Do wages fall when women enter an occupation?

Jorgen Harris

Labour Economics, 2022, vol. 74, issue C

Abstract: I present causal evidence on the effect of women's entry into occupations on wages in the United States. I construct a shift-share instrument that interacts the dramatic increase in women's educational attainment and workforce participation from 1960 to 2010 with the likelihood that men and women enter each occupation. I find that a 10 percentage-point increase in the female fraction within an occupation leads to an 8 percent decrease in average male wage and a 7 percent decrease in average female wage in the concurrent census year, and an 9 percent decrease in male wages and a 14 percent decrease in female wages over 10 years.

Keywords: Economics of gender; Occupational choice; Human capital; Wage differentials; Discrimination; Labor force composition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J24 J31 J71 J82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:labeco:v:74:y:2022:i:c:s0927537121001378

DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2021.102102

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