Education, occupation and career expectations: determinants of the gender pay gap for UK graduates

Arnaud Chevalier

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: A large proportion of the gender wage gap is usually left unexplained. In this paper, we investigate whether the unexplained component is due to misspecification. Using a sample of recent UK graduates, we introduce variables on career expectations and character traits, variables that are typically not observed. The evidence indicates that women are more altruistic and less career-oriented than men. The main difference concerns career break expectations which explains 10% of the gender wage gap in our favoured model. By omitting attitudinal variables most studies are likely to over-estimate the unexplained component of the gender wage gap. Women with a more traditional view concerning childrearing are also found to have less intensive search behaviour. These results suggest that without a change in attitudes, the gender wage gap is likely to remain at its current level.

Keywords: Gender wage gap; attitude (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J16 J29 J70 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2006-08
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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/19409/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Education, Occupation and Career Expectations: Determinants of the Gender Pay Gap for UK Graduates* (2007)
Working Paper: Education, Occupation and Career Expectations: Determinants of the Gender Pay Gap for UK Graduates (2006)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:19409

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