Sexism, Social Outcomes, and the Gender Wage Gap

Owen, Ann L. and Wei, Andrew (2020): Sexism, Social Outcomes, and the Gender Wage Gap.

Abstract

Using Google Trends data to identify hostile sexism, we find that sexism explains about 8 cents (or 41 percent) of the residual gender wage gap, the wage gap after controlling for education, occupation, industry, and age. We find evidence for a direct effect of sexism consistent with labor market discrimination and an indirect effect that works through social outcomes that reduce hours worked which itself directly affects wages. Consistent with theories of discrimination, the direct impact of sexism is greater for women who are less educated, work in less competitive industries, and work in industries with fewer female workers.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: gender wage gap, sexism, discrimination
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J10 - General; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs > J31 - Wage Level and Structure ; Wage Differentials; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J7 - Labor Discrimination > J71 - Discrimination

References

Akerlof, George A., and Rachel E. Kranton. 2000. “Economics and Identity.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115 (3): 715-753.

Alesina, Alberto, Paola Giuliano, and Nathan Nunn. 2013. “On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 128 (2): 469-530.

Autor, David, David Dorn, Lawrence F. Katz, Christina Patterson, and John Van Reenen. 2020. “The Fall of the Labor Share and the Rise of Superstar Firms.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 135 (2): 645-709.

Bailey, Martha J., Melanie E. Guldi, and Brad J. Hershbein. 2014. “Is There a Case for a ‘Second Demographic Transition’? Three Distinctive Features of the Post-1960 US Fertility Decline.” In Human Capital in History: The American Record, edited by Leah Platt Boustan, Carola Frydman, and Robert A. Margo, 273-312, University of Chicago Press.

Beaudry, Paul, and Ethan Lewis. 2014. “Do Male-Female Wage Differentials Reflect Differences in the Return to Skill? Cross-City Evidence from 1980-2000.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 6(2): 178-94.

Becker, Gary. S. 1971. The Economics of Discrimination, Second edition. Chicago and London: University of Chicago press, 1957.

Becker, Gary. S. 1985. “Human Capital, Effort, and the Sexual Division of Labor.” Journal of Labor Economics, 3 (1, Part 2): S33-S58.

Berinsky, Adam. 1999. “The Two Faces of Public Opinion.” American Journal of Political Science, 43 (October): 1209-1230.

Berinsky, Adam. J. 2002. “Political Context and the Survey Response: The Dynamics of Racial Policy Opinion.” Journal of Politics, 64(2): 567-584.

Bertrand, Marianne, Emir Kamenica, and Jessica Pan. 2015. “Gender Identity and Relative Income Within Households.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130(2): 571-614.

Black, Dan A. 1995. “Discrimination in an Equilibrium Search Model.” Journal of labor Economics, 13 (2): 309-334.

Black, Sandra E., and Alexandra Spitz-Oener. 2010. “Explaining Women's Success: Technological Change and the Skill Content of Women's Work.” Review of Economics and Statistics, 92(1): 187-194.

Black, Dan. A., Natalia Kolesnikova, and Lowell J. Taylor. 2014. “Why do so few women work in New York (and so many in Minneapolis)? Labor supply of married women across US cities.” Journal of Urban Economics, 79: 59-71.

Blau, Francine. D., and Lawrence M. Kahn. 2017. “The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations.” Journal of Economic Literature, 55(3): 789-865.

Bound, John, Charles Brown, and Nancy Mathiowetz. 2001. “Measurement Error in Survey Data.” In Handbook of Econometrics (Vol. 5, pp. 3705-3843). Elsevier.

Bursztyn, Leonardo, Thomas Fujiwara, and Amanda Pallais. 2017. “'Acting Wife': Marriage Market Incentives and Labor Market Investments.” American Economic Review, 107(11): 3288-3319.

Carlana, Michela. 2019. “Implicit Stereotypes: Evidence from Teachers’ Gender Bias.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 134(3): 1163-1224.

Charles, Kerwin K., and Jonathan Guryan. 2008. “Prejudice and Wages: An Empirical Assessment of Becker’s The Economics of Discrimination.” Journal of Political Economy, 116(5): 773-809.

Charles, Kerwin K., Jonathan Guryan, and Jessica Pan. 2009. “Sexism and Women’s Labor Market Outcomes.” Unpublished manuscript, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago.

Charles, Kerwin K., Jonathan Guryan, and Jessica Pan. 2018. “The Effects of Sexism on American Women: The Role of Norms vs. Discrimination” (No. w24904). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Fernandez, Raquel, and Alessandra Fogli. 2009. “Culture: An Empirical Investigation of Beliefs, Work, and Fertility.” American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 1(1): 146-77.

Glick, Peter, and Susan T. Fiske. 1996. “The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Differentiating Hostile and Benevolent Sexism.” Journal of personality and social psychology, 70(3): 491.

Glick, Peter, and Susan T. Fiske. 1997. “Hostile and Benevolent Sexism: Measuring Ambivalent Sexist Attitudes Toward Women.” Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21(1): 119-135.

Hall, Kira, and Mary Bucholtz. 2012. Gender articulated: Language and the socially constructed self. Routledge.

Hersch, Joni, and Leslie S. Stratton. 1997. “Housework, Fixed Effects, and Wages of Married Workers.” Journal of Human Resources, 285-307.

Hersch, Joni, and Leslie S. Stratton. 2002. “Housework and Wages.” The Journal of Human Resources, 217-229.

Hirsch, Boris, Thorsten Schank, and Claus Schnabel. 2010. “Differences in Labor Supply to Monopsonistic Firms and the Gender Pay Gap: An Empirical Analysis Using Linked Employer-Employee Data from Germany.” Journal of Labor Economics 28(2): 291-330.

Hsieh, Chang-Tai, Erik Hurst, Charles I. Jones, and Peter J. Klenow. 2019. “The Allocation of Talent and U.S. Economic Growth.” Econometrica, 87(5): 1439-1474.

Janssen, Simon, Simone Tuor Sartore, and Uschi Backes-Gellner. 2016. “Discriminatory social attitudes and varying gender pay gaps within firms.” ILR Review, 69(1): 253-279.

Neumark, David, and Sanders Korenman. 1992. “Sources of bias in women's wage equations: results using sibling data” (No. w4019). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Lundberg, Shelly, and Elaina Rose. 2000. “Parenthood and the earnings of married men and women.” Labour Economics, 7(6): 689-710.

Owen, Ann. L., and Wei, Andrew. 2020. “Inequality and Bias in the Demand for and Supply of News.” Social Science Quarterly, 101(1), 91-106.

Stephens-Davidowitz, Seth. 2014. “The cost of racial animus on a black candidate: Evidence using Google search data.” Journal of Public Economics, 118, 26-40.

Tourangeau, Roger, and Ting Yan. 2007. “Sensitive Questions in Surveys.” Psychological bulletin, 133(5): 859.

Wright, Gerald, C. 1993. “Errors in Measuring Vote Choice in the National Election Studies, 1952-88.” American Journal of Political Science, 291-316.