Publications

Abstract: A vast literature on gender wage gaps has examined the importance of selection into employment. However, most analyses have focused only on female labour force participation and gaps at the median. The Great Recession questions this approach because of the major shift in male employment that it implied. This paper uses the methodology proposed by Arellano and Bonhomme (2017) to estimate a quantile selection model over the period 2007–2018. Using a tax and benefit microsimulation model, I compute an instrument capturing both male and female decisions to participate in the labour market: the potential out-of-work income. Since my instrument is crucially determined by the welfare state, I consider three countries with notably different benefit systems – the UK, France and Finland. My results imply different selection patterns across countries and a sizeable male selection in France and the UK. Correction for selection bias lowers the gender wage gap and reveals a substantial glass ceiling with different magnitudes. Findings suggest that disparities between these countries are driven by occupational segregation and public spending on families.

Presentations: EALE 2023 (Scheduled), LAGV 2023, Ninth ECINEQ Meeting of The Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, ECINEQ PhD Workshop participants at the London School of Economics, 14th Workshop on Labour Economics (IAAEU), the 4th QMUL Economics Workshop for PhD and Post-doctoral Students, the 2022 French Stata conference, PhD seminar at the Aix-Marseille School of Economics, Labour Chair seminar at the Paris School of Economics

Working papers

Abstract: Recent explanations of the gender wage gap emphasize the role of gender differences in psychological traits. Nevertheless, there have been only a limited number of studies confirming the relevance of these factors for labour market outcomes. This paper assesses the role of gender specific preferences in the reservation wage gap during the job search. I use French administrative data from the unemployment insurance agency providing information on job search behaviour and previous outcomes to assess which kind of occupations men and women apply for and the gap in their reservation wages. Employing text analysis, I build a novel dataset classifying occupations with respect to a number of characteristics and examine to which extent men and women differ in the occupation they are looking for. I document widespread gender differences in the occupation characteristics targeted by job seekers. Quantile decomposition methods allow me to document an unequal gap in reservation wage, intensifying along the distribution. After adjusting for occupation characteristics reflecting gender-biased preferences and household constraints, the unexplained part of the reservation wage gap is decreased by half. Investigating unemployment history and outcomes from previous interviews with firms, I do not find evidence of a female risk aversion to previous unemployment shocks or male overconfidence.

Presentations: European Association of Labour Economists (EALE) Conference 2022, International Association for Applied Econometrics (IAAE) Conference 2022, LAGV 2022, JMA 2022, Food for Thought seminar at Bocconi University, Labour Chair Seminar at the Paris School of Economics, Firms and market seminar at CREST, Core Brown Bag Seminar at Louvain University, ADRES 2023 and PhD seminar at the Aix Marseille School of Economics

With Cecilia García-Peñalosa (AMSE, CNRS, EHESS) & Christian Schluter (AMSE)

Abstract: In France, the gender wage gap for the 20% of the workforce living in the densest locations is 22% lower than that for those living in the bottom 20% of the density distribution, indicating that women benefit more from urban density than men. This paper explores the importance of geographical location for understanding the gender wage gap. Following the recent literature on economic geography that takes into account the endogeneity of location, we estimate the difference in the returns to urban density across genders. We build an exhaustive matched employer-employee panel database based on administrative data that allows us to follow almost all French workers during the period 2005-2019. Our results show that earnings increase with density for both men and women, with a significantly higher urban wage premium for women, which is about 55\% larger than for men. We consider different mechanisms that may explain this pattern, such as the difference in returns to experience, access to childcare facilities and the structure of the local labour market. Our findings suggest that these factors explain all of the gender gap in earnings from living in denser areas.

Presentations: PhD seminar at the Aix Marseille School of Economics, Paris School of Economics Labour Chair seminar, GRAPE 2023 Gender Gaps Conference, Bocconi Food for Thought seminar (Scheduled)

Gender Norms and Child Development, with Hélène Le Forner (CREM) & Sarah Vincent (AMSE)
Changing the media narrative: the role of social movements, with Caroline Coly (Bocconi University)