Gender Gaps and the Rise of the Service Economy

L. Rachel Ngai and Barbara Petrongolo

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: This paper explains the narrowing of gender gaps in wages and market hours in recent decades by the growth of the service economy. We propose a model with three sectors: goods, services and home production. Women have a comparative advantage in the production of services in the market and at home. The growth of the services sector, in turn driven by structural transformation and marketization of home services, acts as a gender-biased demand shift and leads to a rise in women's wages and market hours relative to men. Quantitatively, the model accounts for an important share of the observed rise in women's relative wage and market hours and the fall in men's market hours.

Keywords: gender gaps; structural transformation; marketization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J16 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-lab, nep-lma and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1204.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Gender Gaps and the Rise of the Service Economy (2017)
Working Paper: Gender gaps and the rise of the service economy (2017)
Working Paper: Gender Gaps and the Rise of the Service Economy (2014)
Working Paper: Gender Gaps and the Rise of the Service Economy (2014)
Working Paper: Gender gaps and the rise of the service economy (2014)
Working Paper: Gender Gaps and the Rise of the Service Economy (2014)
Working Paper: Gender gaps and the rise of the service economy (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1204

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