Barriers to Gender Convergence: The Interactive Effects of Job Inflexibility and Social Norms
Kazuharu Yanagimoto

TL;DR
This paper models how labor market inflexibility and social norms jointly hinder gender equality in Japan, showing that policy reforms must consider social norms to be effective.
Contribution
It develops a quantitative household labor supply model incorporating social norms and job inflexibility, explaining gender gaps and regional differences.
Findings
Job flexibility reduces wage and occupational gaps
Working hours gap persists due to domestic work burden
Norms influence effectiveness of structural reforms
Abstract
This paper investigates the barriers to gender convergence using Japan as a salient environment to explore the interactive effects of labor market structures and social norms. I develop a quantitative model of household labor supply where couples jointly decide their occupations and working hours. The model features a labor market with inflexible "regular" jobs with convex pay schedules and flexible "non-regular" jobs, interacting with social norms regarding spousal earnings. The calibrated model successfully reproduces observed gender gaps in participation, occupation, and working hours, and explains 48% of the gender wage gap. The model also accounts for cross-regional differences in gender gaps solely through variation in social norms. Counterfactual simulations show that while increasing job flexibility substantially reduces wage and occupational gaps, the working hours gap persists…
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Taxonomy
TopicsGender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality · Work-Family Balance Challenges
