The End of Men and Rise of Women in the High-Skilled Labor Market

Nir Jaimovich, Henry Siu and Guido Matias Cortes

No 809, 2017 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics

Abstract: We document a new finding regarding the deterioration of labor market outcomes for men in the US: Since 1980, the probability that a college-educated man was employed in a cognitive/high-wage occupation fell. This contrasts starkly with the experience of college-educated women: their probability of working in these occupations rose, despite a much larger increase in the supply of educated women relative to men during this period. We study a general neoclassical model of the labor market that allows us to shed light on the forces capable of rationalizing these observations. The model indicates that one key channel is a greater increase in the demand for female-oriented skills in cognitive/high-wage occupations relative to other occupations. Using occupational-level data from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, we find evidence that this relative increase in the demand for female skills is due to an increasing importance of social skills within such occupations. We find a strong and robust relationship between the change in the female share of employment and the importance of social skills in an occupation over time.

Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-dge and nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: The "End of Men" and Rise of Women in the High-Skilled Labor Market (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:red:sed017:809

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