The Assessment: Gender and the Life Cycle

Abstract

This assessment is an introduction to the Oxford Review of Economic Policy's issue on gender and the life cycle. It sets the stage by providing background information on various dimensions of gender differences, pointing out differences across countries as well as over time, and relates this evidence to the papers that follow. It further briefly reviews the articles in the issue and puts them into context.

The Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship: Not just a Matter of Personality

“…Today, even a higher share of women graduates from university in several developed economies. Nevertheless, working age women are on average still lower educated (Dustmann, 2005). Given a positive influence of education on the probability of entrepreneurial entry, Van Der Sluis et al (2008) review the literature on the effect of education on entrepreneurship and find no significant difference of the effect between men and women.…”

The Economic Lifecycle by Gender – Results Combining Monetary and Time Use Estimates

“…Other studies have acknowledged the link between childbearing and paid work and the importance of the gender perspective (Kreyenfeld 2010;Lechner/Wiehler 2009;Lindh et al 2005). Dustmann (2005) provided a review of the key differences between men and women that are often mentioned in the literature, such as educational performance, earnings, and sector employment. The generational accounting approach (Auerbach et al 1999;Raffelhüschen 1999) provides gender-specifi c results of future taxes net of transfers received during an individual's life.…”