Gender, Unions, and Internal Labor Markets: Evidence from the Public Sector in Two States
结合人力资本理论和制度方法，研究内部工作结构和职业阶梯如何影响性别工资差距，并假设工会在改变机会结构、为女性创造晋升阶梯方面发挥关键作用。
Economists have been measuring, developing theories for, and explaining the sex-based wage differential for several decades. Some theories, such as human capital theory, have focused exclusively on the characteristics and progress of individuals. Institutional approaches, such as dual labor market and occupational sex segregation theories, look solely at the structure of the labor market. However, examining average earnings by sex, occupational titles, or sectors masks another fundamental cause of the wage gap: the lack of career advancement by women in both femaleand male-dominated occupations. The reason is that women are on a lower or different occupational ladder, what can be called an internal labor market, than men. This paper combines the insights of earlier approaches by highlighting the effect that internal job structures and career ladders have in shaping individuals' opportunities. The hypothesis is that unions play a major role in altering the structure of opportunities, creating ladders, and allowing women access to higher-level jobs, as they have done for men.