Study on link between occupation of parent and occupation of a child

1. Fathers matter!
The role of parents in gender occupational segregation
Magdalena Smyk
GRAPE
10th July 2017
Magdalena Smyk (GRAPE) Fathers matter! 10th July 2017 1 / 1

2. Gender differences in occupations
Why is it interesting?
common and prevailing phenomenon
(Goldin, 2013, 2014; Blau et al. 2013)
contributes to explain gender wage differences
(World Development Report, 2012)
“external” barriers and changes fail to explain it
(Bush and Holst 2011; Blau et al. 1998, 2013)
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3. Motivation
Gender differences in the choice of occupation:
preferences
scientifically unsatisfactory explanation
(Becker 1996, Argwal 2000)
traits (risk aversion, competitiveness, altruism, etc.)
(Holt and Laury 2005, Niederle and Vesterlund 2011, Andreoni 1989)
small explanatory power
nature or nurture?
(Finucane et al. 2000, Gneezy et al. 2009)
still unresolved
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4. Contribution
The role of parents:
inheritance of a profession
(Laband and Lentz 1990, Korupp et al. 2002)
transmission of “rules” related to choice of occupation - literature gap
Hypothesis
Parents’ choice of occupation (its gender context - norms) influence
their children’s choices of occupation.
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5. Theoretical background
Roy’s choice of occupation model (1951)
Gender identity (Akerlof and Kranton 2000, 2010)
Choice of occupation (Humlum et al. 2012)
Uj = Uj (wj ( j , εj )), εj , Ij ( j , cj , εj , P)),
where wj ( j , εj ) - wage in occupation εj , j - individual characteristics, cj -
social category (gender), P - gender rules related to choice of occupation
How to operationalize P - gender rules as a function of j and parents (p)?
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6. Theoretical background - extension
How the gender norms are shaped?
Pj = Pj (aj , a−j , cj , j , Pj,p),
where aj - actions of individual j, a−j - actions of other people, cj - gender, j -
individual characteristics, Pj,p - parents’ gender rules
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7. Measure of gender intensity in an occupation
FemOcc Index
FemOcci,t =
share of womeni,t
share of woment
,
where i – narrow occupational group, t – year
representation measure ⇒ data requirements
American Community Survey provides the largest consistently coded sample
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8. Measure of gender intensity of an occupation
FemOcc Index
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9. Measure of gender intensity of an occupation
FemOcc Index
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10. Measure of gender intensity of an occupation
FemOcc Index
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11. Inactive parents
Being inactive (especially for mothers) is an important occupation from
the perspective of gender rules:
FemOccinactive,t =
share of inactive woment
share of women in working age populationt
,
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12. Transmission of norms related to the choice of occupation: the empirical
study
Do parents transmit gender rules related to choice of
occupation to their children?
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13. Strategy
FemOcci = α + β1 Father s FemOcc + β2 Mother s FemOcci + γ Xi + i
Variables
Dependent variable: gender intensity of the occupation of an
individual i (FemOcci )
Independent variables:
Father s FemOcc - gender intensity of i’s father occupation
Mother s FemOcc - gender intensity of i’s mother occupation
Control variables (Xi ): gender, education, birth year, siblings order,
family fixed effects
Data: Panel Study of Income Dynamics 1968-2013 merged with
measures of FemOcci from ACS
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14. Transmission of rules related to choice of occupation
Panel Study of Income Dynamics Data 1968-2013
Multiple occupations for parents and children:
specification of parents occupations:
observed by the child between 13 and 18 years old
child occupation: the top occupation - (highest code)
Inactive parents
Method
OLS regression with:
standard errors clustered within family
and family fixed effects
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15. Transmission of rules related to choice of occupation
What do we expect?
Correlation between FemOcc indexes of:
father and son - positive
mother and son - negative (but possibly weaker)
mother and daughter - positive
father and daughter - negative (but possibly weaker)
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16. Transmission of rules related to choice of occupation
Total Without Only
sample the same siblings
occupation
FATHER - SON 0.085** 0.080* 0.080**
(0.042) (0.043) (0.041)
MOTHER - SON 0.002 -0.05 -0.06
(0.038) (0.041) (0.039)
MOTHER - DAUGHTER -0.008 -0.011 -0.011
(0.047) (0.049) (0.047)
FATHER - DAUGHTER 0.000* 0.024 0.024
(0.046) (0.047) (0.045)
Observations 5767 5626 5193
R2 0.77 0.77 0.75
Standard errors in parentheses. *** - p − value <0.01, ** - p − value <0.05, * - p − value <0.1
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17. Is the effect stable in time?
No.
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18. Transmission of rules related to choice of occupation
Children born before 1970
Total Without Only
sample the same siblings
occupation
FATHER - SON 0.057 0.060 0.060
(0.063) (0.065) (0.063)
MOTHER - SON 0.006 -0.001 -0.001
(0.061) (0.065) (0.063)
MOTHER - DAUGHTER -0.052 -0.064 -0.064
(0.071) (0.074) (0.074)
FATHER - DAUGHTER -0.051 -0.018 -0.018
(0.062) (0.065) (0.063)
Observations 3008 2835 2662
R2 0.75 0.76 0.75
Standard errors in parentheses. *** - p − value <0.01, ** - p − value <0.05, * - p − value <0.1
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19. Transmission of rules related to choice of occupation
Children born after 1970
Total Without Only
sample the same siblings
occupation
FATHER - SON 0.128* 0.136* 0.136**
(0.071) (0.070) (0.067)
MOTHER - SON -0.020 -0.018 -0.018
(0.061) (0.064) (0.061)
MOTHER - DAUGHTER 0.046 0.037 0.037
(0.080) (0.083) (0.079)
FATHER - DAUGHTER -0.048** -0.033** -0.033**
(0.0208) (0.079) (0.008)
Observations 2662 2680 2426
R2 0.83 0.83 0.81
Standard errors in parentheses. *** - p − value <0.01, ** - p − value <0.05, * - p − value <0.1
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20. What about mothers?
Working mother - working child?
Total Born Born
sample before 1970 after 1970
MOTHER - SON 0.026 -0.065 0.154
(0.107) (0.149) (0.157)
MOTHER - DAUGHTER 0.240* 0.342* 0.088
(0.135) (0.190) (0.198)
Observations 7605 3953 3632
R2 0.12 0.16 0.15
Standard errors in parentheses. *** - p − value <0.01, ** - p − value <0.05, * - p − value <0.1
Working mother - working daughter! (similar to McGinn et al. 2015)
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21. What about mothers?
Other channels:
Division of housework between parents - checked and rejected
Different than linear relationship
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22. Conclusions
Robustness checks:
Placebo tests - done
Effect robust only for specific (current) period
Robustness check - indexes sensitive for within state variation
Do parents transmit gender “rules” related to choice of occupation to
their children?
Results:
Transmission from mother - rejected for both daughters and sons
Transmission from father to son - confirmed
Transmission from father to daughter - only for children born after
1970
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23. Thank you for your attention
Magdalena Smyk
GRAPE — FAME
msmyk@grape.org.pl
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