Discussion Paper
No. 2018-18 | February 16, 2018
Christiane Krieger-Boden and Alina Sorgner
Labor market opportunities for women in the digital age
(Published in Global Solutions Paper)

Abstract

Digitalization offers a variety of opportunities for female empowerment and for a more equal female participation in labor markets, financial markets, and entrepreneurship. Currently, digitalization seems to favor female labor force, since women face on average lower risk of being replaced by machines, as compared to men. Women’s often superior social skills represent a comparative advantage in the digital age, and this is particularly so when social skills are complemented with higher education and advanced digital literacy. However, the same barriers and deficits that obstruct women’s current advancement in many countries may deprive them from many beneficial opportunities in the digital age, including new entrepreneurial opportunities. Major efforts by policy makers are required to invalidate these barriers. New digital technologies should be used more decisively to achieve the goal of gender equality.

JEL Classification:

O3, J7

Links

Cite As

[Please cite the corresponding journal article] Christiane Krieger-Boden and Alina Sorgner (2018). Labor market opportunities for women in the digital age. Economics Discussion Papers, No 2018-18, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. http://www.economics-ejournal.org/economics/discussionpapers/2018-18


Comments and Questions



Diganta Mukherjee, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India - Report
February 28, 2018 - 13:53
see attached file

Christiane Krieger-Boden and Alina Sorgner - Reply
April 30, 2018 - 13:37
Dear Diganta Mukherjee, Thank you for your kind appreciation of our paper, and thank you for enriching us with your “back of the envelope model”. We might come back to it in future publications and expand on it - with the necessary reference to your intellectual property for this idea, of course. As to your “Minor comment: In Figures 2 and 3, the gap may be clarified as wage ratio”: Actually, this gap is not a wage ratio. It offers no new information; it only compresses the information already shown in the graph by relating the respective value for women to that of men. It is defined this way on the right-hand scale of the graph.

Jim Thomas (Emeritus Reader in Economics and Research Associate, (STICERD), LSE) - Comment
March 13, 2018 - 08:49
see attached file

Christiane Krieger-Boden and Alina Sorgner - Reply
April 30, 2018 - 13:40
see attached file