Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0

Author-Name:  Boris Hirsch
Author-X-Name-First: Boris
Author-X-Name-Last: Hirsch

Title: Joan Robinson Meets Harold Hotelling: A Dyopsonistic Explanation of the Gender Pay Gap

Abstract: This paper presents an alternative explanation of the gender pay gap
resting on a simple Hotelling-style dyopsony model of the labor market. Since there
are only two employers equally productive women and men have to commute and
face travel cost to do so. We assume that a fraction of the women have higher travel
cost, e.g., due to more domestic responsibilities. Employers exploit that women are
less inclined to commute to their competitor and offer lower wages to women. Since
women’s labor supply at the firm level is for this reason less wage-elastic, this model
presents an explanation of wage discrimination in line with Robinson (1933).
Length:  24 pages
Creation-Date:  2007-06
File-URL: http://www.bgpe.de/texte/DP/024_hirsch2.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
File-Function: First version, 2007
Number: 024
Classification-JEL: J16, J42, J71
Keywords: monopsony, gender, discrimination
Handle: RePEc:bav:wpaper:024_hirsch2