Even after decades of gender convergence in skill levels and employment, the occupational distribution of workers remains surprisingly segregated by gender. The primary objective of this project, led by the Institute for Social Research in Oslo, Norway, is to study how ongoing transformations in occupational distribution affect men and women differently: their labor market opportunities, skills requirements, work hours, and wages.

In collaboration with the Institute for Social Research and Claudia Olivetti at Dartmouth College, Dr. Kerr will undertake as part of this project a comparative study of the careers of Norwegian and U.S. workers, comparing occupations that are in decline to occupations in growth using data from the 2000 U.S. Census and the American Community Survey from 2005 onwards.

Dr. Kerr will also compare workers in growing and declining occupations, in terms of their quarterly earnings, employment (overall and in the same firm), and exit, using annual Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics data through 2014 and comparable data from Norway. She will contrast the trajectories of men and women in households with and without children. Among the older cohorts, she will study how the exit decisions of men and women are affected by technological innovations. Dr. Kerr is involved in a similar study using data from Finland, and this work will draw on comparisons to the Finnish economy as well.