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Male-Female Wage Gap and Vertical Occupational Segmentation: the Role of Work Attitude

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2016

Olivier Baguelin
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Summary

OECD countries are concerned with strong male-female disparities in the labour market, in particular: with a wage gap in favour of men; with a strong gender occupational segmentation. Although empirical studies suggest malefemale differences in work attitudes have a part in these facts, this aspect is often overlooked in economic theory. In this paper, we propose an employment relationship model to capture the role of work attitudes. We consider agents exhibiting self-esteem motives which may represent a source of non pecuniary work motivation. Depending on the optimal contract, an agent develops such a motivation or not. We rely on this model to offer an explanation of observed disparities. The model accounts for a gendered vertically segmented labour market with an overrepresentation of women in low effort requirement poorly-paid jobs.

Résumé

Résumé

Les économies de l'OCDE présentent de fortes disparités de genre sur le marché du travail, en particulier : un écart salarial favorable aux hommes; une forte segmentation professionnelle. Bien que l'analyse empirique pointe des différences hommes-femmes de rapport à l'emploi, cet aspect est largement absent de la littérature théorique. Le présent article propose un modèle de relation d'emploi permettant d'en tenir compte. Nous considérons des agents ayant des préoccupations d'estime de soi. Dans le contexte professionnel, cela peut représenter une motivation non pécuniaire à l'effort : tout dépend du contrat proposé par l'employeur. Nous nous appuyons sur ce modèle pour proposer une interprétation des disparités observées. Le modèle donne lieu à une segmentation verticale du marché du travail avec une surreprésentation des femmes parmi les emplois peu rémunérés.

Keywords

motivation non pécuniaire au travaildiscrimination de genreNon pecuniary work motivationGender discrimination

JEL classification

J71: Discrimination J24: Human Capital • Skills • Occupational Choice • Labor Productivity Z13: Economic Sociology • Economic Anthropology • Language • Social and Economic Stratification
Type
Research Article
Information
Recherches Économiques de Louvain/ Louvain Economic Review , Volume 76 , Issue 1 , 2010 , pp. 31 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de recherches économiques et sociales 2010 

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Footnotes

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Centre d'études de l'emploi March 9, 2010

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