Time: June 6 (Mon.), 10:00 – 11:30 am (Beijing Time)

Title:  Gender Education Gap and Skill-Biased Structural Change

About the Speaker:

Ying Feng is currently an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore. She received her Ph.D. degree in economics from the University of California San Diego in 2019. Her research interests are in macroeconomics, economic growth and development.

Abstract:

This paper investigates the role of economic development in narrowing the gender education gap across countries. Using household surveys covering 84 countries from all income levels, we highlight that the gender education gap shrinks with development, while the female labor force share within agriculture declines and that within service increases. Based on these facts, we build a three-sector model in which economic development features skill-biased technological change within sectors and structural transformation. Given women's comparative advantage in services, both forces lead to a higher demand for skilled women, which endogenously increases women's educational attainment. We then parameterize the model to study the quantitative contributions of (1) structural transformation and (2) sector-specific skill-biased technological change in explaining the narrowing gender education gap across countries.