A microeconomic examination of the relationship between occupational gender segregation and taste differences.

Abstract

This work examines the impact of taste difference between genders for non-pecuniary work characteristics on occupational outcome. This is accomplished by estimating reservation wages for workers across several job categories. Additionally, wage distributions are estimated in the occupations. This allows for the generation of a distribution of workers across jobs. By matching workers with jobs based on only reservation wages and the distribution of wages, the resulting distribution of workers is unaffected by any employer controlled factors. Several sets of results are generated based on different assumptions concerning the amount of information used in matching workers with jobs. Each of these sets of results is then examined for gender segregation and also compared to the segregation observed in the labor market. In general, the results here find some evidence that gender based taste differences matter in the job matching process, but this evidence is modest. Further, there is no evidence to support the hypothesis that these taste difference explain the segregation patterns in the workplace.