Noncognitive skills, occupational attainment, and relative wages

Arbeitspapier

This paper examines whether men's and women's noncognitive skills influence their occupational attainment and, if so, whether this contributes to the disparity in their relative wages. We find that noncognitive skills have a substantial effect on the probability of employment in many, though not all, occupations in ways that differ by gender. Consequently, men and women with similar noncognitive skills enter occupations at very different rates. Women, however, have lower wages on average not because they work in different occupations than men do, but rather because they earn less than their male colleagues employed in the same occupation. On balance, women's noncognitive skills give them a slight wage advantage. Finally, we find that accounting for the endogeneity of occupational attainment more than halves the proportion of the overall gender wage gap that is unexplained.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 4289

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
• Subject: Noncognitve skills ; personality ; occupation ; gender wage gap ; decomposition ; Lohndifferenzierung ; Kognition ; Qualifikation ; Erwerbsverlauf ; Geschlecht ; Dekompositionsverfahren ; Schätzung ; Australien

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. ; Tan, Michelle
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2009

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/36215
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-20090821110
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET