Sorting, Social Comparison and Women’s Job Satisfaction

Name: Sorting, Social Comparison and Women’s Job Satisfaction
Brand: Vita e Pensiero
Availability: OnlineOnly

digital

Article

Magazine

RIVISTA INTERNAZIONALE DI SCIENZE SOCIALI

Section

Open Access

Title

Sorting, Social Comparison and Women’s Job Satisfaction

Authors

Margherita Agnoletto, Lorenzo Cappellari, Astrid Gamba

Publisher

Vita e Pensiero

Format

Article |

Pdf

Pages

Online from

06-2020

Doi

10.26350/000518_000041

Issn

0035-676X (print) | 1827-7918 (digital)

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Description

Using linked employer-employee data for the UK we address competing explanations for gender gaps in job satisfaction. Previous studies have rationalized the puzzling greater satisfaction of women either by pointing out gender differences in competitive attitudes, or through differences in sorting across jobs and industries. Our data allow us to test both explanations within a unified framework. The employer-employee structure of the data enables us to control for workplace unobserved heterogeneity that drives sorting. Moreover, we exploit information on workplace average wages to investigate workers’ attitudes through the framework of social comparison within the firm. We show that while social comparison matters empirically, gender differences in social comparison are not enough to account for job satisfaction gaps. Instead, controlling for workplace heterogeneity resolves the puzzle, lending support to the sorting hypothesis.

keywords

Job satisfaction, Gender, Social comparison, Firms, Linked employer-employee data.

Authors biography

Margherita Agnoletto, Catholic University of Milan. Email: margherita.agnoletto@gmail.com; Lorenzo Cappellari, Department of Economics and Finance, Catholic University of Milan. Email: lorenzo.cappellari@unicatt.it; Astrid Gamba, Department of Economics, University of Insubria. Email: astrid.gamba@uninsubria.it.