Contribution of the Behavioural Economics to the Explanation of the Gender Wage Level Differences

Dagmar Brožová

Prague Economic Papers, 2019, vol. 2019, issue 6, 748-758

Abstract: There is still a significant gender wage gap on labour markets in the majority of developed countries. The different earnings are determined mainly by the different sectors, professions and positions that men and women choose. The behavioural approach to interpretation of the labour market agents' decisions can help to explain the choice of different working career paths. The approach focuses on subjective individual preferences and their intrinsic rewards and motivations that cannot be explained by objective rational rules. The paper confirms the different relation of men and women to risk and competition and different preferences to intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and rewards. The author's existing research on Czech data is used. Women indeed preferred a lower risk, although the difference was not large (-0.7 points on a scale of 0-10), while gender does not matter for people with university education. The level of accepted risk was increased by education, career preferences, pride and partnership. On the contrary, having children and their number did not affect the level of accepted risk. As far as extrinsic and intrinsic rewards and motivations were concerned, the preference for intrinsic rewards was higher among women (44%) than men (31%). Women preferred intrinsic rewards compared to higher wages more likely than men. Women with university education preferred intrinsic rewards with the same probability as men with the same degree of education. The preference of non-monetary rewards and motivation increased with higher education.

Keywords: rational choice model; behavioural model of the human agent; risk preference; social preference; intrinsic rewards; extrinsic rewards (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.722

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