Catherine J. Weinberger

Leadership Skills and Wages

Controlling for cognitive skills, we find that men who occupied leadership positions in high school earn more as adults. The pure leadership‐wage effect varies, depending on definitions and time period, from 4% to 33%. This effect is not an artifact of measurement error in cognitive skills or differences in a wide array of other physical or psychological traits. High school leaders are more likely to occupy managerial occupations as adults, and leadership skills command a higher wage premium within managerial occupations than elsewhere. Finally, it appears that leadership skills may be fostered by exposure to high school leadership opportunities.

Race and Gender Wage Gaps in the Market for Recent College Graduates

Using a large sample of recent college graduates, the study tests the hypothesis that observed race and gender wage differentials reflect between-group differences in the type and quality of education attained rather than labor market discrimination. After controlling for narrowly defined college major, college grade point average, and the exact educational institution attended, white male and Hispanic male graduates earn 10 to 15 percent more per hour than comparable female, black male, or Asian male graduates.

Mathematical College Majors and the Gender Gap in Wages

College graduates with mathematical college majors earn more than other college graduates. Women are less likely than men to pursue mathematical college majors. This does not, however, explain the entire gender wage differential. In a representative cross-section of recent college graduates, women earn 9% less than men with equally mathematical college majors. The gender wage disadvantage faced by women with technical college majors is no larger than that faced by women with non-technical college majors.

Just ask! Why surveyed women did not pursue IT courses or careers

Persistent gender differences in the choice of college majors in technical fields account for a substantial share of the gender wage gap among college graduates. While there are many theories about what college students are thinking when they make their college major and career choices, most are based on speculation or indirect evidence. This survey turned up several points on which students were surprisingly unconcerned. Very few students (and equal proportions of men and women) feared that choosing IT majors would lead to social ostracism. Very few students were concerned that IT college majors would not prepare them to do socially useful work. And very few of the women in this survey ruled out IT careers because they felt it would be difficult to combine these careers with raising a family.

The Increasing Complementarity between Cognitive and Social Skills

Data linking 1972 and 1992 adolescent skill endowments to adult outcomes reveal increasing complementarity between cognitive and social skills. In fact, previously noted growth in demand for cognitive skills affected only individuals with strong endowments of both social and cognitive skills. These findings are corroborated using Census and CPS data matched with Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) job task measures; employment in and earnings premia to occupations requiring high levels of both cognitive and social skill grew substantially compared with occupations that require only one or neither type of skill, and this emerging feature of the labor market has persisted into the new millennium.

Changing Levels or Changing Slopes? The Narrowing of the U.S. Gender Earnings Gap, 1959-1999

Once educational attainment and other observable characteristics have been controlled for, studies show that the gender wage gap among adult full-time workers is about half the size it was in 1980. Using U.S. Census and Current Population Survey (CPS) data from 1959 through 1999, the authors investigate the extent to which the decline in this gap was associated with changes across cohorts in the relative rate of wage growth after labor market entry (slopes), versus changes in relative earnings levels at labor market entry (levels). They find that slope changes associated with post-schooling investments, including work experience, account for no more than one-third of the narrowing of the gender wage gap over the past 40 years. The majority of the narrowing can be attributed to factors present at the time that successive cohorts entered the labor market, such as a growing demand for womens unobserved skills or declining discrimination.

In Search of the Glass Ceiling: Gender and Earnings Growth among U.S. College Graduates in the 1990S

Gender-typical educational choices and the “glass ceiling” are widely believed to explain why older women earn far less than observably similar men. Using large panels drawn from the National Science Foundations (NSF) National Survey of College Graduates and other data representative of U.S. college graduates from the 1990s, the author documents the small role of personal choices and finds evidence contrary to the predictions of both human capital and discrimination models. Rather than the differential wage growth rates predicted by these models, she finds similar average rates of earnings growth for women and men across numerous specifications, which suggests that the gender gap in earnings is determined by factors already present early in the career. Her findings reveal slower earnings growth in only two subsets of women: young mothers, who experience slower earnings growth during the early career relative to men the same age, but then compensate with faster growth later in their careers; and women with exceptionally high earnings levels. The latter are underrepresented among workers winning the largest promotions, when compared to similarly successful men the same age, and face a glass ceiling at the very top of the career ladder.

Selective Acceptance and Inefficiency in a Two-Issue Complete Information Bargaining Game

Abstract This paper explores the effects of a “selective acceptance” rule on the outcome of two-issue negotiations. The alternating-offer game introduced here allows for the possibility that settlement may be reached on one issue while negotiation continues about the other. This model captures features of laws that are generally believed to increase efficiency. The analysis shows that if one issue is indivisible, there are inefficient subgame perfect equilibria with no Pareto-improving alternative equilibria. With opposing valuations, rapid communication guarantees inefficiency. These are unique examples of this strong form of inefficiency in an alternating-offer bargaining game with complete (and perfect) information. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C72, J30.

Are There Racial Gaps in High School Leadership Opportunities? Do Academics Matter More?

Participation in high school sports and leadership activities is typically associated with later adult earnings premia. In stark contrast to the large but diminishing racial disadvantage found in other measures of educational opportunity, this analysis of high school leadership development finds few examples of racial disadvantage in historical 1960 data, but an emerging disadvantage to black female students between 1972 and 2004. Earnings regressions reveal positive earnings premia to black women who engaged in sports and leadership activities as adolescents, but not to black men. Particularly large premia to higher math scores (or penalties to lower math scores) among black workers are also observed. These findings call into question any world-view in which U.S. wages are a simple function of observable worker qualifications, and highlight the continued need to monitor equitable access to educational opportunities in U.S. schools.