Are gender differences related to non-cognitive abilities? ——Evidence from China

Abstract

Based on the data from the 2018 China Family Panel Studies data, this paper examines the effect of non-cognitive abilities on gender wages gap in the Chinese labor market. First, use the least squares regression (OLS) method to estimate and analyze the income effect of gender differences. On this basis, the non-conditional quantile (RIF) model is used to analyze the impact of non-cognitive abilities on the gender wage gap. The study found that non-cognitive abilities promote the increase of gender wages. It can be seen from the regression of RIF that non-cognitive abilities has a greater effect on women’s wages than men. According to the decomposition of RIF, in the gender wage gap, non-cognitive abilities helps to alleviate the degree of gender discrimination.

Keywords:

• Non-cognitive abilities
• Gender wage gap
• Unconditional quantile regression
• Big Five personality

Acknowledgments

The data are from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), funded by Peking University and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The CFPS is maintained by the Institute of Social Science Survey of Peking University.

We are grateful to Hui Xu, and two anonymous referees for their comments and suggestions. Errors remain our responsibility.

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest.

Notes

1 The measurement of personality traits does not appear in the paper. Please contact the author for more information if necessary.

2 The division of regions in this article refers to the division of China's economic zones. The China Economic Zone divides China into three major economic zones based on geographic location, economic construction conditions, actual economic and technological level, and regional differences. Therefore, there are only central, western, and eastern regions.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of education of Humanities and Social Science project under Grant number 21XJA630002.