Halbe Kraft voraus? Arbeitseinsatz, berufliche Segregation und Löhne von Frauen auf dem Schweizer Arbeitsmarkt

Abstract

In einer neueren Version der Humankapitaltheorie erklärt Becker (1985) AbstractIn a revised version of human capital theory, Becker (1985) explains the earnings differential between men and women in terms of a fundamental assumption that women's greater household responsibilities mean that they expend less effort on market work than men, even if their market human capital and working hours are the same. To date, Becker's assumption has been tested empirically only in a study by Bielby/Bielby (1988), which found no support for the assumption. Here, we replicate and extend Bielby and Bielby's study using data from the Swiss Labor Market Survey 1998. Although women, in fact, report lower levels of work effort in the bivariate comparison, the dependence of work effort on the amount of household responsibility is rather weak. Furthermore, it appears that the differences in work effort explain neither sex-specific wage differentials nor occupational segregation.