Economic globalization and gender inequality: Trade and its differential impact on employment and wages

• In Event: 2451 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 8. Income Disparities

Abstract

In many industrialized societies we observe persistent gender pay gaps and while labor force
participation of women is increasing, it is also consistently found to be lower than men's participation. The persistence of gender inequality seems surprising, given recent developments of globalization and the sectoral shift from male dominated industrial production to service work. In this paper, we address the question of how economic globalization affects gender inequality. Using employer-employee linked administrative data, we analyze trade flows between Germany and China as well as Eastern Europe. We use an instrumental variable approach to identify the causal effects of trade exposure on men's and women's labor force participation and wages in Germany. We show that imports, and to a lesser degree exports, affect female and male labor market outcomes differentially. While women seem to be overproportionally negatively affected by imports, their labor force participation also does not seem to improve through increasing exports. We ascribe these disproportional effects mainly to occupational sex segregation and differences in men's and women's position in firms affected by trade.

Authors

• Malte Reichelt, New York University Abu Dhabi

• Samreen Malik, New York University Abu Dhabi

• Suesse Marvin, Trinity College Dublin