Jessica Pan

Outsourcing Household Production: Foreign Domestic Workers and Native Labor Supply in Hong Kong

We explore how the availability of affordable live-in help provided by foreign domestic workers (FDWs) in Hong Kong affected native women’s labor supply and welfare. First, we exploit differences in the FDW program between Hong Kong and Taiwan. Second, we use cross-sectional variation in the cost of a FDW to estimate a model of labor force participation and FDW hire. FDWs increased the participation of mothers with a young child (relative to older children) by 10–14 percentage points and have generated a monthly consumer surplus of US

Gender Segregation in Occupations: The Role of Tipping and Social Interactions

130–US

Foreign nurse importation and the supply of native nurses

200. By reducing child care costs through immigration, this is a market-based alternative to child care subsidies.

Social Norms, Labor Market Opportunities, and the Marriage Gap for Skilled Women

This paper documents that the dynamics of occupational segregation are highly nonlinear and exhibit tipping patterns. Occupations experience discontinuous declines in net male employment growth at tipping points ranging from 25% to 45% (from 13% to 30%) female in white-collar (blue-collar) occupations from 1940 to 1990. These patterns appear consistent with a Schelling (1971) social interaction model where tipping results from male preferences toward the fraction female in their occupation. Supporting the model’s predictions, evidence from the General Social Survey indicates that tipping points are lower in regions where males hold more sexist attitudes toward the appropriate role of women.

The Relative Quality of Foreign-Educated Nurses in the United States

The importation of foreign registered nurses has been used as a strategy to ease nursing shortages in the United States. The effectiveness of this policy depends critically on the long-run response of native nurses. We examine the effects of immigration of foreign-born registered nurses on the long-run employment and occupational choice of native nurses. Using a variety of empirical strategies that exploit the geographical distribution of immigrant nurses across US cities, we find evidence of large displacement effects - over a ten-year period, for every foreign nurse that migrates to a city, between 1 and 2 fewer native nurses are employed in the city. We find similar results using data on nursing board exam-takers at the state level - an increase in the flow of foreign nurses significantly reduces the number of natives sitting for licensure exams in more dependent states relative to less dependent states. Using data on self-reported workplace satisfaction among a sample of California nurses, we find suggestive evidence that part of the displacement effects could be driven by a decline in the perceived quality of the workplace environment.

Are Singaporean Cabdrivers Target Earners

In most of the developed world, skilled women marry at a lower rate than unskilled women. We document heterogeneity across countries in how the marriage gap for skilled women has evolved over time. As labor market opportunities for women have improved, the marriage gap has been growing in some countries but shrinking in others. We discuss a theoretical model in which the (negative) social attitudes towards working women might contribute towards the lower marriage rate of skilled women, and might also induce a non-linear relationship between their labor market prospects and their marriage outcomes. The model is suited to understand the dynamics of the marriage gap for skilled women over time within a country with set social attitudes towards working women. The model also delivers predictions about how the marriage gap for skilled women should react to changes in their labor market opportunities across countries with more or less conservative attitudes towards working women. We test the key predictions of this model in a panel of 23 developed countries, as well as in a panel of US states.

Foreign Nurse Importation to the United States and the Supply of Native Registered Nurses

We examine the relative quality of foreign-educated nurses using wages as a measure of skill. Philippine-educated nurses enjoy a wage premium that is not explained by observed differences in worker or job characteristics. We reconcile the results with a Roy model featuring endogenous skill acquisition and provide some empirical evidence of double-selection into nursing and migration. Our results suggest that the wage premium is likely driven by strong positive selection into nursing among Filipinos resulting from high and heterogeneous returns to the occupation due to active government support for nurse migration in the Philippines.

Gender Gap Under Pressure: Evidence from China's National College Entrance Examination

We use a unique administrative dataset of over 10,000 taxi drivers in Singapore to study the labor supply decisions of these drivers. Our study uses a high frequency dataset to test whether cabdrivers exhibit reference-dependence preferences. We estimate cabdrivers’ day and day-of-the-week hours and income targets using ex-post data, and find that the targets have a strong and positive impact on cabdrivers’ probability of stopping work. Cabdrivers with high cumulative hours and/or cumulative income for the day are more likely to stop work earlier when they reach their hour and income targets. We also find that cabdrivers’ income targets are independent of ex-post positive and negative daily income shocks, and that their targeting behavior is persistent. The results support the idea that rational expectations underpin reference-dependence in the labor supply decisions of cabdrivers in our sample.

The Effects of Sexism on American Women: The Role of Norms vs. Discrimination

Importing foreign nurses has been used as a strategy to ease nursing shortages in the United States. The effectiveness of this policy critically depends on the long-run response of native-born nurses. We examine how the immigration of foreign-born registered nurses (RNs) affects the occupational choice and long-run employment decisions of native RNs. Using a variety of empirical strategies that exploit the geographical distribution of immigrant nurses across U.S. cities, we find evidence of large displacement effects — over a 10-year period, for every foreign nurse that migrates to a city, between one and two fewer native nurses are employed in that city. We find similar results at the state level using data on individuals taking the nursing board exam — an increase in the flow of foreign nurses significantly reduces the number of natives sitting for licensure exams in the states that are more dependent on foreign-born nurses compared to those states that are less dependent on foreign nurses. Using data on self-reported workplace satisfaction among a sample of California nurses, we find evidence suggesting that some of the displacement effects could be driven by a decline in the perceived quality of the workplace environment.

When Time Binds: Substitutes for Household Production, Returns to Working Long Hours, and the Skilled Gender Wage Gap

We examine gender differences in the response to competitive pressure using data from the most competitive entrance exam—Chinas Gaokao. Compared to male students, females underperform on the competitive and high-stakes Gaokao, relative to their performance on the low-stakes mock examination. Moreover, womens performance suffers more than mens in response to negative performance shocks in an earlier exam on the same day. These effects are more pronounced for subgroups of students where the stakes matter more. Overall, these findings appear to be best explained by womens lower tolerance for pressure and weaker incentives to do well in high-stakes settings.