Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Female Underemployment - Job Attributes and Labor Supply Decisions

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

This research project will study how gender-related workplace attributes and family pressures affect labor supply decisions of recent high school and college women graduates. Despite increasing female educational attainment, female labor force participation (FLFP) remains low and lags that of men in many parts of the world. This research involves an information experiment on a labor market platform in which individual job-seekers are randomly selected to receive information about the gender composition of the firm and/or gender of the supervisor at positions they are matched with. The jobseeker is also asked about how her family feels about the job match. The researchers are interested in whether the job-seeker chooses to apply to the positions for which she is matched with. The results of this experiment are matched with a series of questions that measure differences between the jobseeker's preferences and her perceptions of her family's preferences regarding her job search to shed light on how family concerns and job place characteristics jointly affect female labor supply decisions. The results of this research project will provide inputs into policies to increase female labor supply and in the process, enhance economic growth and reduce gender income inequality. This research project will use field experiments to investigate the effects of gender-related job and firm characteristics and family and social perceptions on female labor supply. The PIs will provide information about work place and firm characteristics, such as the gender composition of workers, supervisor's gender, and hours of work, to randomly selected individual prospective job-seekers as well as elicit information about familial consent of the job and firm characteristics to see how these affect the jobseeker's labor supply decisions. In a cross-randomization, individuals are primed to think about their family's job search advice. The outcome of interest is whether the job-seeker chooses to apply to each of the positions for which she is matched and meets the basic qualifications. The results of this experiment are matched with a series of willingness-to-pay vignettes that measure differences between her own preferences and her perceptions of her family's preferences regarding her job search, to shed light on household constraints on female labor supply decisions. The results of this research will shed light on why female labor force participation in many parts of the world has not kept pace with increased female education. The results will also provide inputs into policies to employ increasing female human capital, hence lead to faster economic growth, increased income, and possibly gender equity in incomes. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.