Monday, February 02, 2009

Psychological Traits and the Gender Gap in Wages

Nils Braakmann from Leuphana University, Lüneburg has used the German Socio-Economic Panel to show that differences in various non-cognitive traits, specifically the “Big Five”, positive and negative reciprocity, locus of control and risk aversion, contribute to gender inequalities in wages and employment. The evidence suggests that gender differences in psychological traits are more important for inequalities in wages than in employment. Differences in the “Big Five”, in particular in agreeableness, conscientiousness and neurocitism matter for both wages and employment. The paper is available here.

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