Macroeconomics Seminar - Michelle Rendall (Monash University)

Macroeconomic Seminar Series

Room 315, Level 3, FBE Building, 111 Barry Street, Carlton

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Mei Dong

mei.dong@unimelb.edu.au

T: +61 3 8344 1209

Title: The Role of Gender in Employment Polarization

Abstract: We document that U.S. employment polarization in the 1980-2008 period is largely generated by women. Changes in female employment shares generate the typical Ushape polarization graph, while male employment shares decrease more homogeneously along the skill distribution. We show that a canonical model of skill-biased technological change augmented with a gender dimension, an endogenous market/home labor choice and a multi-sector environment accounts well for gender and overall employment polarization. The model also accounts for the absence of employment polarization during the 1960-1980 period and the evolution of employment shares across decades during the 1980-2008 period.