All about the money? The gendered effect of education on industrial and occupational sorting

1972 reform; Career choices; Non-pecuniary preferences; Returns to education; Worker sorting; Economics and Econometrics; Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

Abstract :

[en] Using the 1972 UK compulsory education reform as a natural experiment, we investigate the impact of education on occupational and industrial sorting through Quarterly Labour Force Surveys. Higher education levels increase the likelihood of men working in public administration and non-manual occupations. For women, it leads to a higher probability of employment in health and education industries. The shift of men towards non-manual occupations significantly boosts earnings, while the impact on women's earnings is more limited. These findings echo gender differences in job characteristic preferences we show using UK International Social Survey Programme data. Men prioritise pecuniary aspects, while women prioritise pro-social aspects of their jobs. Importantly, greater education does not reduce these disparities in job preferences.

Disciplines :

Special economic topics (health, labor, transportation...)

Author, co-author :

LEPINTEUR, Anthony ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences (DBCS) > Health and Behaviour

Nieto, Adrián; Department of Economics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

All about the money? The gendered effect of education on industrial and occupational sorting

Publication date :

2025

Journal title :

Labour Economics

ISSN :

0927-5371

eISSN :

1879-1034

Publisher :

Elsevier B.V.

Volume :

Pages :

102670

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0927537124001660?httpAccept=text/xml

Available on ORBilu :

since 11 December 2025

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