Explaining Age and Gender Differences in Employment Rates: A Labor Supply Side Perspective

Stephan Humpert and Christian Pfeifer ()

No 449, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: This paper takes a labor supply perspective (neoclassical labor supply, job search) to explain the lower employment rates of older workers and women. The basic rationale is that workers choose non-employed if their reservation wages are larger than the offered wages. Whereas the offered wages depend on workers' productivity and firms' decisions, reservation wages are largely determined by workers' endowments and preferences for leisure. To shed some empirical light on this issue, we use German survey data to analyze age and gender differences in reservation and entry wages, preferred and actual working hours, and satisfaction with leisure and work.

Keywords: Age; family gap; gender; job search; labor supply; reservation wages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J14 J22 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 66 p.
Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-dem, nep-lab and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.401328.de/diw_sp0449.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Explaining age and gender differences in employment rates: a labor supply side perspective (2013)
Journal Article: Explaining age and gender differences in employment rates: a labor supply-side perspective (2013)
Working Paper: Explaining Age and Gender Differences in Employment Rates: A Labor Supply Side Perspective (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp449

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