women, immigrants, and labor quality

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon Jul 26 17:42:20 PDT 1999


Michael Perelman wrote:


>The standard explanation for lower productivity of women has to do with
>their accumulation of human capital via work experience. You know, they
>come and go without complete attachment to the labor force. As a result,
>their productivity is lower.

But why wouldn't this be captured in education & experience measures? Why a separate gender measure? Is there some "unobserved characteristic," as they like to say, that makes women less productive than men (and, don't such types also do the same with nonwhites and whites?)?

Doug



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list