Capital-gender complementarity

Abstract

Is capital more complementary to one of the genders? More specifically, which types of capital are complementary to which gender? This paper presents a first attempt at estimating capital-gender complementarities, at both aggregated and disaggregated levels. By employing a panel of 12 OECD countries covering the period of 1970-2005, I find that: a) at the aggregated level capital is, on average, more complementary to male labor; b) at the disaggregated level (non) ICT capital is more complementary to (male) female labor, yet the magnitude of complementarity is higher for male labor; c) these patterns hold for different skill groups, and intensify with skill.