P18: Gender and labor markets

Gender gaps in labor markets are a universal phenomenon. For every ten men participating in the labor market between three to eight women do so, depending on the region of the world. Once women participate in the labor market, they tend to concentrate in certain sectors and often occupy subordinate positions within hierarchies. Understanding the drivers of labor market segregation is important not only on its own right but also as gender equity in the labor market can be associated with higher productivity, a better representation of the interests of minority and underrepresented groups, and long term changes in attitudes towards female leaders and women.

The project focuses on how preferences with respect to the structure and the objectives of an organization affect men?s and women?s willingness to take leadership roles, the determinants of female labor force participation, going beyond the standard textbook explanatory variables of wages, opportunity costs, and unearned income, and intends to empirically investigate the drivers of differential progress in closing gender gaps.