IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ilrrev/v73y2020i1p91-123.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Explains the Rising Share of US Men in Registered Nursing?

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth Munnich
  • Abigail Wozniak

Abstract

Working with data from the decadal US Census and the annual American Community Survey (ACS), the authors document four decades of increasing participation in registered nursing among US men and explore reasons for this change. Increasing educational attainment, rising labor demand in health care, rising urbanization, and liberalizing gender role attitudes explain approximately 50% of the growth. Results show that a large component of the increase occurs when men switched into nursing during their 20s and early 30s. Important countervailing factors include poor early labor market conditions and immigrant inflows, both of which are associated with less movement into nursing by men. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for policies that encourage men to take up high growth, non-traditional skilled jobs.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Munnich & Abigail Wozniak, 2020. "What Explains the Rising Share of US Men in Registered Nursing?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 73(1), pages 91-123, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:73:y:2020:i:1:p:91-123
    DOI: 10.1177/0019793919838775
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0019793919838775
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0019793919838775?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barry T. Hirsch & Edward J. Schumacher, 2012. "Underpaid or Overpaid? Wage Analysis for Nurses Using Job and Worker Attributes," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 78(4), pages 1096-1119, April.
    2. Elizabeth L. Munnich, 2014. "The Labor Market Effects Of California'S Minimum Nurse Staffing Law," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(8), pages 935-950, August.
    3. Jones, Cheryl Bland & Gates, Michael, 2004. "Gender-based wage differentials in a predominantly female profession: observations from nursing," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 615-631, December.
    4. Timothy J. Bartik, 1991. "Who Benefits from State and Local Economic Development Policies?," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number wbsle.
    5. Arcidiacono, Peter, 2004. "Ability sorting and the returns to college major," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1-2), pages 343-375.
    6. Sullivan, Daniel, 1989. "Monopsony Power in the Market for Nurses," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(2), pages 135-178, October.
    7. Joseph G. Altonji & Erica Blom & Costas Meghir, 2012. "Heterogeneity in Human Capital Investments: High School Curriculum, College Major, and Careers," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 185-223, July.
    8. Douglas Staiger & Joanne Spetz & Ciaran Phibbs, 2008. "Is There Monopsony in the Labor Market? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Working Papers 1115, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    9. Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F. Katz, 2016. "A Most Egalitarian Profession: Pharmacy and the Evolution of a Family-Friendly Occupation," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(3), pages 705-746.
    10. Hirsch, Barry T. & Schumacher, Edward J., 1995. "Monopsony power and relative wages in the labor market for nurses," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 443-476, October.
    11. Patricia Cortes & Jessica Pan, 2014. "Foreign nurse importation to the United States and the supply of native registered nurses," Working Papers 14-7, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    12. Francine Blau & Peter Brummund & Albert Liu, 2013. "Trends in Occupational Segregation by Gender 1970–2009: Adjusting for the Impact of Changes in the Occupational Coding System," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(2), pages 471-492, April.
    13. Erica Blom & Brian C. Cadena & Benjamin J. Keys, 2021. "Investment over the Business Cycle: Insights from College Major Choice," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(4), pages 1043-1082.
    14. Jordan D. Matsudaira, 2014. "Monopsony in the Low-Wage Labor Market? Evidence from Minimum Nurse Staffing Regulations," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(1), pages 92-102, March.
    15. Christina DePasquale & Kevin Stange, 2016. "Labor Supply Effects of Occupational Regulation: Evidence from the Nurse Licensure Compact," NBER Working Papers 22344, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Douglas O. Staiger & Joanne Spetz & Ciaran S. Phibbs, 2010. "Is There Monopsony in the Labor Market? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(2), pages 211-236, April.
    17. Kearney, Melissa S. & Levine, Phillip B., 2015. "Investigating recent trends in the U.S. teen birth rate," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 15-29.
    18. Barry T. Hirsch & Edward J. Schumacher, 2012. "Underpaid or Overpaid? Wage Analysis for Nurses Using Job and Worker Attributes," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 78(4), pages 1096-1119, April.
    19. Adamache, Killard W. & Sloan, Frank A., 1982. "Unions and hospitals : Some unresolved issues," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 81-108, May.
    20. Patricia K. Tong, 2011. "The effects of California minimum nurse staffing laws on nurse labor and patient mortality in skilled nursing facilities," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(7), pages 802-816, July.
    21. Cortés, Patricia & Pan, Jessica, 2014. "Foreign nurse importation and the supply of native nurses," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 164-180.
    22. Francine Blau & Peter Brummund & Albert Liu, 2013. "Erratum to: Trends in Occupational Segregation by Gender 1970–2009: Adjusting for the Impact of Changes in the Occupational Coding System," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(2), pages 493-494, April.
    23. Jessica Pan, 2015. "Gender Segregation in Occupations: The Role of Tipping and Social Interactions," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(2), pages 365-408.
    24. Benson, Alan, 2013. "Firm-sponsored general education and mobility frictions: Evidence from hospital sponsorship of nursing schools and faculty," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 149-159.
    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. Patricia Palffy & Patrick Lehnert & Uschi Backes‐Gellner, 2023. "Social norms and gendered occupational choices of men and women: Time to turn the tide?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(4), pages 380-410, October.
    2. Carlianne Patrick & Heather Stephens & Amanda Weinstein, 2024. "Born to care (or not): How gender role attitudes affect occupational sorting," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 38(2), pages 203-229, June.
    3. William Jergins, 2024. "Gender equity and male and female smoking behavior," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 42(3), pages 448-473, July.
    4. Bald, Anthony, 2025. "The Birth of an Occupation: Professional Nursing in the Era of Public Health," SocArXiv s6t5r_v1, Center for Open Science.

    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. Austan Goolsbee & Chad Syverson, 2023. "Monopsony Power in Higher Education: A Tale of Two Tracks," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(S1), pages 257-290.
    2. Patricia Cortes & Jessica Pan, 2014. "Foreign nurse importation to the United States and the supply of native registered nurses," Working Papers 14-7, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    3. Cortés, Patricia & Pan, Jessica, 2014. "Foreign nurse importation and the supply of native nurses," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 164-180.
    4. Kroczek, Martin & Koch, Andreas, 2024. "The reaction of wages to skill shortage in nursing," VfS Annual Conference 2024 (Berlin): Upcoming Labor Market Challenges 302406, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Manning, Alan, 2011. "Imperfect Competition in the Labor Market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 11, pages 973-1041, Elsevier.
    6. Marina Morales & Miriam Marcén, 2024. "The effect of gender norms on gender-based sorting across occupations," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 831-864, June.
    7. Peter McHenry & Jennifer Mellor, 2018. "Medicare hospital payment adjustments and nursing wages," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 169-196, June.
    8. Benson, Alan, 2013. "Firm-sponsored general education and mobility frictions: Evidence from hospital sponsorship of nursing schools and faculty," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 149-159.
    9. Hirsch, Barry & Schumacher, Edward J., 2004. "Classic Monopsony or New Monopsony? Searching for Evidence in Nursing Labor Markets," IZA Discussion Papers 1154, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Hirsch, Barry T. & Schumacher, Edward J., 2005. "Classic or new monopsony? Searching for evidence in nursing labor markets," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 969-989, September.
    11. Douglas Staiger & Joanne Spetz & Ciaran Phibbs, 2008. "Is There Monopsony in the Labor Market? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Working Papers 1115, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    12. Joshua D. Gottlieb & Avi Zenilman, 2020. "When Workers Travel: Nursing Supply During COVID-19 Surges," NBER Working Papers 28240, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Samuel Muehlemann & Paul Ryan & Stefan C. Wolter, 2013. "Monopsony Power, Pay Structure, and Training," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(5), pages 1097-1114, October.
    14. Long Mark C & Goldfarb Marsha G. & Goldfarb Robert S, 2008. "Explanations for Persistent Nursing Shortages," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(2), pages 1-37, November.
    15. Douglas O. Staiger & Joanne Spetz & Ciaran S. Phibbs, 2010. "Is There Monopsony in the Labor Market? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(2), pages 211-236, April.
    16. Gaynor, Martin & Town, Robert J., 2011. "Competition in Health Care Markets," Handbook of Health Economics, in: Mark V. Pauly & Thomas G. Mcguire & Pedro P. Barros (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 499-637, Elsevier.
    17. John P. Burkett, 2005. "The Labor Supply of Nurses and Nursing Assistants in the United States," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 31(4), pages 585-599, Fall.
    18. Serena Huang, 2011. "The international transferability of human capital in nursing," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 145-163, September.
    19. Webber, Douglas A., 2018. "Employment Adjustment over the Business Cycle: The Impact of Competition in the Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 11887, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Salvanes, Kjell G & Dodini, Samuel & Lovenheim, Michael F. & Willén, Alexander, 2020. "Monopsony, Skills, and Labor Market Concentration," CEPR Discussion Papers 15412, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    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:sae:ilrrev:v:73:y:2020:i:1:p:91-123. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu .

    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.