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
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