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This paper discusses the ways that capabilities and human development theory can guide the creation of entrepreneurship programs, utilizing a framework of human-centered design thinking. It is well known that a variety of institutional factors shape gender outcomes and gender inequality within entrepreneurship, particularly with regard to necessity versus opportunity entrepreneurship and informal versus formal sector entrepreneurship. Failure to understand the diversity of entrepreneurial activity among women, and the connection (or lack thereof) of such activity to human freedom, leads to biased entrepreneurship programs. This paper links social economic theory and practice by: (1) discussing the ways that capabilities and human development theory relate to entrepreneurship programs; (2) demonstrating that human-centered design thinking reflects the capabilities approach; and (3) showing how the design thinking framework would be used to create a gender-sensitive entrepreneurship program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The higher religiosity of women in the Western Christian societies is one of the best documented findings in the religious scholarship. In spite of the recent vibrancy of secular movements in North America, the higher religiosity of women appears persistent. As a result, the gender ratio is greatly skewed in the secular groups in favour of males. For instance, for every atheist female in North America, there are at least three males. Using the Canadian General Social Surveys of 1985–2014, this paper examines how the gender religiosity gap has evolved among the Canadian-born. Throughout the period, Canadian-born women are found less likely to be unaffiliated and show a greater frequency of religious attendance. The religious attendance gap is found to be closing. The unaffiliation gap, on the other hand, seems to have widened in the 21st century. Limiting the analyses to the gainfully employed respondents only reduces the religious attendance gap. For the high earners, the attendance gap effectively disappears, while a large unaffiliation gap persists into the 2010s. This pattern is best explained by the recent literature asserting that men and women are differentially socially sanctioned for the adoption of a secularized identity. The alleged sexism of the new secular movements is also noted as a potential explanation. The examination of the recent Canadian data on perceived religious and gender discrimination produces evidence congruent with both of these potential explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends the existing literature on taxpayer ethics in three ways. First, we construct a two-stage model of decision making, which allows us to disentangle risk preferences from ethical motivations for income tax compliance. Second, we develop a new experimental data set, which permits us to estimate the magnitudes of the relevant personality traits, risk aversion and morality, at the individual level. Third, we combine the experimental data with participant surveys so that ethical preferences are not only measured but also linked to demographic characteristics. We find that ethical preferences are correlated with risk aversion, age, gender, and marital status, among other characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2001, China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the US recession put pressure on maquiladora workers' wages. The result was an increase in the gender wage gap. At the firm level, this increase is not discriminatory, in the sense that the lower income entitlement for women is socially accepted at the household level. This paper uses Akerlof and Yellen's (1990) fair wage-effort hypothesis to explain the gender wage gap as a matter of 'fair-wage constraints' that differ across genders, which are, in turn, due to evolving social norms of fairness in reservation wages for men and women within households. Empirical evidence for changes in gender wages gaps across industries between 1997 and 2006 is found to be consistent with this argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 25 years, the relative economic situation of women, African-Americans, and other groups facing economic discrimination has improved but, paradoxically, the relative economic situation of the population's lower half has worsened. These opposite trends are surprising since the very groups whose overall situation has improved remain disproportionately represented in the bottom half. This paper presents several likely explanations of the trends. First, there has been a historically unique distancing of the upper economic half from the lower economic half that has lessened the former's interest in aiding the latter. Second, the increasing belief in free markets that has characterized the period is argued to be consistent with the removal of prejudices based on race, gender, and ethnicity while at the same time eroding institutions that relieve class income differences. Third, the fact that one can “exit” from a social class, but must raise one's voice to improve the treatment of one's gender or race is argued to have weakened the overall status of the lower half, while strengthening the overall status of women and African-Americans. And fourth, certain psychological biases are argued to have caused weakened support for collective efforts to improve the condition of the lower half. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies thematic analysis to survey data obtained from a sample of AFDC recipients to investigate the complexities of single-parent decision-making in low-income households. A basic needs budget is developed to determine the adequacy of women's wages to provide for children's minimal material needs. In surveys, parents indicate their primary goal is the well-being of the children, determined by the adequacy of several types of resources, which we categorize into four groups: 1) material resources, 2) caring resources, 3) community resources, and 4) the macro-level environment. Using this framework, we develop a schematic model of single-parent decision-making, incorporating the assumption that children's level of need and well-being are determined not only by the cost and availability of material resources but also by psychological factors such as gender conflicts, neighborhood safety, as well as parents' time and social networks that provide caring labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on time-use data from a 2013 primary household survey, this study examines the nature and extent of time-poverty experienced by men and women in peasant households in Mozambique. The main findings indicate that while women's labor allocation to economic activities is comparable to that of men, household chores and care work are almost entirely women's responsibility. The heavy burden of responsibilities leave women significantly time-poorer compared to men. Women's time-poverty worsens when the burden of simultaneous care work is taken into account. In addition, due to multitasking, the work tends to be more taxing. The examination of determinants of time-poverty shows that common measures of individual economic power, such as assets and education, do not necessarily affect the time-poverty faced by women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional wisdom has been that men outperform otherwise equivalent women in collegiate economics courses. Recent work in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields documenting gains by women suggests that it is time to reevaluate the gender performance gap in economics. Surveying 68 studies containing 235 distinct regressions published since 1980, we find that 68.4% of regressions report men outperform women, though this is only statistically significant in 30.7% of regressions. Although the literature points to numerous reasons for this gap, our focus is on the effects of study design and the impact of broad socio-cultural changes over time. Using meta-regression analysis, we find that the likelihood of observing a statistically significant gap has declined noticeably, by almost 3% annually. Although the drop may not be as large as in some STEM fields, the result is highly robust to the specification of the time trend and the model. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We conduct dictator game experiments to investigate donating behavior by simultaneously examining the time delay when the donee receives the donation and the individual characteristics of the donor. We show that donations decrease as the time delay rises and that gender, education level, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and utilitarianism affect donations independent of the time delay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the self-reported level of happiness as a measure of subjective well-being, this study examines the relationship between gender identity and subjective well-being with data from Taiwan. The findings suggest that an individual's perceptions about the ideals of women's gender roles in the labor market, the family, and politics are strongly related to his or her assigned social category, the prescriptions and characteristics associated with the social category, and the actions taken to match the ideals of gender identity. Consistent with Akerlof and Kranton's (2000) identity model, it is also found that an individual's gains or losses in gender identity lead to increases or decreases in the level of happiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article asserts the social and economic significance of reproduction, feminists have demonstrated both women's economic contributions and a major site of power inequity. From the domestic labor debate to bargaining models of the household, much of the theoretical analysis of the political economy of gender has focused on understanding the sphere of reproduction. Conventional economic methods tend to neglect the process by which gender interacts with and shapes other social forces and institutions.

The continuing gender and race/ethnic pay gaps continue to be a matter of considerable concern. Using detailed NLSY data we examine the effects of a number of variables often thought to explain a large part of these gaps. Because the new variables explain some of the differentials our results provide no justification for ascribing all the remaining differentials to discrimination. On the other hand, they explain very little and therefore give no support to those who would discount the possibility of discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To avow that gender is more than an independent-or dummy-variable is to posit the centrality of gender (as well as race and class) in economic analysis. Conventional economic methods tend to neglect the process by which gender interacts with and shapes other social forces and institutions. The basis for a feminist alternative is the assertion that the social construction of gender permeates men's and women's labor market experiences. A feminist definition of discrimination is proposed which emphasizes process as well as outcomes; measurable as well as unquantifiable repercussions. Labor market discrimination is a multidimensional interaction of economic, social, political, and cultural forces in both the workplace and the family, resulting in differential outcomes involving pay, employment, and status. Several propositions toward developing feminist approaches to labor market discrimination are illustrated with examples of feminist research. These propositions delineate feminist work on: the importance of praxis-based research; the necessity for methodological pluralism; the role of power in wage-setting within the firm; the impact of macro-social institutions; and the intersections of gender, race, class, and other social forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a discussion on gendered economics. It offers a defense of humanistic economics whose feminist credential is questioned by Julie Nelson. It cites that Nelson's view on neoclassical economics is metaphorically impregnated with a hierarchical, dualistic conception of gender and a particular kind of masculinity. It also cites the work of Abraham Maslow in psychology as the basis of the propositions presented. It also presents an examination of the characterization of the dual self.