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Title: The End of Men and Rise of Women in the High-Skilled Labor Market
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2016
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Abstract: We document a new finding regarding the deterioration of labor market outcomes for men in the US: Since 1980, the probability that a college-educated man was employed in a cognitive/high-wage occupation fell. This contrasts starkly with the experience of college-educated women: their probability of working in these types of jobs rose, despite a much larger increase in the supply of educated women relative to men during this period. We study a flexible neoclassical model of the labor market that allows us to shed light on the key forces capable of rationalizing these findings. The model indicates that one key channel is a greater increase in the demand for female-oriented skills in cognitive/high-wage occupations relative to other occupations. Using occupational task-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. We find a strong and robust relationship between the change in the female share of employment and the importance of social skills in an occupation over time.
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Authors: Cortes, Guido M; Jaimovich, Nir; Siu, Henry E
Publisher: NBER
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Education, Gender, Labor Force and Occupational Structure
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