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Convex Earnings, Childcare, and the Gender Pay Gap: An Exploratory Study of Canadian College Graduates

Hedenstierna Jonson, August LU (2024) NEKH01 20232
Department of Economics
Abstract
In the last ten years labor economists have become increasingly interested in convex earnings structures in the labor market and their impact on the gender pay gap, an approach spearheaded by Claudia Goldin in her 2014 Presidential Address to the American Economic Association. The study has seen widespread acclaim, but very little replication. This study replicates parts of Claudia Goldin’s work, applying it to college graduates in Canada and in five subnational provinces and regions. First, using 2015-2017 releases of the Canadian Labour Force Survey, it plots the gender pay gap residual across different age categories. Second, it investigates the correlation between the pay gap residual and convex earnings structures as proxied by the... (More)
In the last ten years labor economists have become increasingly interested in convex earnings structures in the labor market and their impact on the gender pay gap, an approach spearheaded by Claudia Goldin in her 2014 Presidential Address to the American Economic Association. The study has seen widespread acclaim, but very little replication. This study replicates parts of Claudia Goldin’s work, applying it to college graduates in Canada and in five subnational provinces and regions. First, using 2015-2017 releases of the Canadian Labour Force Survey, it plots the gender pay gap residual across different age categories. Second, it investigates the correlation between the pay gap residual and convex earnings structures as proxied by the elasticity of income with respect to work hours. Third, it considers this correlation separately for individuals with and without children, and in light of provincial differences in childcare patterns, as recorded by Statistics Canada’s General Social Survey on Time Use. The study does not attempt to establish statistical significance, but instead uses descriptive statistics to sketch an outline of patterns that would need further analysis to confirm. The results suggest that there is a gender pay gap present among college graduates in Canada that cannot be explained by age, profession, tenure or the raw number of work hours. There is mixed evidence that this can be explained by convex earnings structures for the population at large, though the evidence is stronger when only individuals with children are considered. (Less)
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author
Hedenstierna Jonson, August LU
supervisor
organization
course
NEKH01 20232
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Gender pay gap, Canada, Convex earnings structures, Elasticity of income with respect to work hours, Childcare patterns
language
English
id
9147973
date added to LUP
2024-04-16 09:24:22
date last changed
2024-04-16 09:24:22
@misc{9147973,
  abstract     = {{In the last ten years labor economists have become increasingly interested in convex earnings structures in the labor market and their impact on the gender pay gap, an approach spearheaded by Claudia Goldin in her 2014 Presidential Address to the American Economic Association. The study has seen widespread acclaim, but very little replication. This study replicates parts of Claudia Goldin’s work, applying it to college graduates in Canada and in five subnational provinces and regions. First, using 2015-2017 releases of the Canadian Labour Force Survey, it plots the gender pay gap residual across different age categories. Second, it investigates the correlation between the pay gap residual and convex earnings structures as proxied by the elasticity of income with respect to work hours. Third, it considers this correlation separately for individuals with and without children, and in light of provincial differences in childcare patterns, as recorded by Statistics Canada’s General Social Survey on Time Use. The study does not attempt to establish statistical significance, but instead uses descriptive statistics to sketch an outline of patterns that would need further analysis to confirm. The results suggest that there is a gender pay gap present among college graduates in Canada that cannot be explained by age, profession, tenure or the raw number of work hours. There is mixed evidence that this can be explained by convex earnings structures for the population at large, though the evidence is stronger when only individuals with children are considered.}},
  author       = {{Hedenstierna Jonson, August}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Convex Earnings, Childcare, and the Gender Pay Gap: An Exploratory Study of Canadian College Graduates}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}