Firms and Gender Differences in Job Mobility: A Study of the Role of Personnel Practices and Organizational Context with German Linked Employer-Employee Data

The project examines how firms shape men and women’s career pathways in Germany. We specifically focus on the role of personnel policies, notably their degree of formalization and the extent of companies’ commitment to support women’s careers, and on the role of the broader organizational context, notably in terms of its occupational structure, the extent of establishment-level gender pay gaps and women’s representation in management positions. We seek to evaluate the effects of these organizational features on various aspects of men and women’s careers, including gender gaps in starting pay, gender gaps in rates of firm-internal promotions, gender gaps in access to management positions, and gender gaps in turnover. In our empirical analyses, we utilize the IAB’s linked employer-employee data (LIAB) to estimate the effects of firm context on job mobility behavior and job mobility outcomes, and then rely on representative household data from German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) to estimate the net contribution of gender differentials in job mobility events to the overall gender pay gap in Germany. In our statistical analyses, we will employ a mix of econometric approaches, including hierarchical linear models for panel data, hierarchical event history models, and Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition techniques.

Prof. Dr. Markus Gangl (University of Frankfurt)
Anne-Kathrin Kronberg, PhD (University of North Carolina, Charlotte)

Anna Gerlach (University of Frankfurt)