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Personality Traits, Job Search and the Gender Wage Gap

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  • Flinn, C.
  • Todd, P.
  • Zhang, W.

Abstract

This paper introduces the Big Five personality traits along with other covariates in a job search, matching and bargaining model and investigates how education and personality traits affect job search behavior and labor market outcomes. It develops and estimates a partial equilibrium search model in which personality traits can influence worker productivity, job offer arrival rates, job dissolution rates and the division of surplus from an employer-employee match. The estimation is based on the IZA Evaluation Dataset, a panel dataset on newly-unemployed individuals in Germany between 2007 and 2008. Model specification tests provide support for a model that allows job search parameters to be heterogeneous across individuals, varying with levels of education, birth cohort, personality traits and gender. We use the estimated model to decompose the sources of the gender wage gap. The results show that the gap arises largely because women's personality traits are valued differently than men's. Of the Big Five traits, conscientiousness and agreeableness emerge as the most important in explaining the gender wage gap.

Suggested Citation

  • Flinn, C. & Todd, P. & Zhang, W., 2020. "Personality Traits, Job Search and the Gender Wage Gap," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2053, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:cam:camdae:2053
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    Cited by:

    1. Gaston P. Fernandez & Mariia Kovaleva, 2024. "Personality Traits, the Marriage Market, and Household Behavior," Working Papers ECARES 2024-21, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    2. van Lent, Max, 2022. "Fathering Daughters and Personality," IZA Discussion Papers 15012, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Leiv Opstad, 2021. "Is there a Trade-Off between Financial Rewards and Other Job Benefits? Different Career Pathways for two Groups of Management Students," International Journal of Social Sciences, European Research Center, vol. 10(2), pages 15-30, September.
    4. Cortes, Patricia & Pan, Jessica & Pilossoph, Laura & Zafar, Basit, 2021. "Gender Differences in Job Search and the Earnings Gap: Evidence from Business Majors," IZA Discussion Papers 14373, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Haeckl, Simone & Kartal, Melis, 2021. "Does a stereotype benefit women in the labor market: An experiment on perseverance," UiS Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2021/5, University of Stavanger.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • J00 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - General
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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