Here are my ongoing research projects: some of these projects are still in progress. If you are interested in one of these projects - feel free to contact me

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Families and Inequality in the Coronavirus Outbreak

Work and Families in Times of Crisis: The Case of Israel in the Coronavirus Outbreak

This research deals with the effect of the coronavirus outbreaks on families in Israel. We use the first wave of a longitudinal survey of 2,040 adult Israeli men and women (age 18+), Jews and Arabs, who were employed or self-employed in the first week of March, prior to the lockdown of the economy. In this preprint we ask two main questions: (1) To what extent does the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis following it affect inequality between families? and (2) To what extent did the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis following it affect inequality within the family.

read the full paper

see the project website here

Media coverage: Haaretz in Hebrew; Haaretz in English 

Family Demography and Income Inequality

Family Matters: The Effect of Demographic Changes in Family Patterns on Rising Income Inequality: 

My Ph.D. research focused on the rise in income inequality in Israel in recent decades.
Most research in income inequality focuses on the industrial and economic transformations that most Western labor markets have experienced; however, my research combines institutional and economic aspects of income inequality with demographic changes, especially those that are family-related. More specifically my dissertation concentrates on how educational assortative mating, the rise in women’s participation in the labor market, fertility, and household composition have contributed to the increase in income inequality in Israel in recent decades. Some of my doctoral research findings were published in a paper in Social Science Research. 

Media coverage: Calcalist

 

Couples Division of Paid Work and Rising Income Inequality: A Cross-country Comparison, 1994-2013

Utilizing the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) dataset on 21 OECD countries, I examine whether changes in heterosexual couples' division of paid work (i.e., changes in both spouses' working hours) are associated with increased income inequality. Moreover, I examine whether the selection of couples into the different types of division of paid work based on their level of education is the mechanism underlying the growing inequality. The findings suggest that the increased share of fulltime dual-earner households has led to the rising income inequality in most countries investigated. However, although the share of the highly educated among fulltime dual-earner couples has increased, there is no evidence of couple selection into the different types of division of paid work, based on whether they have gained tertiary education, as the mechanism behind the association of couples' division of paid work and rising income inequality.

Working paper in LIS
 

Gender and Inequality in the Labor Markets

Computer use and gender inequality

Do Computer Technologies Form a New Hope for Gender Pay Equality?

In this paper, we ask: Is the wage premium on using computers at work gender- or non-gender-specific? Analyzing occupational data on computer use at work from O*NET attached to the 1979–2016 Current Population Surveys (CPS) and individual-level data from the 2012 Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), we find that the computer wage premium is biased in favor of men at the occupation level. We suggest that computer-based technologies relate to reproducing old forms of gender pay inequality due to gendered processes that operate mainly at the structural level (i.e., occupations) rather than at the individual level.

This paper is currently under review

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Trends in Gender Occupational Segregation and Computers

In this paper, I argue that changes in gender occupational segregation and the rise in the use of computers at work are interrelated. I suggest two opposite mechanisms underlying the association between the two changes. On the one hand, in some occupations, the computerization of occupations has contributed to the increase in women’s share in occupations that used to be men-dominated and the reduction in gender segregation. On the contrary, in other occupations, the increasing use of computers has led in the opposite direction whereby the process of social closure is one of the mechanisms. Therefore fewer women enter these occupations, suggesting the stable and still prominent level of GOS. By employing OLS regression models, lagged models, and mediation analysis on a unique dataset based on census, ACS, and O*NET data, I find that computer use and GOS are associated and that the physical aspects of the occupation and its social closure component are essential to the mechanism of this relationship. The two mechanisms – the lessening of physical activities and the increase in social closure – act in opposite directions and result in a stable level of segregation.

This paper is currently in preparation

Expansion of higher education and gender inequalities in the labor market

In this project, together with Haya Stier, I deal with the rise in educational attainment and its relation with gender inequalities in the labor market. We have published a paper in Social Indicators Research that examines how the rise in educational attainment has affected gender inequalities in the Israeli labor market between 1983 and 2008. We also published a chapter in  Taub Center’s annual publication - the 2013 State of the Nation Report – Society, Economy and Policy titled: "Women In The Labor Force: The Impact of Education On Employment Patterns and Wages".

Gender Gaps in Access to Professional Occupations: The Case of University Graduates in Europe, 2004-2015

An additional paper focuses on gender inequality in access to professional occupations among the highly educated in Europe. It examines how far the gender composition of academic fields of study and the demand for highly skilled workers have affected the likelihood of women to be employed in professional occupations. The findings show that in 2004, the concentration of women in particular fields of study contributes to widening inequality between men and women. However, in 2015, studying in a female-dominated field decreases the likelihood of having a professional occupation for both men and women. Yet women continue to lag behind men, as men who study in female-dominated fields are still more likely than women to enter professional occupations. However, in labour markets with a high demand for highly skilled employees, gender gaps are narrowing, and the likelihood of finding professional employment increases for both men and women with an academic education.

This paper is currently under review