IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unm/umaror/2007007.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Human capital depreciation during family-related career interruptions in male and female occupations

Author

Listed:
  • Görlich, D.
  • de Grip, A.

    (Research Centre for Educ and Labour Mark)

Abstract

This study investigates the relation between human capital depreciation during family-related career interruptions and occupational choice of women in the (West) German labour market. In contrast to other studies that do not explicitly focus on family-related career interruptions, we find that short-term human capital depreciation during these career interruptions is significantly lower in female occupations than in male occupations. This holds for both high- and low-skilled occupations. Our findings support the self-selection hypothesis with respect to occupational sex segregation, i.e., women might deliberately choose female occupations because of lower short-term wage penalties for family-related career interruptions. Moreover, we find that particularly men employed in high-skilled male occupations face large short-run as well as long run wage penalties when they have a family related career break.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Görlich, D. & de Grip, A., 2007. "Human capital depreciation during family-related career interruptions in male and female occupations," ROA Research Memorandum 007, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    • Handle: RePEc:unm:umaror:2007007
    DOI: 10.26481/umaror.2007007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ws/files/1295904/guid-2fa7619e-ee0b-40f3-902a-43c9e2f3b924-ASSET1.0.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.26481/umaror.2007007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gronau, Reuben, 1988. "Sex-Related Wage Differentials and Women's Interrupted Labor Careers--The Chicken or the Egg," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(3), pages 277-301, July.
    2. Gibbons, Robert & Katz, Lawrence F, 1991. "Layoffs and Lemons," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(4), pages 351-380, October.
    3. Mincer, Jacob & Polachek, Solomon, 1974. "Family Investment in Human Capital: Earnings of Women," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(2), pages 76-108, Part II, .
    4. Randall K. Filer, 1985. "Male-Female Wage Differences: The Importance of Compensating Differentials," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 38(3), pages 426-437, April.
    5. Hansen, Jörgen & Wahlberg, Roger, 2000. "Occupational Gender Composition and Wages in Sweden," IZA Discussion Papers 217, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Jacob Mincer & Solomon Polachek, 1978. "An Exchange: The Theory of Human Capital and the Earnings of Women: Women's Earnings Reexamined," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 13(1), pages 118-134.
    7. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Introduction to "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings"," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 1-4, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Paula England, 1982. "The Failure of Human Capital Theory to Explain Occupational Sex Segregation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 17(3), pages 358-370.
    9. Bernd Fitzenberger & Reinhold Schnabel & Gaby Wunderlich, 2004. "The gender gap in labor market participation and employment: A cohort analysis for West Germany," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 17(1), pages 83-116, February.
    10. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1, March.
    11. Gupta, N.D. & Smith, N., 2000. "Children and Career Interruptions: the Family Gap in Denmark," Papers 00-03, Centre for Labour Market and Social Research, Danmark-.
    12. Borghans L. & Groot L., 1999. "Educational presorting as a cause of occupational segregation," ROA Research Memorandum 003, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    13. Jan Ondrich & Katharina C. Spieß & Qing Yang, 2002. "The Effect of Maternity Leave on Women's Pay in Germany 1984-1994," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 289, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    14. Beblo, Miriam & Wolf, Elke, 2000. "How much does a year off cost? Estimating the wage effects of employment breaks and part-time periods," ZEW Discussion Papers 00-69, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    15. Hashimoto, Masanori & Percy, Rick & Schoellner, Teresa & Weinberg, Bruce A., 2004. "The Long and Short of It: Maternity Leave Coverage and Women’s Labor Market Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 1207, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Helena Skyt Nielsen & Marianne Simonsen & Mette Verner, 2004. "Does the Gap in Family‐friendly Policies Drive the Family Gap?," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 106(4), pages 721-744, December.
    17. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Age and Experience Profiles of Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 64-82, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Christopher J. Ruhm, 1998. "The Economic Consequences of Parental Leave Mandates: Lessons from Europe," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(1), pages 285-317.
    19. Polachek, Solomon William, 1981. "Occupational Self-Selection: A Human Capital Approach to Sex Differences in Occupational Structure," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 63(1), pages 60-69, February.
    20. Jurajda, Štepán & Harmgart, Heike, 2004. "When Are ‘Female’ Occupations Paying More?," IZA Discussion Papers 985, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Moon-Kak Kim & Solomon W. Polachek, 1994. "Panel Estimates of Male-Female Earnings Functions," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 29(2), pages 406-428.
    23. James W. Albrecht & Per-Anders Edin & Marianne Sundström & Susan B. Vroman, 1999. "Career Interruptions and Subsequent Earnings: A Reexamination Using Swedish Data," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(2), pages 294-311.
    24. James Fain, 1998. "The causes and consequences of occupational segregation: a simultaneous equations approach," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(10), pages 1361-1367.
    25. Jacob Mincer & Haim Ofek, 1982. "Interrupted Work Careers: Depreciation and Restoration of Human Capital," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 17(1), pages 3-24.
    26. McDowell, John M, 1982. "Obsolescence of Knowledge and Career Publication Profiles: Some Evidence of Differences among Fields in Costs of Interrupted Careers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(4), pages 752-768, September.
    27. de Grip, Andries & Willems, Ed, 2003. "Youngsters and technology," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1771-1781, December.
    28. Neuman, Shoshana & Weiss, Avi, 1995. "On the effects of schooling vintage on experience-earnings profiles: Theory and evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 943-955, May.
    29. Boisso, Dale & Hayes, Kathy & Hirschberg, Joseph & Silber, Jacques, 1994. "Occupational segregation in the multidimensional case : Decomposition and tests of significance," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 161-171, March.
    30. Beblo, Miriam & Wolf, Elke, 2002. "Wage Penalties for Career Interruptions: An Empirical Analysis for West Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 02-45, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    31. Kunze, Astrid, 2002. "The Timing of Careers and Human Capital Depreciation," IZA Discussion Papers 509, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    32. Karmel, T & Maclachlan, M, 1988. "Occupational Sex Segregation--Increasing or Decreasing?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 64(186), pages 187-195, September.
    33. Borghans, Lex & Groot, Loek, 1999. "Educational presorting and occupational segregation," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 375-395, September.
    34. Light, Audrey & Ureta, Manuelita, 1995. "Early-Career Work Experience and Gender Wage Differentials," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(1), pages 121-154, January.
    35. Keith A. Bender & Susan M. Donohue & John S. Heywood, 2005. "Job satisfaction and gender segregation," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 57(3), pages 479-496, July.
    36. Datta Gupta, Nabanita & Smith, Nina, 2002. "Children and Career Interruptions: The Family Gap in Denmark," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 69(276), pages 609-629, November.
    37. Steven H. Sandell & David Shapiro, 1978. "An Exchange: The Theory of Human Capital and the Earnings of Women: A Reexamination of the Evidence," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 13(1), pages 103-117.
    38. Groot, Wim & Maassen van den Brink, Henriette, 2000. "Overeducation in the labor market: a meta-analysis," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 149-158, April.
    39. Andrea H. Beller, 1982. "Occupational Segregation by Sex: Determinants and Changes," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 17(3), pages 371-392.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Schönberg, Uta, 2009. "Does the IAB employment sample reliably identify maternity leave taking? : a data report," Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung - Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 42(1), pages 49-70.
    2. Derek T. Tharp & Elizabeth J. Parks-Stamm, 2021. "Gender Differences in the Intended Use of Parental Leave: Implications for Human Capital Development," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 47-60, March.
    3. Katrin Sommerfeld, 2009. "Older Babies - More Active Mothers? How Maternal Labor Supply Changes as the Child Grows," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 129(2), pages 227-240.
    4. Bianca Buligescu & Lex Borghans & Didier Fouarge, 2020. "The impact of occupational segregation on occupational gender pay gap in the European union," Journal of Community Positive Practices, Catalactica NGO, issue 4, pages 86-111.
    5. Harris, Jorgen, 2022. "Do wages fall when women enter an occupation?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    6. Christina Boll, 2011. "Mind the gap—German motherhood risks in figures and game theory issues," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 363-382, December.
    7. repec:iab:iabfme:200803(en is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Müller, Kathrin, 2009. "Employment growth in newly established firms: is there evidence for academic entrepreneur's human capital depreciation?," ZEW Discussion Papers 09-050, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    9. Schönberg, Uta, 2008. "Does the IABS reliably identify maternity leave taking?," FDZ Methodenreport 200803_en, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    10. Peter Schneider & Dieter Sadowski, 2008. "The impact of New Public Management (NPM) instruments on PhD education," IAAEG Discussion Papers until 2011 200803, Institute of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Astrid Kunze, 2017. "Types of absence from work and wages of young workers with apprenticeship training," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 51(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Polachek, Solomon W., 2008. "Earnings Over the Life Cycle: The Mincer Earnings Function and Its Applications," Foundations and Trends(R) in Microeconomics, now publishers, vol. 4(3), pages 165-272, April.
    3. Molina, José Alberto & Montuenga, Víctor M., 2008. "The Motherhood Wage Penalty in a Mediterranean Country: The Case of Spain," IZA Discussion Papers 3574, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Beblo, Miriam & Wolf, Elke, 2003. "Sind es die Erwerbsunterbrechungen? : ein Erklärungsbeitrag zum Lohnunterschied zwischen Frauen und Männern in Deutschland (Is it the employment interruptions? * a contribution to explaining the wage ," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 36(4), pages 560-572.
    5. Inés P. Murillo, 2011. "Human capital obsolescence: some evidence for Spain," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(4), pages 426-445, July.
    6. Beblo, Miriam & Wolf, Elke, 2002. "Wage Penalties for Career Interruptions: An Empirical Analysis for West Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 02-45, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    7. Beblo, Miriam & Wolf, Elke, 2003. "Sind es die Erwerbsunterbrechungen? : ein Erklärungsbeitrag zum Lohnunterschied zwischen Frauen und Männern in Deutschland (Is it the employment interruptions? * a contribution to explaining the wage ," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 36(4), pages 560-572.
    8. Das, Tirthatanmoy & Polachek, Solomon, 2017. "Micro Foundations of Earnings Differences," IZA Discussion Papers 10922, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Solomon Polachek, 2003. "Mincer's Overtaking Point and the Life Cycle Earnings Distribution," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 1(4), pages 273-304, December.
    10. Bertil Holmlund & Qian Liu & Oskar Nordström Skans, 2008. "Mind the gap? Estimating the effects of postponing higher education," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 60(4), pages 683-710, October.
    11. Potrafke, Niklas, 2012. "Unemployment, human capital depreciation and pension benefits: an empirical evaluation of German data," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 223-241, April.
    12. Oskar Skans & Linus Liljeberg, 2014. "The wage effects of subsidized career breaks," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 593-617, September.
    13. Braga, Breno, 2018. "Earnings dynamics: The role of education throughout a worker’s career," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 83-97.
    14. Amélie Speiser, 2021. "Back to work: the effect of a long-term career interruption on subsequent wages in Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 157(1), pages 1-14, December.
    15. José Molina & Víctor Montuenga, 2009. "The Motherhood Wage Penalty in Spain," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 237-251, September.
    16. Gerst, Benedikt & Grund, Christian, 2017. "Career Interruptions and Current Earnings: The Role of Interruption Type, Compensation Component, and Gender," IZA Discussion Papers 10713, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Mette Ejrnæs & Astrid Kunze, 2002. "Wage dips and drops around the first birth," 10th International Conference on Panel Data, Berlin, July 5-6, 2002 C2-4, International Conferences on Panel Data.
    18. Solomon W. Polachek & Jun Xiang, 2009. "The Gender Pay Gap across Countries: A Human Capital Approach," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 227, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    19. Nizalova, Olena Y. & Sliusarenko, Tamara & Shpak, Solomiya, 2016. "The motherhood wage penalty in times of transition," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 56-75.
    20. Rapoport, Benoît & Thibout, Claire, 2018. "Why do boys and girls make different educational choices? The influence of expected earnings and test scores," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 205-229.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unm:umaror:2007007. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Andrea Willems or Leonne Portz (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/romaanl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.