Why choose women's work if it pays less? A structural model of occupational choice

Melinda Pitts

No 2002-30, FRB Atlanta Working Paper from Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Abstract: This paper controls for the selection bias associated with occupational choice and the labor force participation decision in estimating the wage penalty for working in female-dominated occupations. Using data from the May 1979 and the April 1993 supplements to the Current Population Survey, the author finds that women working in female-dominated occupations have similar or higher expected wages in their chosen occupation compared to nonfemale-dominated occupations. This result indicates that there is efficient matching between occupations and skills for women in the labor force and refutes the theories of occupational segregation or crowding as determinants of the gender wage differential.

Keywords: Employment (Economic theory); Wages; Labor supply (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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