Estimating gender differences in access to jobs: females trapped at the bottom of the ladder

In this paper, we propose a job assignment model allowing for a gender difference in access to jobs. Males and females compete for the same job positions. They are primarily interested in the best-paid jobs. A structural relationship of the model can be used to empirically recover the probability ratio of females and males getting a given job position. As this ratio is allowed to vary with the rank of jobs in the wage distribution of positions, barriers in females' access to high-paid jobs can be detected and quantiffed. We estimate the gender relative probability of getting any given job position for full-time executives aged 40-45 in the private sector. This is done using an exhaustive French administrative dataset on wage bills. Our results show that the access to any job position is lower for females than for males. Also, females' access decreases with the rank of job positions in the wage distribution, which is consistent with females being faced with more barriers to high-paid jobs than to low-paid jobs. At the bottom of the wage distribution, the probability of females getting a job is 12% lower than the probability of males. The difference in probability is far larger at the top of the wage distribution and climbs to 50%.gender ; discrimination ; wages ; quantiles ; job assignment model ; glass ceiling

Child-related career interruptions and the gender wage gap in France

In this paper, we investigate the extent of the effects of children and child-related time out of the labor market on the gender wage gap in France, with special attention to its impact on the accumulation and composition of human capital. Measuring this impact requires detailed information on the individuals‟ activity history that is rarely available. The French survey "Families and Employers" (Ined, 2005) provides this information. We first look at men's and women's wage determinants, including the penalties associated with unemployment and time out of the labor market. We find that having controlled for the jobs' characteristics and selection into employment, there is a penalty attached to child-related time out of the labor market, which affects only women. We do not find any direct negative impact of children on women's current hourly wage at the mean. Then for a sub-sample of men and women aged from 39 to 49, we use a decomposition of the gender wage gap into an "interruption" wage gap between women and a gender wage gap between women who have never taken child-related time out and men; we find that the wage gap between men and women who have never interrupted their participation in the labor force is essentially "unexplained", while the wage gap between women who have had child-related interruptions and women who have not is essentially "explained".Wages, Human capital, Children, Family pay gap, Statistical discrimination, Wage gap decomposition

Do women choose to work in the public and nonprofit sectors? Empirical evidence from a French national survey

Women are over-represented in public and nonprofit sector jobs. This article aims to bring to light the reasons behind that phenomenon. In particular, do women choose these sectors because they offer female employees specific advantages that are absent from the private sector? The feminization of the public sector can be explained by the fact that women obtain a higher wage gain from choosing this sector than men do. However, this is not true for the nonprofit sector. Working hours - in the form of part-time work in the nonprofit sector and total hours worked in the public sector - appear to play an important role in the over-representation of women in these two sectors. On the other hand, the idea that women are more attracted to the social objectives pursued by public and nonprofit organizations does not appear to play any part. “Family-friendly” measures - aiming to reconcile the demands of family life and professional life - appear to attract women to the public sector, but it is difficult to interpret their influence, because it is impossible to distinguish between the attractiveness of these measures and the result of professional segregation in the public sector

Do women choose to work in the public and nonprofit sectors? Empirical evidence from a French national survey

Women are over-represented in public and nonprofit sector jobs. This article aims to bring to light the reasons behind that phenomenon. In particular, do women choose these sectors because they offer female employees specific advantages that are absent from the private sector? The feminization of the public sector can be explained by the fact that women obtain a higher wage gain from choosing this sector than men do. However, this is not true for the nonprofit sector. Working hours - in the form of part-time work in the nonprofit sector and total hours worked in the public sector - appear to play an important role in the over-representation of women in these two sectors. On the other hand, the idea that women are more attracted to the social objectives pursued by public and nonprofit organizations does not appear to play any part. “Family-friendly” measures - aiming to reconcile the demands of family life and professional life - appear to attract women to the public sector, but it is difficult to interpret their influence, because it is impossible to distinguish between the attractiveness of these measures and the result of professional segregation in the public sector

MANTILLA CANARIA [Material gráfico]

ADQUIRIDA POR EL COLECCIONISTA EN LAS PALMAS DE GRAN CANARIAFOTO DE CHICA DE ESPALDAS CON MANTILLA CANARIACopia digital. Madrid : Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. Subdirección General de Coordinación Bibliotecaria, 201

Hepatitis C Virus Controls Interferon Production through PKR Activation

Hepatitis C virus is a poor inducer of interferon (IFN), although its structured viral RNA can bind the RNA helicase RIG-I, and activate the IFN-induction pathway. Low IFN induction has been attributed to HCV NS3/4A protease-mediated cleavage of the mitochondria-adapter MAVS. Here, we have investigated the early events of IFN induction upon HCV infection, using the cell-cultured HCV JFH1 strain and the new HCV-permissive hepatoma-derived Huh7.25.CD81 cell subclone. These cells depend on ectopic expression of the RIG-I ubiquitinating enzyme TRIM25 to induce IFN through the RIG-I/MAVS pathway. We observed induction of IFN during the first 12 hrs of HCV infection, after which a decline occurred which was more abrupt at the protein than at the RNA level, revealing a novel HCV-mediated control of IFN induction at the level of translation. The cellular protein kinase PKR is an important regulator of translation, through the phosphorylation of its substrate the eIF2α initiation factor. A comparison of the expression of luciferase placed under the control of an eIF2α-dependent (IRESEMCV) or independent (IRESHCV) RNA showed a specific HCV-mediated inhibition of eIF2α-dependent translation. We demonstrated that HCV infection triggers the phosphorylation of both PKR and eIF2α at 12 and 15 hrs post-infection. PKR silencing, as well as treatment with PKR pharmacological inhibitors, restored IFN induction in JFH1-infected cells, at least until 18 hrs post-infection, at which time a decrease in IFN expression could be attributed to NS3/4A-mediated MAVS cleavage. Importantly, both PKR silencing and PKR inhibitors led to inhibition of HCV yields in cells that express functional RIG-I/MAVS. In conclusion, here we provide the first evidence that HCV uses PKR to restrain its ability to induce IFN through the RIG-I/MAVS pathway. This opens up new possibilities to assay PKR chemical inhibitors for their potential to boost innate immunity in HCV infection

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms