Gender Gaps and the Rise of the Service Economy

L. Rachel Ngai and Barbara Petrongolo

No 8134, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper investigates the role of the rise of services in the narrowing of gender gaps in hours and wages in recent decades. We document the between-industry component of the rise in female work for the U.S., and propose a model economy with goods, services and home production, in which women have a comparative advantage in producing market and home services. The rise of services, driven by structural transformation and marketization of home production, acts as a gender-biased demand shift raising women's relative wages and market hours. Quantitatively, the model accounts for an important share of the observed trends.

Keywords: marketization; structural transformation; gender gaps (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J16 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2014-04
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 (40)

Published - published in: American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2017, 9, 1-44

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https://docs.iza.org/dp8134.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 (2013)
Working Paper: Gender gaps and the rise of the service economy (2013)
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