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Author: Gupta, Nabanita Datta
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Gupta, Nabanita Datta
Probabilities of Job Choice and Employer Selection and Male-Female Occupational Differences
American Economic Review 83,2 (May 1993): 57-61.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2117640
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Economic Association
Keyword(s): Gender Differences; Modeling; Occupational Choice; Occupational Status

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

An explicit model was estimated of the occupational status of workers as determined by the interaction of two choices: a worker's choice of occupation and the employer's choice of that worker for that occupation. The data sample consisted of 3,540 young men and women from the 1982 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The results indicate that gender differences in occupations are due to differences in both worker and employer preferences. Predicted probabilities of workers' job choices indicate that women are likelier than men to select the "female" (at least 60 percent female) and service occupations and less likely to select the crafts/labor and professional/managerial occupations. In terms of employer selection, predicted probabilities indicate that men are more likely than women to be chosen for the professional/managerial and service occupations.
Bibliography Citation
Gupta, Nabanita Datta. "Probabilities of Job Choice and Employer Selection and Male-Female Occupational Differences." American Economic Review 83,2 (May 1993): 57-61.
2. Gupta, Nabanita Datta
The Role of Preferences and Constraints as Determinants of Male-Female Occupational Differences
Ph.D. Dissertation, Cornell University, 1992. DAI-A 53/07, p. 2492, Jan 1993
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Discrimination, Employer; Discrimination, Sex; Gender Differences; Occupational Choice; Occupations, Female; Simultaneity

An important policy issue concerning the U.S. labor market is whether the observed clustering of women in a few low-paid occupations is indicative of discrimination against them. An alternative hypothesis is that such differences reflect gender differences in preferences for occupations. This thesis attempts to empirically distinguish between these two hypotheses by determining which hypothesis better fits the data available and by separating the effect of heterogeneous preferences from the effect of wage and hiring discrimination on the observed occupational distributions. Two distinct modelling strategies are pursued. The first is a hedonic model of constrained occupational choice which assumes that workers choose their preferred consumption-leisure-job attribute package subject to a market locus of wage-attribute packages. The parameters of specific functional forms for preferences and the market locus are derived using a three-stages non-linear least squares simultaneous equations estimator. Data are drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey Youth Cohort (NLSY) and the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). A Wald test indicates that the observed asymmetry in occupational distributions by gender is due more to gender differences in constraints than to gender differences in preferences. The second model considers occupational attainment as the outcome of two discrete choice processes. The worker chooses an occupation from a set of discrete occupations with exogenously determined levels of job attributes. The employer chooses whether or not to accept that worker for that occupation. This allows the possibility of job queues and hiring discrimination. Non-linear iterative methods are used to maximize the likelihood function. Using data from NLSY and DOT the existence of such queues are tested in three non-female-dominated occupations: Professional/Managerial, Crafts/Laborers and Services. The results show significant evidence that job-queues are important for both women and men in each of the three non-female occupations. Likelihood ratio tests show that gender differences in occupational distributions are due both to gender differences in worker preferences for occupations and to gender differences in employer selection of workers. F-tests and t-tests indicate that women are more likely to choose the female-dominated and Service occupations and less likely to choose the Crafts/Labor occupation while employers are less likely to hire women in the Professional/Managerial and Service occupations. The two models yield slightly different conclusions regarding the importance of preferences relative to constraints in part due to methodological differences in approach. However, both approaches conclude that constraints are important and that women face different labor market opportunities than men.
Bibliography Citation
Gupta, Nabanita Datta. The Role of Preferences and Constraints as Determinants of Male-Female Occupational Differences. Ph.D. Dissertation, Cornell University, 1992. DAI-A 53/07, p. 2492, Jan 1993.