Scientific (Wo)Manpower? Gender and the Composition and Earnings of PhDs in Sweden

28 Pages Posted: 15 Dec 2008

See all articles by Anna Amilon

Anna Amilon

Danish National Institute of Social Research (SFI)

Inga Persson

Lund University - School of Economics and Management

Dan-Olof Rooth

University of Kalmar; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Abstract

Although the share of female PhDs has increased explosively since the 1980s, little research has focused on the utilisation and remuneration of female versus male scientific human capital. Using rich Swedish cross-sectional register data on the stock of PhDs in 2004, this paper analyses to what extent men and women choose academic versus non-academic employment, and to what earnings differences these choices lead. Results show that women are significantly less likely than men to be academically employed in the natural sciences and medicine, whereas no significant gender differences prevail for the social sciences and the humanities. On average, women earn 15 per cent less than men, and the academically employed earn 24 per cent less than PhDs outside academia. Gender earnings differences are larger in the academic than in the non-academic labour market in the humanities and the natural sciences, whereas the opposite holds in the social sciences and medicine.

Keywords: gender, earnings, scientific human capital

JEL Classification: J31, J70

Suggested Citation

Amilon, Anna and Persson, Inga and Rooth, Dan-Olof, Scientific (Wo)Manpower? Gender and the Composition and Earnings of PhDs in Sweden. IZA Discussion Paper No. 3878, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1315897 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1315897

Anna Amilon (Contact Author)

Danish National Institute of Social Research (SFI) ( email )

Herluf Trolles Gade 11
DK-1052
Copenhagen K, DK-1052
Denmark

Inga Persson

Lund University - School of Economics and Management ( email )

Tycho Brahes väg 1,
S-220 07 Lund, 223 63
Sweden

Dan-Olof Rooth

University of Kalmar ( email )

Sweden

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Schaumburg-Lippe-Str. 7 / 9
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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