Work, Family and Gender

Tutorial Preparation week8

Article 11: Jacobsen, J.P. The Human Capital Explanation for the Gender Gap in “Earnings, Women, Family and work”, ed by Moe K, Blackwell Publishing 2003 pgs 161-176.

Question2: Outline the 4 ways that human capital can vary in type between males and females.

Human capital refers to the physical and mental health of an individual to the extent that healthiness increases productivity. People with more human capital would be expected to be more productive than those with less.

4 ways that human capital can vary in type between males and females:

* Women may be more likely to invest in human capital that has high non-market return

* Women maybe more likely to invest in human capital that increases satisfaction with time spent in market work, non-market work, or leisure, while men may invest in human capital with a high return in wages but little increase in satisfaction.

* Women may invest in human capital that depreciates less rapidly than the human capital that men invest in

* Women may be less likely to invest in specific human capital

Men and women differ in the amount and types of human capital. It is logically possible that women might have lower average human capital, in particular lower market-relevant human capital, yet ear at an equal or even higher level than men. In fact, any 2 people the same age vary in the amounts and types of human capital that they have at any point in time or money. Thus, women do not have as much human capital as do men, at least of a form that returns a high monetary payoff in the formal work sector. These differences have a measurable effect on the women and men wage gap.