Kiel Working Papers, Kiel Institute for World Economics
No 1379:
Human Capital Depreciation During Family-related Career Interruptions in Male and Female Occupations
Dennis Görlich and Andries de Grip
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.
Keywords: skills obsolescence, occupational segregation, GSOEP, parental leave; (follow links to similar papers)
JEL-Codes: J24,J13,D13; (follow links to similar papers)
37 pages, September 2007
Before downloading any of the electronic versions below
you should read our statement on
copyright.
Download GhostScript
for viewing Postscript files and the
Acrobat Reader for viewing and printing pdf files.
Downloadable files:
kap1379.pdf
Download Statistics
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ()
or Helena Lundin ().
Programing by
Design Joakim Ekebom