The economics of gender /

The economics of gender /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Jacobsen, Joyce P.
Edition:3rd ed.
Imprint:Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub., 2007.
Description:xv, 482 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Language:English
Subject:
Women -- Economic conditions.
Women -- Social conditions.
Sex role in the work environment.
Sex discrimination.
Sex discrimination.
Sex role in the work environment.
Women -- Economic conditions.
Women -- Social conditions.
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/6283941
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9781405161824 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1405161825 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of Contents:
  • Preface
  • Part I. What Are the Issues in the Economics of Gender?
  • 1. Introduction
  • What is the economics of gender?
  • Why study the economics of gender?
  • How are men and women different?
  • Focus: Gender, gender, everywhere
  • Why are men and women different?
  • Focus: Why are women underrepresented in science?
  • Critiques of the economic approach
  • Communication between academic disciplines
  • Focus: Gender and metaphor in the language of economics
  • Summary
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading
  • Discussion questions
  • Appendix. The repercussions of scarcity
  • Opportunity cost
  • The marginal vs. total distinction
  • Markets
  • Focus: The intrinsic value paradox: Are diamonds and water like lawyers and child care workers?
  • Noncompetitive markets-monopoly and monopsony
  • Policy application: Effects of a minimum, wage
  • Endnotes
  • Discussion questions
  • 2. Gender Differences in the U.S. Economy
  • How much do men and women work?
  • Focus: Will men be tomorrow's "second sex"?
  • Where do women and men work?
  • How much money do men and women make?
  • How well-off are women and men?
  • Focus: Gender differences in charitable contributions
  • How do men and women allocate their time?
  • Policy application: Unemployment policy
  • Summary
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading and statistical sources
  • Discussion questions
  • Part II. Why Do Women and Men Work?
  • 3. The Household as Economic Unit
  • Household and marriage formation
  • Forces determining the division of labor
  • Who to marry and how to share
  • Focus: Is bachelorhood a pitiable state?
  • How is power distributed in households?
  • Focus: The economics of domestic violence
  • Household and marriage dissolution
  • Focus: Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements
  • Policy application: No-fault divorce
  • Summary
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading
  • Discussion questions
  • Appendix. Consumption and production relationships
  • Gains from trade
  • Budget constraints and indifference curves
  • Substitutes and complements
  • Endnote
  • Discussion questions
  • 4. Labor Force Participation: Analysis of Trends
  • Trends in labor force participation
  • What has caused these trends?
  • Explanations of the rise in women's labor force participation
  • Focus: What is higher-quality housework?
  • Explanations of the fall in men's labor force participation
  • Trends in hours worked
  • Conclusions about economic factors affecting labor force participation
  • Extensions of the simple economic model
  • Focus: Changes in volunteerism rates
  • Predicting changes in the labor market
  • Policy application: Subsidized child care
  • Summary
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading
  • Discussion questions
  • Appendix. Labor supply
  • The decision to work
  • Policy application: An earnings tax
  • Endnotes
  • Discussion questions
  • 5. Labor Force Participation: Consequences for Family Structure
  • Demographic trends
  • The question of causality
  • Focus: Early marriage as an element of Utopia
  • New household and family patterns
  • Changes in well-being of households and families
  • Focus: The price of success? Higher education and family life
  • Focus: Teenage mothers and the cycle of poverty
  • Policy application: Regulation of fertility-access to contraception and abortion
  • Summary
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading and statistical sources
  • Discussion questions
  • Part II. Policy Application: Welfare Reform
  • What is welfare?
  • Who is poor?
  • Effects of welfare programs
  • Approaches to welfare reform
  • Focus: Making noncustodial parents pay
  • Focus: The Free the Children antipoverty program
  • Recent welfare reform in the U.S.
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading and statistical sources
  • Discussion questions
  • Part III. The Earnings Puzzle: Why Do Women Earn Less Than Men?
  • 6. Gender Segregation in the Workplace
  • The situation in various occupations
  • Focus: Directors and officers at Fortune 500 companies
  • Interpretation of large changes in the proportion of women in some occupations
  • Segregation index values
  • Cross-cultural segregation data
  • Theories of why segregation occurs and persists
  • Focus: Blind selection processes
  • The relationship between segregation and earnings
  • Focus: University coaches' salaries
  • Effects of workforce policies on segregation
  • Policy application: Affirmative action
  • Summary
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading
  • Discussion questions
  • 7. Causes of Earnings Differences: Human Capital
  • What is human capital?
  • How human capital investments affect earnings
  • Focus: The "mommy track" controversy
  • The significance of human capital theory for occupational choice
  • Focus: Is there gender bias in educational testing?
  • Evidence of effects of human capital differences on gender earnings differences
  • Focus: Is the classroom climate chilly for women?
  • Policy implications of human capital theory for the gender earnings gap
  • Policy application: Nontraditional job training programs
  • Summary
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading and statistical sources
  • Discussion questions
  • Appendix. Regression analysis
  • Endnotes
  • Discussion questions
  • 8. Causes of Earnings Differences: Compensating Differentials
  • What is a compensating differential?
  • How do compensating differentials affect earnings?
  • Focus: Death on the job
  • Sorting of workers across firms and industries
  • Gender differences in preferences for job characteristics
  • Focus: Gender differences in "selling out"
  • Policy implications of compensating differentials for the gender earnings gap
  • Policy application: Workplace regulations
  • Summary
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading
  • Discussion questions
  • 9. Causes of Earnings Differences: Discrimination
  • How economists define discrimination
  • Overview of evidence of workplace discrimination
  • Focus: The difficulties of filing discrimination charges
  • Focus: The Sears case
  • How do discrimination theories explain gender workplace differences?
  • Models involving tastes for discrimination
  • Models of discrimination that do not involve prejudice
  • Can discrimination exist in equilibrium?
  • Feedback effects from labor market discrimination
  • Devices for combating discrimination
  • Focus: Women don't ask? Improving negotiation skills
  • Policy application: Anti-discrimination legislation
  • Summary
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading
  • Discussion questions
  • Part III. Policy Application: Comparable Worth
  • What is comparable worth?
  • The pros and cons of comparable worth
  • Focus: Comparable worth for professors
  • How would comparable worth be implemented nationally?
  • Estimation of potential comparable worth benefits and costs
  • Evaluation of actual comparable worth policies
  • The need for policies to correct discrimination
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading
  • Discussion questions
  • Part IV. Cross-Societal Comparisons: Are Gender Differences the Same Everywhere?
  • 10. Industrialized Capitalist Societies
  • Overview of levels and trends in these countries
  • Focus: Institutionalized pay discrimination in New Zealand
  • Focus: Swedish hiring quotas and Norwegian boardroom quotas
  • Examples from particular countries
  • Focus: Comparing tax system effects for Sweden and Germany
  • Social policies across advanced industrialized countries
  • Policy application: Child allowances
  • Summary
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading and statistical sources
  • Discussion questions
  • 11. Socialist and Cooperative Societies
  • Why these societies might be expected to display more gender equality
  • Evaluation of actual practices
  • Focus: Causes of the progress of women in the Soviet Union
  • Examples from particular countries
  • Focus: How many "missing girls" are there in China?
  • Focus: Vietnam as a paradigm for transition?
  • Summary
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading and statistical sources
  • Discussion questions
  • 12. Nonindustrialized Traditional Societies
  • Overview of levels and trends in these countries
  • Methods for evaluating the extent and value of work
  • Focus: Time use in Togo
  • Level of gender inequality by type of society
  • Focus: Flexible gender roles in American Indian societies
  • Focus: Sex ratios across societies
  • Examples from particular countries
  • Policy application: Rural-urban migration disincentives
  • Summary
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading
  • Discussion questions
  • 13. Effects of the Development Process on Gender Differences
  • What is development?
  • Focus: Two Brazilian factories
  • Development effects on family structure
  • Focus: The marriage market in Singapore
  • Development policy topics
  • Focus: Bank loans in Bombay
  • Policy application Foreign aid practices
  • Summary
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading and statistical sources
  • Discussion questions
  • Part V. Historical Comparisons: How Do Gender Differences Vary over Time?
  • 14. Gender Differences in U.S. Economic History
  • Overview by era
  • Focus: Mill towns in New England
  • Long-run trends in labor markets
  • Focus: Bank tellers and the tipping phenomenon
  • Policies affecting men and women differently
  • Focus: The cigar industry
  • Policy application: Marriage bars
  • Summary
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading and statistical sources
  • Discussion questions
  • 15. Race, Ethnicity, and Class Considerations in Interpreting Gender Differences
  • Gender differences across groups
  • Different conceptual frameworks for analyzing group differences
  • Focus: Does U.S. immigration law hurt women?
  • Displaced populations-American Indians
  • Repercussions of slavery: the African-American experience
  • Focus: Black progress in corporate America
  • Immigrant experiences
  • Group membership considerations in formulation of policy
  • Focus: Does Title IX discriminate against black men?
  • Policy application: Quotas in educational programs and hiring
  • Summary
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading
  • Discussion questions
  • 16. Policy Proposals
  • Summary of policy approaches to gender issues
  • General precepts for policy formulation
  • Focus: Why don't women get tenure?
  • Focus: Part-time lawyers
  • Policy application: Family-friendly benefits
  • Summary
  • Endnotes
  • Further reading and statistical sources
  • Discussion questions
  • Author index
  • Subject index

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