Persistent gender gaps in labour market outcomes: essays on the contribution of personality traits and social norms and the effectiveness of a policy intervention

This thesis investigates the extent to which personality traits and social norms contribute to labour market outcomes and how effective a targeted policy intervention was to narrow gender gaps. It systematically reviews the literature on what is known about the relation between personality traits, social norms and the gender wage gap and conducts three empirical studies on the relationship between traits, norms, a policy intervention, labour supply and the gender wage gap. It uses Switzerland as the case study and draws on a rich panel dataset. It finds that personality traits and social norms contribute to understanding gender gaps in labour market outcomes as traits and norms shape expectations, preferences and choices and affect productivity and opportunities of how women and men can engage in the labour market, often putting women at a disadvantage. However, the thesis challenges the assertion that personality traits and social norms are major drivers of gender inequalities as most associations and effects are rather small and limited to specific dimensions.