papers on female labour market

understanding the gender pay gap: what's competition got to do with it? (with farzad saidi).

industrial and labor relations review, 2010, 63, 681-698. download from journal

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some recent research from laboratory experiments suggests that a sizeable part of the gender pay gap can be explained by the fact that women avoid competition and perform less well in competitive environments, especially when in competition with men. we argue that the evidence of the distribution of women across performance pay contracts and their wages when in them provide little support for this hypothesis in reality

the gender gap in early-career wage growth (with joanna swaffield).

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on entry to the labour market, men and women earn the same but 10 years later there is a wage gap of 24 log points? this paper investigates human capital, job-shopping and psychological theories but still fails to explain half the gap. for the other half, answers on a postcard please....

gender gaps in unemployment rates in oecd countries (with g. azmat and m. guell).

journal of labor economics, 2006, 24, 1-38 download from journal

cep discussion paper no.607, january 2004 download discussion paper

there is big variation in gender gaps in unemployment rates across oecd countries. while it is easy to undertand why more men than women may want jobs it is not so obvious why, once they have decided they want a job, women in some countries may find it harder than men to get one. do we explain it all? - no, but the gender pay gap is hard to fully explain as well and that never stopped people writing papers on that. but we do suggest that discriminatory attitudes are part of the explanation.

the part-time pay penalty (with b. petrongolo).

report to women and equality unit get report here

also some of findings published in economic journal 2008, 118, F28-F51 download from journal

asks why there is such a big pay gap between part-time and full-time women in the uk and a comparison with other eu countries. partly characteristics but mostly occupational segregation. women who want to work part-time seem to suffer downward occupational mobility

the equal pay act as an experiment to test different theories of the labour market.

argues that the changes in female employment after the dramatic fall in the gender pay gap as a result of the 1970 uk equal pay act are more in line with what would be expected in a monopsonistic labour market than a competitive one.

something in the way she moves: a fresh look at an old gap (with h.robinson)

proposes a decomposition of the gender pay gap and the ft-pt pay gap for panel data into a pay gap for entrants to the labour market, a gap in wage growth and a gap in labour market transitions. suggests pt women are so badly-paid because they tend to be re-entrants to employment.