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Author: England, Paula A.
Resulting in 23 citations.
1. Budig, Michelle Jean
England, Paula A.
The Wage Penalty for Motherhood
American Sociological Review 66,2 (April 2001): 204-225.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2657415
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Discrimination; Fertility; Income; Income Level; Job Knowledge; Job Promotion; Mobility, Job; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Motherhood; Mothers; Mothers, Income; Wage Penalty/Career Penalty; Wages; Wages, Women

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Motherhood is associated with lower hourly pay, but the causes of this are not well understood. Mothers may earn less than other women because having children causes them to (1) lose job experience, (2) be less productive at work, (3) trade off higher wages for mother-friendly jobs, or (4) be discriminated against by employers. Or the relationship may be spurious rather than causal--women with lower earning potential may have children at relatively higher rates. The authors use data from the 1982-1993 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth with fixed-effects models to examine the wage penalty for motherhood. Results show a wage penalty of 7 percent per child. Penalties are larger for married women than for unmarried women. Women with (more) children have fewer years of job experience, and after controlling for experience a penalty of 5 percent per child remains. "Mother-friendly" characteristics of the jobs held by mothers explain little of the penalty beyond the tendency of more mothers than non-mothers to work part-time. The portion of the motherhood penalty unexplained probably results from the effect of motherhood on productivity and/or from discrimination by employers against mothers. While the benefits of mothering diffuse widely--to the employers, neighbors, friends, spouses, and children of the adults who received the mothering--the costs of child rearing are borne disproportionately by mothers.
Bibliography Citation
Budig, Michelle Jean and Paula A. England. "The Wage Penalty for Motherhood." American Sociological Review 66,2 (April 2001): 204-225.
2. Budig, Michelle Jean
Hodges, Melissa J.
England, Paula A.
Wages of Nurturant and Reproductive Care Workers: Individual and Job Characteristics, Occupational Closure, and Wage-Equalizing Institutions
Social Problems 66,2 (May 2019): 294-319.
Also: https://academic.oup.com/socpro/article/66/2/294/4976108
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Keyword(s): Job Characteristics; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Occupations; Wage Gap; Wage Penalty/Career Penalty

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Despite the work's social importance, nurturant and reproductive care workers earn less than others with comparable human capital and work demands. We explore three broad questions related to pay for care work. First, we examine nurturant and reproductive care penalties together to investigate what mechanisms produce the lower wages for these workers. Second, we examine how occupational closure through education credentials and licensing requirements creates varying returns to care work. Finally, we explore the roles of wage equalizing institutions--labor unions and government sector care provision--in reducing wage disparities associated with care work. Using the 1979-2012 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and fixed-effects regression models, we find that selection on stable factors and human capital differences explain much of the lower wages for reproductive workers, but none of the low wages of nurturant workers. However, compared to non-care workers, college-educated nurturant care workers receive lower returns to work experience, suggesting limitations in how much learning can increase efficiency in care work, given the labor intensive, face-to-face nature of much of it. Occupational closure matters: care jobs with the highest educational and licensing requirements pay a wage bonus, while less closed care occupations incur a penalty. Wage equalizing institutions have both floor and ceiling effects on care worker wages that mitigate care penalties for selected workers: women reproductive workers and women in low-education/high-licensing occupations. More consistently, ceiling effects of these institutions lower the wages of otherwise higher paid care workers: nurturant and high-education/high licensing occupations.
Bibliography Citation
Budig, Michelle Jean, Melissa J. Hodges and Paula A. England. "Wages of Nurturant and Reproductive Care Workers: Individual and Job Characteristics, Occupational Closure, and Wage-Equalizing Institutions." Social Problems 66,2 (May 2019): 294-319.
3. Duncan, Greg J.
Wilkerson, Bessie
England, Paula A.
Cleaning Up Their Act: The Effects of Marriage and Cohabitation on Licit and Illicit Drug Use
Demography 43,4 (November 2006): 691-710.
Also: http://www.springerlink.com/content/q3547p0538418771/
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Cohabitation; Drug Use; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Illegal Activities; Marital Dissolution; Marriage; Smoking (see Cigarette Use); Substance Use

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to estimate changes in binge drinking, marijuana use, and cigarette smoking surrounding young adults' first experiences of cohabitation and marriage. Both marriage and cohabitation are accompanied by decreases in some risk behaviors, but reductions surrounding marriage are larger and most consistent, particularly for men. Binge drinking and marijuana use respond to these events, especially marriage, but smoking does not.
Bibliography Citation
Duncan, Greg J., Bessie Wilkerson and Paula A. England. "Cleaning Up Their Act: The Effects of Marriage and Cohabitation on Licit and Illicit Drug Use." Demography 43,4 (November 2006): 691-710.
4. Duncan, Greg J.
Wilkerson, Bessie
England, Paula A.
Cleaning up Their Act: The Impacts of Marriage, Cohabitation and Fertility on Licit and Illicit Drug Use
IRP Working Paper 03-02, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, August 25, 2003.
Also: http://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/publications/papers/2004/duncan/CleaningUpAct.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Institute for Policy Research - Northwestern University - (formerly Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research)
Keyword(s): Alcohol Use; Childbearing, Premarital/Nonmarital; Cigarette Use (see Smoking); Cohabitation; Fertility; Gender Differences; Risk-Taking; Substance Use

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

An earlier version of this paper was presented in Minneapolis, MN, at the Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2003.

Mounting evidence suggests that health risk behaviors such as illicit drug use change in response to marriage, childbirth and other demographic events (Bachman, Wadsworth, OMalley, Johnston, and Schulenberg, 1997; Umberson, 1987; 1992). However, much of this evidence is either cross-sectional or fails to track longitudinal changes surrounding the actual occurrence of a life event. Our study uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to relate changes in smoking, binge drinking, marijuana use and cocaine use to the first occurrence of cohabitation, marriage, nonmarital and marital births. Preliminary results indicate that all four life events are linked to substantial decreases in at least some of the risk behaviors. Illicit behaviors appear more responsive to events than do licit behaviors, changes are much more pronounced for marital than nonmarital births and somewhat more pronounced for marriage than for cohabitation. Women's responses are stronger than mens for several of the behaviors.

Bibliography Citation
Duncan, Greg J., Bessie Wilkerson and Paula A. England. "Cleaning up Their Act: The Impacts of Marriage, Cohabitation and Fertility on Licit and Illicit Drug Use." IRP Working Paper 03-02, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, August 25, 2003.
5. England, Paula A.
The Failure of Human Capital Theory to Explain Occupational Sex Segregation
Journal of Human Resources 17,3 (Spring 1982): 358-370.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/i301238
Cohort(s): Mature Women
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Keyword(s): Discrimination, Sex; Employment, Intermittent/Precarious; Human Capital Theory; Occupational Segregation; Occupations, Female; Occupations, Male; Sex Roles; Work History

The human capital theory has not provided an explanation of occupational sex segregation that fits the evidence. Findings do not show that women are penalized more for time spent out of the labor force if they choose predominantly female occupations than if they choose predominantly male occupations. The findings contradict the contention of Polachek.
Bibliography Citation
England, Paula A. "The Failure of Human Capital Theory to Explain Occupational Sex Segregation." Journal of Human Resources 17,3 (Spring 1982): 358-370.
6. England, Paula A.
Women and Occupational Prestige: A Case of Vacuous Sex Equality
Signs 5,2 (Winter 1979): 252-265.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3173560
Cohort(s): Mature Women
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): Control; Discrimination, Sex; Duncan Index; Earnings; Occupational Prestige; Occupations, Female; Sex Equality; Vocational Preparation

A focus solely on occupational prestige, shows a surprising lack of discrimination against women. The findings seem to contradict notions of extreme sexism operating in the labor market. Yet on analysis this sex equality turns out to be rather vacuous. Although women have a very similar occupational prestige distribution to that of men, women's incomes are vastly lower than men's and they seldom have the power to supervise or otherwise control a man's work. Sex equality of prestige is surprising in light of women's lesser income and power because, in general, there is a correlation between the prestige, income, and interpersonal power associated with an occupation.
Bibliography Citation
England, Paula A. "Women and Occupational Prestige: A Case of Vacuous Sex Equality." Signs 5,2 (Winter 1979): 252-265.
7. England, Paula A.
Bearak, Jonathan M.
Budig, Michelle Jean
Hodges, Melissa J.
Do Highly Paid, Highly Skilled Women Experience the Largest Motherhood Penalty?
American Sociological Review 81,6 (December 2016): 1161-1189.
Also: http://asr.sagepub.com/content/81/6/1161.abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Motherhood; Wage Levels; Wage Penalty/Career Penalty; Wages, Women

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Motherhood reduces women's wages. But does the size of this penalty differ between more and less advantaged women? To answer this, we use unconditional quantile regression models with person-fixed effects, and panel data from the 1979 to 2010 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79). We find that among white women, the most privileged--women with high skills and high wages--experience the highest total penalties, estimated to include effects mediated through lost experience. Although highly skilled, highly paid women have fairly continuous experience, their high returns to experience make even the small amounts of time some of them take out of employment for childrearing costly. By contrast, penalties net of experience, which may represent employer discrimination or effects of motherhood on job performance, are not distinctive for highly skilled women with high wages.
Bibliography Citation
England, Paula A., Jonathan M. Bearak, Michelle Jean Budig and Melissa J. Hodges. "Do Highly Paid, Highly Skilled Women Experience the Largest Motherhood Penalty?" American Sociological Review 81,6 (December 2016): 1161-1189.
8. England, Paula A.
Bearak, Jonathan M.
Budig, Michelle Jean
Hodges, Melissa J.
Is the Motherhood Wage Penalty Worse at the Top or Bottom?
Presented: San Francisco CA, Population Association of America Meetings, May 2012
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Maternal Employment; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Motherhood; Racial Differences; Wage Differentials; Wage Penalty/Career Penalty; Wages, Women

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

In this paper, we ask whether motherhood wage penalties are higher for women at the top or bottom of skill, wage, and race hierarchies. Two recent papers that address the issue of how the penalties vary by skill and wage present a puzzle. In an unpublished but widely cited NBER paper, Wilde, Batchelder, and Ellwood (2010), using the AFQT cognitive skill test as a measure of skill, find the motherhood penalty to be much higher for higher skilled women before and after controls for experience. This makes sense if we think that the jobs that high-skilled women can get are the hardest to combine with the demands of motherhood without performance being affected. Budig and Hodges (2010), using the same (National Longitudinal Analysis of Youth 1979) dataset, and deploying quantile regression, show that the penalty for motherhood (as a proportion of wage) is much larger for low wage women. Part of this is simply that low wage women drop out the most, and thus, when they re-enter, pay a penalty for their lost experience. But even after adjustments for experience, Budig and Hodges found lower wage women to have them to have higher penalties, possibly reflecting the less family-friendly firms they work for, and/or their low bargaining power on matters of flexibility. Because individuals’ skills and their wages are moderately positively correlated, it is a puzzle that low skill women have lower penalties while low wage women have higher penalties. Research has also examined whether black and white women differ in their motherhood penalties with mixed findings (e.g. Budig and England 2001 find no difference while Waldfogel 1997 finds lower penalties for black women). We examine whether the wage penalty for motherhood is proportionately higher or lower for women at higher points in cognitive skill, wage, and race hierarchies. One animating puzzle is that a paper by Ellwood and colleagues found higher penalties for more cognitively skilled women, while a paper using the same data by Budig and Hodges found higher penalties at lower wage levels; given the correlation between skill and wage, it is surprising if both are true. We use all waves of the NLSY79 with fixed effects models and quantile regression. We assess whether penalties (because of and net of experience) are higher for those scoring higher on the AFQT, for those with lower wages, and for black women. We assess the role of marital status in explaining black/white differences in penalties. We attempt a comprehensive portrait of how motherhood penalties vary by advantage.
Bibliography Citation
England, Paula A., Jonathan M. Bearak, Michelle Jean Budig and Melissa J. Hodges. "Is the Motherhood Wage Penalty Worse at the Top or Bottom?" Presented: San Francisco CA, Population Association of America Meetings, May 2012.
9. England, Paula A.
Budig, Michelle Jean
Folbre, Nancy
Wages Of Virtue: The Relative Pay of Care Work
Social Problems 49,4 (November 2002): 455-474.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/sp.2002.49.4.455
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of California Press
Keyword(s): Modeling, Fixed Effects; Occupational Status; Occupations; Wage Determination; Wage Growth; Wage Rates; Wages

We examine the relative pay of occupations involving care, such as teaching, counseling, providing health services, or supervising children. We use panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth covering workers between 17 and 35 years of age. Care work pays less than other occupations after controlling for the education and employment experience of the workers, many occupation and industry characteristics, and (via individual fixed effects) unmeasured, stable characteristics of those who hold the jobs. Both men and women in care work pay this relative wage penalty. However, more women than men pay the penalty, since more women than men do this kind of work.
Bibliography Citation
England, Paula A., Michelle Jean Budig and Nancy Folbre. "Wages Of Virtue: The Relative Pay of Care Work." Social Problems 49,4 (November 2002): 455-474.
10. England, Paula A.
Farkas, George
Kilbourne, Barbara Stanek
Dou, Thomas
Explaining Occupational Sex Segregation and Wages: Findings from a Model with Fixed Effects
American Sociological Review 53,4 (August 1988): 544-558.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2095848
Cohort(s): Young Men, Young Women
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Comparable Worth; Discrimination, Sex; Earnings; Gender Differences; Human Capital Theory; Labor Market Demographics; Marital Status; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Occupational Segregation; Occupations, Female; Racial Differences; Variables, Independent - Covariate; Wage Models

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Does segregation arise because "female" occupations have financial advantages for women planning some years as homeworkers, as human capital theorists claim? Or, do female occupations have low wages that are depressed by the sort of discrimination at issue in "Comparable Worth"? To answer these questions, the authors use a model with fixed effects to predict the earnings of young men and women from a pooled cross-section time-series. A fixed-effects model is ideal for answering these questions because it corrects for the selection bias that results from the tendency of persons who differ on characteristics that are unmeasured but affect earnings to select themselves into different occupations. The data are from the NLS Young Men and Young Women cohorts. Independent variables include years of employment experience, education, marital status, hours worked per week, the sex composition of one's occupation, and measures of occupational skill demands and working conditions taken from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. Separate analyses are performed for white females, black females, white males, and black males. It was found that female occupations do not have the advantages presumed by neoclassical writers. Rather, there is evidence of pay discrimination against men or women in predominantly female occupations. Findings are interpreted using economic and sociological theories of labor markets.
Bibliography Citation
England, Paula A., George Farkas, Barbara Stanek Kilbourne and Thomas Dou. "Explaining Occupational Sex Segregation and Wages: Findings from a Model with Fixed Effects." American Sociological Review 53,4 (August 1988): 544-558.
11. England, Paula A.
Herbert, Melissa S.
Kilbourne, Barbara Stanek
Reid, Lori Lynn
Megdal, Lori McCreary
The Gendered Valuation of Occupations and Skills: Earnings in 1980 Census Occupations
Social Forces 73,1 (September 1994): 65-100.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2579918
Cohort(s): Mature Women, Young Women
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Keyword(s): Comparable Worth; Discrimination, Sex; Gender; Gender Differences; Occupational Prestige; Occupations, Non-Traditional; Sex Roles; Skills; Wage Gap; Wages, Men; Wages, Women; Women

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The percent female of an occupation lowers the pay it offers to both men and women, net of skill demands, nonpecuniary amenities and disamenities, and industrial and organizational characteristics. Net of these variables, including percent female, occupations involving nurturance offer lower wages to both men and women. We interpret these net wage penalties for working in a more female occupation, and for doing nurturant work, as sex discrimination in wage setting; occupations and types of skill are devalued because they are typically done by women. We suggest a thesis of the gendered valuation of roles and skills. The sex gap in pay would be reduced by policies mandating comparable worth in setting occupations' pay levels. Other factors contributing to the sex gap in pay include men's higher representation in jobs with authority and in occupations typically located in higher paying industries. Some nonpecuniary amenities and disamenities affect pay consistent with the theory of compensating differentials, but these make no contribution to the sex gap in pay.
Bibliography Citation
England, Paula A., Melissa S. Herbert, Barbara Stanek Kilbourne, Lori Lynn Reid and Lori McCreary Megdal. "The Gendered Valuation of Occupations and Skills: Earnings in 1980 Census Occupations." Social Forces 73,1 (September 1994): 65-100.
12. England, Paula A.
McClintock, Elizabeth
Shafer, Emily Fitzgibbons
Birth Control Use and Early, Unintended Births: Evidence for a Class Gradient
In: Social Class and Changing Families in an Unequal America. Marcia J. Carlson and Paula England, eds., Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011: 21-49
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Age at First Birth; Age at First Intercourse; Contraception; Current Population Survey (CPS) / CPS-Fertility Supplement; Locus of Control (see Rotter Scale); Mothers, Education; National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth); Rotter Scale (see Locus of Control); Socioeconomic Status (SES)

In this chapter we focus on a more causally �upstream� set of causes for class differences in family patterns. As we will show, more-advantaged youths begin engaging in intercourse slightly later and, as young adults, use birth control (contraception and abortion) more consistently. As a result, they are much less likely to become parents early, or to have unintended births at any age. While early births are not always unintended, and not all unintended pregnancies are early, the two phenomena are empirically linked: a national survey asking women about their childbearing between 1997 and 2002 found that 78 percent of births to women under age 20 resulted from unintended pregnancies, compared to 45 percent among women 20� 24, and 24 percent among women 25� 44 (Kissin et al. 2008). This is probably because few see the teen years as appropriate for childbearing, and because anyone who has a high propensity for unplanned pregnancies because of inconsistent contraceptive use will probably have an unplanned pregnancy shortly after the initiation of sexual activity. As Bongaarts (1978) has pointed out, sex and birth control are the proximate determinants of fertility. It follows that class differences affecting early fertility must operate through these proximate determinants. Once premarital sex is ubiquitous, unintended fertility is particularly likely to flow from lack of consistent use of birth control.
Bibliography Citation
England, Paula A., Elizabeth McClintock and Emily Fitzgibbons Shafer. "Birth Control Use and Early, Unintended Births: Evidence for a Class Gradient" In: Social Class and Changing Families in an Unequal America. Marcia J. Carlson and Paula England, eds., Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011: 21-49
13. England, Paula A.
Reid, Lori Lynn
Kilbourne, Barbara Stanek
The Effect of the Sex Composition of Jobs on Starting Wages in an Organization: Findings from the NLSY
Demography 33,4 (November 1996): 511-521.
Also: http://www.springerlink.com/content/24423kln0q8x0658/
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Benefits; Gender Differences; Human Capital; Human Capital Theory; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Racial Differences; Wage Theory

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

It is shown that individuals in a job with a higher percentage of males earn lower starting wages with an employing organization. This holds true with controls for individuals' human capital, job demands for skill or difficult working conditions, and detailed industry. A measure of sex composition is used that applies to detailed jobs: cells in a 3-digit census occupation by 3-digit census industry matrix. Pooled panel data from the 1979-1987 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth are used. The unit of analysis is the spell--the time in which a person worked for one organization. The dependent variable is the first wage in the spell. Models with fixed-effects are used to control for unmeasured, unchanging individual characteristics. In addition, results from OLS and weighted models are shown for comparison. The negative effect on wages of the percentage female in one's job is robust across procedures for black women, white women, and white men. For black men, the sign is always negative, but the coefficient is often nonsignificant. Photocopy available from ABI/INFORM
Bibliography Citation
England, Paula A., Lori Lynn Reid and Barbara Stanek Kilbourne. "The Effect of the Sex Composition of Jobs on Starting Wages in an Organization: Findings from the NLSY." Demography 33,4 (November 1996): 511-521.
14. England, Paula A.
Reid, Lori Lynn
Kilbourne, Barbara Stanek
Farkas, George
Devaluation of Female Jobs: Findings from the NLSY
Presented: Washington, DC, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, August 1995
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Comparable Worth; Economics of Gender; Gender Differences; Human Capital; Job Analysis; Job Requirements; Occupational Segregation; Occupations, Female; Sexual Division of Labor; Skills; Wage Determination; Wage Levels; Wages, Women; Women's Studies; Working Conditions

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Research on comparable worth suggests that employers do not set the wage band for a job according to job content alone, but rather that the sex or race composition of job incumbents biases this assessment. Here, tested is the hypothesis that, net of individuals' human capital, and net of job demands (for skill or difficult working conditions), jobs with a higher proportion of women offer lower wages to all workers in the job. The analysis uses measures of sex composition that pertain to more detailed job categories than used in prior research. Estimated are the net effects of the % female in these categories, using pooled panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979-1987. It is concluded that jobs are devalued when they contain more females; employers offer lower wages in such jobs than in more heavily male jobs with comparable characteristics. (Copyright 1995, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.)
Bibliography Citation
England, Paula A., Lori Lynn Reid, Barbara Stanek Kilbourne and George Farkas. "Devaluation of Female Jobs: Findings from the NLSY." Presented: Washington, DC, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, August 1995.
15. Farkas, George
England, Paula A.
Vicknair, Keven
Kilbourne, Barbara Stanek
Cognitive Skill, Skill Demands of Jobs, and Earnings Among Young European American, African American, and Mexican American Workers
Social Forces 75, 3 (March 1997): 913-940.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2580524
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Keyword(s): Cognitive Ability; Earnings; Education; Ethnic Differences; Gender Differences; Racial Differences; Skills; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT; Wage Gap; Work Experience

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Do the cognitive skills possessed by an individual affect access to more cognitively demanding occupations and hence to the associated higher earnings? To what extent do difference between African Americans, U.S.-born Mexican Americans, and European Americans (Whites) in average cognitive skills account for the lower-skilled jobs and lower earnings of African Americans and Mexican Americans? From analyses of 1991 National Longitudinal Survey (NLSY) data for six groups defined by ethnicity and gender, we found that individual cognitive skill level (as standardized test scores) affects access to occupations requiring more cognitive skill and affects wages levels, even when controlling for education, work experience and other factors. Most of the effect of cognitive skills on earnings is direct; a smaller portion is indirect, through access to occupations requiring more cognitive skill. The lower average cognitive skill levels for African Americans and Mexican Americans explain a substantial proportion of the earnings gaps between these groups European Americans. By contrast, cognition skills explain none of the gender gap in pay within ethnic groups. We conclude that to understand or alter racial or ethnic inequalities in earnings, scholars and policy-maters must attend to social sources of group differences in cognition skills, such as school, family, and neighborhood experiences.
Bibliography Citation
Farkas, George, Paula A. England, Keven Vicknair and Barbara Stanek Kilbourne. "Cognitive Skill, Skill Demands of Jobs, and Earnings Among Young European American, African American, and Mexican American Workers." Social Forces 75, 3 (March 1997): 913-940.
16. Kilbourne, Barbara Stanek
England, Paula A.
Beron, Kurt
Effects of Individual, Occupational, and Industrial Characteristics on Earnings: Intersections of Race and Gender
Social Forces 72,4 (June 1994): 1149-1176.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2580296
Cohort(s): Young Men, Young Women
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Keyword(s): Earnings; Educational Attainment; Gender Differences; Industrial Sector; Marital Status; Mobility, Social; Racial Differences; Social Environment; Work Experience

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Generalizations regarding the effects of experience, education, marital status, occupational characteristics, and industrial sector on earnings are analyzed using data from the National Longitudinal Survey (1966-81). Regression decomposition to ascertain factors that explain the gender and/or racial (black/white) gap in earnings is used. Results reveal a number of complex race/gender interactions affecting income inequality. Education affects the racial gap but not the gender gap
Bibliography Citation
Kilbourne, Barbara Stanek, Paula A. England and Kurt Beron. "Effects of Individual, Occupational, and Industrial Characteristics on Earnings: Intersections of Race and Gender." Social Forces 72,4 (June 1994): 1149-1176.
17. Kilbourne, Barbara Stanek
Farkas, George
Beron, Kurt
Weir, Dorothea
England, Paula A.
Returns to Skill, Compensating Differentials, and Gender Bias: Effects of Occupational Characteristics on the Wages of White Women and Men
American Journal of Sociology 100,3 (November 1994): 689-719.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2782402
Cohort(s): Young Men, Young Women
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): Educational Returns; Gender Differences; Human Capital Theory; Job Skills; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Skills; Unions; Wage Gap; Wages, Women

Gender differences in the earnings of white US workers are decomposed using a regression model with fixed-effects & national individual-level panel data from the 1966-1981 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = approximately 10,000 respondents ages 14-24 at initial sampling). In accordance with neoclassical predictions from human capital theory, net positive returns to individuals' education & experience & to occupations' cognitive physical skills are found. While sex differences in experience have large effects on the sex gap, skill contributes little. In accordance with cultural feminist predictions, negative returns to being in an occupation with a higher % of females or requiring more nurturant social skills are found. These forms of gendered valuation contribute significantly to the sex gap in pay. In contrast to the neoclassical prediction of compensating differentials, there are no consistently positive effects for onerous physical conditions, nor do these have much effect on the gap. 2 Tables, 1 Appendix, 54 References. Adapted from the source document. (Copyright 1995, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.)
Bibliography Citation
Kilbourne, Barbara Stanek, George Farkas, Kurt Beron, Dorothea Weir and Paula A. England. "Returns to Skill, Compensating Differentials, and Gender Bias: Effects of Occupational Characteristics on the Wages of White Women and Men." American Journal of Sociology 100,3 (November 1994): 689-719.
18. Killewald, Alexandra
England, Paula A.
Lee, Angela Wang
Wealth and Divorce
Presented: Denver CO, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2018
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Divorce; Home Ownership; Marital Stability; Modeling, Hazard/Event History/Survival/Duration; Wealth

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Social scientists have extensively debated whether income promotes divorce by allowing individuals to exit unhappy marriages or promotes marital stability by easing financial strain. This literature has largely ignored that wealth is a distinct financial resource that may have its own effects on marital stability. We describe preliminary results from what we believe is the first examination of the effect of wealth on divorce in the United States. We use panel data from the NLSY79 and discrete-time hazard models and show that, for both blacks and whites, wealth is associated with greater marital stability, net of more commonly studied economic and background characteristics. Given prior evidence that homeownership reduces divorce risk, we test whether wealth's effects operate entirely through access to this specific asset, but find that wealth's effects are more general. We describe planned analyses to test the robustness of our findings and illuminate mechanisms responsible for the effects.
Bibliography Citation
Killewald, Alexandra, Paula A. England and Angela Wang Lee. "Wealth and Divorce." Presented: Denver CO, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2018.
19. Killewald, Alexandra
Lee, Angela
England, Paula A.
Wealth and Divorce
Demography 60,1 (February 2023): 147-171.
Also: https://www.jstor.org/stable/48711996
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s):

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

In the United States, wealthier couples have lower divorce risk. Wealth may stabilize marriage through its material value, especially by easing financial stress, or by providing symbolic resources, especially signaling that couples meet normative financial standards for marriage. We first show that the negative association between wealth and divorce holds net of a rich set of controls. All else being equal, having $40,000 in wealth rather than $0 is associated with as big a decline in average predicted divorce risk as having no nonmarital births versus at least one. Second, we show that the negative association between wealth and divorce risk is steepest at low positive wealth levels. Net of covariates, having $40,000 in wealth rather than $0 is associated with as big a decline in average predicted divorce risk as having $400,000 rather than $40,000. Third, we consider evidence for the symbolic perspective, which emphasizes the stabilizing role of owning visible physical assets, and the material perspective, which suggests unsecured debt heightens divorce risk. Consistent with the symbolic perspective, we find that with net worth held constant, ownership of homes and vehicles is negatively associated with divorce risk. However, more research is needed to fully adjudicate between the symbolic and material perspectives.
Bibliography Citation
Killewald, Alexandra, Angela Lee and Paula A. England. "Wealth and Divorce." Demography 60,1 (February 2023): 147-171.
20. Lee, Dohoon
England, Paula A.
Family Background, Childhood Disadvantage, and Unintended Fertility
Presented: Busan, Republic of Korea, IUSSP International Population Conference, August 2013
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP)
Keyword(s): Age at Birth; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Birthweight; Family Background and Culture; Fertility; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Modeling, Hazard/Event History/Survival/Duration; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes; Wantedness

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

In the U.S., most research on unintended fertility tends to address differences by family background and the sociodemographic contexts in which unintended births occur. However, little is known about the mechanisms by which family background is associated with unintended childbearing. In this study, we propose childhood disadvantage as a key mediating factor that explains the family background gradient on unintended fertility. Drawing upon the life course and human capital formation literature, we identify four dimensions of childhood disadvantage: economic resources, family structure, parenting quality, and self-regulation. Using data from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and event history models, this study examines the relative role that each dimension of childhood disadvantage plays in linking family background to unintended fertility.
Bibliography Citation
Lee, Dohoon and Paula A. England. "Family Background, Childhood Disadvantage, and Unintended Fertility." Presented: Busan, Republic of Korea, IUSSP International Population Conference, August 2013.
21. Musick, Kelly
England, Paula A.
Class and Education Differences in Planned and Unplanned Fertility
Presented: Philadelphia, PA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, March-April 2005.
Also: http://paa2005.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submissionId=51699
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Childbearing; Contraception; Education Indicators; Fertility; Modeling, Hazard/Event History/Survival/Duration; Socioeconomic Factors

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Class and education differentials in levels of fertility are longstanding. In recent decades, class and education differentials in the timing of fertility have widened, with higher status women increasing age at first birth much more than lower status women. In this paper, we examine three potential factors explaining socioeconomic differences in fertility: 1) the value women place on children; 2) opportunity costs; and 3) contraceptive efficacy. Using data from over twenty years of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), we describe patterns of planned and unplanned childbearing among women from different class backgrounds and with varying levels of own education. We use competing hazard models to examine the role of socioeconomic status in planned and unplanned fertility, and we explore the extent to which the association between socioeconomic status and fertility is mediated by childbearing ideals, opportunity costs, and consistency of contraceptive use.
Bibliography Citation
Musick, Kelly and Paula A. England. "Class and Education Differences in Planned and Unplanned Fertility." Presented: Philadelphia, PA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, March-April 2005.
22. Musick, Kelly
England, Paula A.
Edgington, Sarah
Kangas, Nicole
Education Differences in Intended and Unintended Fertility
Social Forces 88,2 (December 2009): 543-572.
Also: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/social_forces/summary/v088/88.2.musick.html
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Keyword(s): Abortion; Childbearing, Premarital/Nonmarital; Contraception; Educational Attainment; Fertility; Modeling, Hazard/Event History/Survival/Duration; Racial Differences; Sexual Behavior

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Using a hazards framework and panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979-2004), we analyze the fertility patterns of a recent cohort of white and black women in the United States. We examine how completed fertility varies by women's education, differentiating between intended and unintended births. We find that the education gradient on fertility comes largely from unintended childbearing, and it is not explained by child-bearing desires or opportunity costs, the two most common explanations in previous research. Less-educated women want no more children than the more educated, so this factor explains none of their higher completed fertility. Less-educated women have lower wages, but wages have little of the negative effect on fertility predicted by economic theories of opportunity cost. We propose three other potential mechanisms linking low education and unintended childbearing, focusing on access to contraception and abortion, relational and economic uncertainty, and consistency in the behaviors necessary to avoid unintended pregnancies. Our work highlights the need to incorporate these mechanisms into future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Bibliography Citation
Musick, Kelly, Paula A. England, Sarah Edgington and Nicole Kangas. "Education Differences in Intended and Unintended Fertility." Social Forces 88,2 (December 2009): 543-572.
23. Okamoto, Dina G.
England, Paula A.
Is There a Supply Side to Occupational Sex Segregation?
Sociological Perspectives 42,4 (Winter 1999): 557-583.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1389574
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of California Press
Keyword(s): Gender; Job Aspirations; Occupational Choice; Occupational Segregation; Occupations, Female; Occupations, Male; Sexual Division of Labor; Sociability/Socialization/Social Interaction

We examine evidence for supply-side explanations of occupational sex segregation, using the 1979-93 NLSY. Supply-side explanations, such as those derived from neoclassical economic theory and gender socialization, look to individual characteristics of workers, such as values, aspirations, and roles, to explain occupational outcomes. Contrary to human capital theory, we find no tendency for individuals with early plans for employment intermittency or more actual breaks in employment to work in predominantly female occupations. This suggests that women who anticipate breaks in employment do not choose female occupations because of lower wage penalties for time out of the labor force. A second neoclassical view, from the theory of compensating differentials, posits that women sacrifice some pay for "mother-friendly" features of jobs. Consistent with this, white and Latina mothers are in more female jobs than are nonmothers, but the opposite is true for African-American women. The gender socialization perspective posits a long-term effect of gendered attitudes and aspirations formed in youth. Consistent with this, we find that those aspiring to or expecting to work in predominantly female jobs are in more heavily female jobs fourteen years later. Also, for women (but not men), more liberal gender role attitudes predicts working in a more sex-typical occupation. For men (but not women), having had either a father or mother who worked in a female occupation predicts working in a more heavily female occupation.
Bibliography Citation
Okamoto, Dina G. and Paula A. England. "Is There a Supply Side to Occupational Sex Segregation?" Sociological Perspectives 42,4 (Winter 1999): 557-583.