Working Paper: NBER ID: w24274
Authors: Guido Matias Cortes; Nir Jaimovich; Henry E. Siu
Abstract: We document a new finding regarding changes in labor market outcomes for high-skilled men and women in the US. Since 1980, conditional on being a college-educated man, the probability of working in a cognitive/high-wage occupation has fallen. This contrasts starkly with the experience for college-educated women: their probability of working in these occupations rose, despite a much larger increase in the supply of educated women relative to men. We show that one key channel capable of rationalizing these findings is a greater increase in the demand for female-oriented skills in cognitive/high-wage occupations relative to other occupations. Using occupation-level data, we find evidence that this relative increase in the demand for female skills is due to an increasing importance of social skills within such occupations. Evidence from both male and female wages is also indicative of an increase in the demand for social skills. Finally, we document how these patterns change across the early and latter portions of the period.
Keywords: high-skilled labor market; gender disparities; social skills; occupational choice
JEL Codes: E24; J16; J23
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| increase in the demand for female skills relative to male skills (J29) | shift in labor demand favoring women (J21) |
| increase in the female share of employment in cognitive occupations (J21) | increase in the importance of social skills (Z13) |
| increase in the importance of social skills (Z13) | increased representation of women in high-skilled occupations (J21) |
| decrease in the probability of a college-educated male working in cognitive-high-wage occupations (J69) | increase in the probability for college-educated women (J79) |
| increase in the demand for social skills (J29) | increase in the female share of employment in good jobs (J21) |