "Employed Job Search among Young Workers: Do Women Still Search Differently than Men in the Internet Age?," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 23(2), pages 245-259, May.
    7. Magnus Carlsson, 2011. "Does Hiring Discrimination Cause Gender Segregation in the Swedish Labor Market?," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 71-102.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Job search; Mobility; Gender differences; Discrimination; J61; J71;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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