Comparative advantage or discrimination? : studying male-female wage differentials using displaced workers

Abstract

We examine differences in search behavior between men and women using data on displaced workers. We find that men and women have similar search duration once we limit our estimation to women with a constant number of children in the household. We also find that the quality of job matches is similar for men and women. Finally, we find that much of the male/female wage differential is accounted for by changes in the number of children in the household. These results suggest that differences in search behavior between men and women are due to differences in nonmarket opportunities.