Gender-Specific Application Behavior, Matching, and the Residual Gender Earnings Gap

Arbeitspapier

This paper analyzes the relationship between gender-specific application behavior, employer-side flexibility requirements, and the gender earnings gap using a unique combination of the German Job Vacancy Survey (JVS) linked to administrative employment records. We document that women have a substantially lower probability of applying to jobs with high flexibility requirements at high-wage firms than do men but have the same probability of being hired upon application. In our two-stage search model, these empirical patterns are rationalized by firms compensating workers for meeting employer-side flexibility requirements. Consistently, we empirically show that among women, mothers face the largest earnings discounts relative to men in jobs with high flexibility requirements.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 16686

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
• Subject: job search ; application behavior ; gender earnings gap

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Lochner, Benjamin ; Merkl, Christian
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2023

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/282813
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET