American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Human Capital Investment and the Gender Division of Labor in a Brawn-Based Economy
American Economic Review
vol. 102,
no. 7, December 2012
(pp. 3531–60)
Abstract
A model of human capital investment and activity choice is used to explain facts describing gender differentials in the levels and returns to human capital investments and occupational choice. These include the higher return to and level of schooling, the small effect of healthiness on wages, and the large effect of healthiness on schooling for females relative to males. The model incorporates gender differences in the level and responsiveness of brawn to nutrition in a Roy-economy setting in which activities reward skill and brawn differentially. Evidence from rural Bangladesh provides support for the model and the importance of the distribution of brawn.Citation
Pitt, Mark M., Mark R. Rosenzweig, and Mohammad Nazmul Hassan. 2012. "Human Capital Investment and the Gender Division of Labor in a Brawn-Based Economy." American Economic Review, 102 (7): 3531–60. DOI: 10.1257/aer.102.7.3531Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I20 Education and Research Institutions: General
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
- O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
- O18 Economic Development: Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure