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SPECIAL ISSUE: WOMEN AND WAGES


A supplementary issue of Oxford Economic Papers is available.

READ the special issue now.


Edited by Mary Gregory, Miriam Beblo, Wiemer Salverda, and
Ioannis Theodossiou

The papers in this Special Issue address key issues for ‘women and work’, the
challenge of reconciling work and family, drawing on a range of European
experience. The eight papers included are developed from contributions to the
conference ‘Women, Work, and Wages’ held in September 2007 under the auspices
of the EU-funded Low-Wage Employment Research Network (LoWER) which had
‘Women and Low Pay’ as one of its research areas. The assessment of social policies
and labour market features in this area pose major challenges for economic
modelling. Choices over childbearing, employment breaks, and jobs have implications
which extend over much of the life-cycle, requiring a dynamic perspective.

The decisions are not only complex, but typically jointly determined, raising issues
of simultaneity and endogeneity. Heterogeneity in tastes and preferences, largely
unobservable, play a significant role. Social systems and policy environments vary
widely across countries, and function as a systemic whole as well as a set of
individual provisions. This last feature, however, is also an opportunity, providing
a test-bed for examining the responses of women where the labour market and/or
social policies give a particularly appropriate context. The topics analysed include
the motherhood wage gap, the wage penalty to part-time work, depreciation of
occupational human capital during career breaks, women’s spell durations in low
pay and exit destinations, fertility and labour participation, and the childcare
decision.

Contributors:
Miriam Beblo, Stefan Bender, and Elke Wolf
Bianca Buligescu, Denis de Crombrugghe, Gu¨lc¸in Mentes¸og˘lu, and
Raymond Montizaan
Karen Mumford and Peter Smith
Sara Connolly and Mary Gregory
Dennis Go¨rlich and Andries de Grip
Euan Phimister and Ioannis Theodossiou
Daniela Del Boca, Silvia Pasqua, and Chiara Pronzato
Katja Coneus, Grit Muehler, and Kathrin Goeggel