Globalized markets, globalized information, and female employment: accounting for regional differences in 30 OECD countries

Fischer, Justina A.V. (2014): Globalized markets, globalized information, and female employment: accounting for regional differences in 30 OECD countries.

Abstract

Accounting for within-country spatial differences is a neglected aspect in many cross-country comparisons. This paper highlights this importance in this empirical analysis of the impact of a country’s degree of informational and economic globalization on female employment in 30 OECD countries, using a micro pseudo panel of 110’000 persons derived from five waves of repeated cross-sections from the World Values Survey, 1981 to 2008. I conjecture that informational globalization affects societal values and perceived economic opportunities, while economic globalization impacts actual economic opportunities. A traditional cross-country analysis suggests that the informational dimension of globalization but not the economic one increases the probability of employment for women – contradicting the Becker (1957)-hypothesis of international competition mitigating discrimination in employment. However, accounting for sub-national regional gender heterogeneity reveals that the impact of worldwide information exchange works rather at the regional level, while economic globalization (trade) increases female employment in general.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Globalization; economic integration; labor market; employment; regions; social norms; communication; discrimination; gender; World Values Survey
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D83 - Search ; Learning ; Information and Knowledge ; Communication ; Belief ; Unawareness; F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F14 - Empirical Studies of Trade; F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F16 - Trade and Labor Market Interactions; F - International Economics > F6 - Economic Impacts of Globalization > F61 - Microeconomic Impacts; F - International Economics > F6 - Economic Impacts of Globalization > F66 - Labor; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J16 - Economics of Gender ; Non-labor Discrimination; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J7 - Labor Discrimination > J71 - Discrimination; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R2 - Household Analysis > R23 - Regional Migration ; Regional Labor Markets ; Population ; Neighborhood Characteristics; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology

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