Gender-Specific Application Behavior, Matching, and the Residual Gender Earnings Gap

Benjamin Lochner and Christian Merkl

No 16686, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper analyzes the relationship between gender-specific application behavior, employer-side flexibility requirements, and the gender earnings gap using a unique combination of the German Job Vacancy Survey (JVS) linked to administrative employment records. We document that women have a substantially lower probability of applying to jobs with high flexibility requirements at high-wage firms than do men but have the same probability of being hired upon application. In our two-stage search model, these empirical patterns are rationalized by firms compensating workers for meeting employer-side flexibility requirements. Consistently, we empirically show that among women, mothers face the largest earnings discounts relative to men in jobs with high flexibility requirements.

Keywords: job search; application behavior; gender earnings gap (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J16 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 64 pages
Date: 2023-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
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Working Paper: Gender-Specific Application Behavior, Matching, and the Residual Gender Earnings Gap (2022)
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