Labor Market Signaling and Self-Confidence: Wage Compression and the Gender Pay Gap (This paper replaces Nr 10.07 "Labor Market Signaling with Overconfident Workers", June 2010)

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Type
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Working paper: Working papers contain results presented by the author. Working papers aim to stimulate discussions between scientists with interested parties, they can also be the basis to publish articles in specialized journals
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Title
Labor Market Signaling and Self-Confidence: Wage Compression and the Gender Pay Gap (This paper replaces Nr 10.07 "Labor Market Signaling with Overconfident Workers", June 2010)
Author(s)
Santos Pinto L.
Institution details
Université de Lausanne - HEC - DEEP
Issued date
06/2011
Number
11.07
Genre
Cahiers de recherches économiques
Language
english
Number of pages
44
Abstract
I extend Spence's (1973) signaling model by assuming some workers are overconfident - they underestimate their marginal cost of acquiring education - and some are underconfident. Firms cannot observe workers' productive abilities and beliefs but know the fractions of high-ability, overconfident, and underconfident workers. I find that biased beliefs lower the wage spread and compress the wages of unbiased workers. I show that gender differences in self-confidence can contribute to the gender pay gap. If education raises productivity, men are overconfident, and women underconfident, then women will, on average, earn less than men. Finally, I show that biased beliefs can improve welfare.
Keywords
signaling, education, self-confidence, wage compression, gender pay gap
Create date
26/08/2010 12:21
Last modification date
21/08/2019 7:10
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