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Do US employers discriminate against females when hiring their employees?

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  • Madhu Mohanty

Abstract

Using Johnson's decomposition technique, this paper demonstrates that the disappearance of the gap between female and male unemployment rates in the United States during the last decade results partly from a general hiring policy that is favourable to women workers. This conclusion holds for workers in five out of eight occupational subsamples considered. The sign and size of unexplained female - male unemployment rate differential estimated from 1969, 1977 and 1987 CPS data suggest that hiring discrimination against females in the US labour market has declined considerably during the last two decades. The study also supports the earlier finding that the growth of employment in government and in the female dominated service sector, and migration of workers from the South to other regions contribute significantly to the convergence of male and female unemployment rates in the 1980s.

Suggested Citation

  • Madhu Mohanty, 1998. "Do US employers discriminate against females when hiring their employees?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(11), pages 1471-1482.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:30:y:1998:i:11:p:1471-1482
    DOI: 10.1080/000368498324814
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    Cited by:

    1. Guifu Chen & Shigeyuki Hamori, 2014. "Do Chinese Employers Discriminate Against Females When Hiring Employees?," SpringerBriefs in Economics, in: Rural Labor Migration, Discrimination, and the New Dual Labor Market in China, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 39-51, Springer.
    2. Guifu Chen & Shigeyuki Hamori, 2014. "Bivariate Probit Analysis of the Differences Between Male and Female Formal Employment in Urban China," SpringerBriefs in Economics, in: Rural Labor Migration, Discrimination, and the New Dual Labor Market in China, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 65-76, Springer.
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    4. Madhu Mohanty, 2002. "A bivariate probit approach to the determination of employment: a study of teen employment differentials in Los Angeles County," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(2), pages 143-156.
    5. Edmund J. Zolnik, 2011. "The Geographic Distribution of U.S. Unemployment by Gender," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 25(1), pages 91-103, February.
    6. Antonio J. Trujillo & Dawn C. McCalla, 2004. "Are Colombian sickness funds cream skimming enrollees? An analysis with suggestions for policy improvement," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(4), pages 873-888.
    7. Madhu S. Mohanty, 2003. "An Alternative Explanation for the Equality of Male and Female Unemployment Rates in the U.S. Labor Market in the Late 1980s," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 29(1), pages 69-92, Winter.

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