SORTING, SOCIAL COMPARISON AND WOMEN’S JOB SATISFACTION

Margherita Agnoletto (), Lorenzo Cappellari and Astrid Gamba ()
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Margherita Agnoletto: Catholic University of Milan
Astrid Gamba: Department of Economics, University of Insubria

Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Sociali, 2020, vol. 128, issue 1, 51-66

Abstract: Using linked employer-employee data for the UK we address competing explanations for gender gaps in job satisfaction. Previous studies have rationalized the puzzling greater satisfaction of women either by pointing out gender differences in competitive attitudes, or through differences in sorting across jobs and industries. Our data allow us to test both explanations within a unified framework. The employer-employee structure of the data enables us to control for workplace unobserved heterogeneity that drives sorting. Moreover, we exploit information on workplace average wages to investigate workers’ attitudes through the framework of social comparison within the firm. We show that while social comparison matters empirically, gender differences in social comparison are not enough to account for job satisfaction gaps. Instead, controlling for workplace heterogeneity resolves the puzzle, lending support to the sorting hypothesis

Keywords: Job satisfaction; Gender; Social comparison; Firms; Linked employer-employee data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 J16 J28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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