Valuing personal safety and the gender earnings gap

Can personal traits and safety perception determine gender differences in willingness to pay (WTP) for safer jobs? Using a lab experiment, we elicit a person's WTP for an early (perceived safer) shift and study the role of behavioral preferences and safety perception in explaining occupational segregation in the labor market. We find that women are more willing to forego earnings for personal safety than men, and safety concerns are the main mechanism explaining this difference. The gender gap is robust to controlling for commuting patterns, information provision about crime, victimization, risk, ambiguity, and loss aversion. Controlling for individual exposure to crime reduces the observed gender gap. Thus, policies focused on reducing gender disparities in safety concerns may have a potential effect on women's labor supply decisions.

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