Occupational Self-Selection: A Human Capital Approach to Sex Differences in Occupational Structure

• Published in: The review of economics and statistics Vol. 63; no. 1; pp. 60 - 69
• Main Author: Polachek, Solomon William
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, Mass North-Holland Publishing Company 01-02-1981; Harvard University Press, etc; MIT Press Journals, The
• Subjects: Choices; Coefficients; Economic theory; Human capital; Job; Labor force; Labor markets; Mathematical vectors; Men; Occupational; Occupational segregation; Occupations; Rental rates; Segregation; Selection; Sex linked differences; Statistical analysis; Structure; Women; Workforce
• ISSN: 0034-6535; 1530-9142
• DOI: 10.2307/1924218

Despite its explanatory power, the human capital model has been widely criticized. One criticism focuses on the model's inability to obtain inferences concerning occupational distribution. An attempt is made to alleviate some of this criticism by applying the hedonic price approach so as to embed occupational choice into the human capital framework. The presented model is designed to shed light on the reasons most societies' women are, by and large, assigned to different occupations than men. It is hypothesized that, for females, duration of time in and out of the labor force is related to occupation. Evidence indicates that the question of causality, i.e., the extent to which home-time and occupational choice reinforce each other, cannot be ignored. Using simultaneous equations models it was found that the results hold even after adjusting for the possible endogeneity of home-time.