This dissertation consists of three essays studying the occupational wages, skills, and gender wage gap in U.S. and other OECD countries. The analysis especially focuses on how the gender differences in skill levels and skill returns could explain the gender wage gaps and changes. The first chapter outlines the dissertation by briefly discussing the motivations, methods, and main findings in each of the following chapters. Chapter 2 focuses on the well-documented wage and employment polarizations in the U.S.. The occupations moving into the lower tail ("in" occupations) have more immigrant workers, more part-time workers, and less female workers. In addition, the wage gaps between domestic/immigrant, full-time/part-time, and male/female workers are also larger in "in" occupations. The opposite facts hold true in the occupations moving out of the lower tail ("out" occupations). Utilizing the regional differences, we also find stronger spillover effect from high-wage occupations to the "out" occupations than the effect to the "in" occupations. Chapter 3 investigates how gender differences in skills beyond education and experience can account for the observed gender wage gap and its changes between 1980 and 2015 by using data from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) and the Occupational Information Network (O*NET). The main empirical finding is that female workers possess much higher level of caring skills, and the returns to caring skills are significantly negative but have increased over time, accounting for a major part of the persistent gender wage gap and the narrowing gender wage gap from 1980 to 2015. Another significant portion of the narrowed gender wage gap can be attributed to the faster growth in female workers' average directness skills and the fact that the returns to directness skills are significantly positive and stable over time. In the last chapter, we document significant cross-country variation in gender wage gaps among OECD countries by using the data from Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). We find significant cross-country variation in the gender differences in returns. The gender differences in returns to basic labor and experience are the most important factors in explaining the gender wage gap. In addition, gender differences in returns to cognitive and directness skills are playing milder but substantial roles in explaining the wage gap. We also find the social institutions and attitudes indicators are related to the cross-country variation in gender differences. / Ph. D. / This dissertation makes effort to understand the changes in wages in the U.S. and other OECD countries. I focus on two important features of the changes, namely, wage polarization and change in gender wage gap. Wage polarization describes the uneven changes in wages in different occupations; there is fast wage growth in the high-wage occupations, mild wage growth in the low-wage occupations, and slow even negative wage growth in middle-wage occupations. The analysis shows that technology advancement has increased the productivity of the high-wage occupations. Therefore, the wages in these occupations also increase. Meanwhile, there is strong spillover effect from the high-wage occupations to the low-wage occupations because low-wage occupations mostly provide services to the high-wage occupations. The spillover effect is the most likely cause on the wage growth in the low-wage occupations. In contrast, jobs in the middle-wage occupations are crowded out by the technology advancement. This harms the wage growth in these occupations. Gender wage gap is defined as the gender difference in the social average wages. In the U.S., female workers only earned 55% of what male workers earned in 1980. This number has increased to 70%. In our analysis, we argue that genders have different skills in the daily interaction with people. Female workers have much stronger skills in caring for others. However, this caring skills are negatively rewarded. Fortunately, the rewards to the caring skills are increasing. The negative reward to caring skills and changes in the rewards could account for the remaining gender wage gap and its change. Gender wage gap also presents a significant cross-country variation. Slovenia has gender wage gap at a level of 4% but Japan has a level of 40%. The analysis shows that potential explanation to the variation is social institutions and social attitudes. In a society emphasizing on competition or providing better benefits to maternity leaves, low-skill female workers are more likely to receive lower average wages.

The present study belongs in the tradition of working-life research. In this tradition, the point of departure lies in working people’s experience in their occupation. Through reflection on this experience and studies in the occupational field the researcher seeks to elucidate and develop occupational knowledge and skills. As a teacher I have long been preoccupied with how teachers may develop their occupational skills. Teachers wish to promote others’ learning, but how do they themselves learn to be good teachers? In the present work I wish to elucidate how teachers can develop their occupational skills through discourse. Equally, I wish to gain a better understanding of my own professional experience as a teacher and supervisor. These two goals are interconnected. I hope to develop an insight that not only shows my dilemma in a supervision situation but also illustrates the teacher’s challenge when he or she is to develop professional skill as a supervisor. On the one hand the supervisor needs to listen with an open mind to the person being supervised; but on the other, given knowledge places so many constraints upon listening that openness becomes impossible. Can the teacher experience his or her situation in such a way that this dilemma may be avoided? To deepen and modify my answer to this question I carried out fieldwork in my own occupational field. I have studied such teachers’ accounts of their meetings with children as have emerged from two discourse situations: child conferences and group supervisions. The teachers’ discourse shows that the issue is to understand what one has experienced – understanding is the starting point for the development of occupational skill. An attitude of open listening, to oneself and in interaction with others, is a precondition for occupational skills to grow. In other words, a space for reflection is needed if understanding is to be achieved through the medium of discourse.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:46:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5199.pdf: 3906195 bytes, checksum: e47667f0008d57ca7b74fc09a24a594b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-18 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of a teaching program for home caregivers of adults with intellectual disabilities who needed general support for teaching occupational skills to these adults. A multiple probe design was used. The study included three adults with intellectual disabilities, with ages ranging from 21 to 31 years, and 10 caregivers, with ages ranging from 19 to 78 years old. The study was divided into three phases. Phase I consisted of gathering information from caregivers to prepare the training program. Phase II sought to implement and evaluate the effects of the training program with caregivers. Phase III examined the effects of the intervention and a possible generalization of skills learned by participants in other environments. The training program was conducted in two phases that occurred simultaneously; theoretical training and practical training. In the theoretical training, it was presented to caregivers some theoretical frameworks that could assist them in teaching skills to adults with intellectual disabilities. In practical training the caregivers behaviors were modeled to favor learning skills by adults with intellectual disabilities. The results indicated that caregivers through systematic guidance were able to teach new behaviors to adults with intellectual disabilities in the context of daily activities. Moreover, the data suggest that adults with intellectual disabilities were also able to learn the behaviors necessary to perform the daily activities when appropriate teaching strategies were used. / O objetivo geral desse estudo foi verificar os efeitos de um programa de capacitação domiciliar de cuidadores de adultos com deficiência intelectual, que necessitam de apoio generalizado para o ensino de habilidades ocupacionais a esses adultos. Esse apoio generalizado refere-se à necessidade de apoio constante; sendo que o apoio torna-se vital para a sustentação da vida do indivíduo. O delineamento utilizado foi o de linha de base com múltiplas sondagens entre os comportamentos, com cada um dos participantes. Participaram do estudo três adultos com deficiência intelectual, com idades entre 21 e 31 anos e 10 cuidadores, com idades variando de 19 a 78 anos de idade. O estudo foi dividido em três fases. A Fase I consistiu no levantamento de informações junto aos cuidadores para a elaboração do programa de capacitação. A Fase II buscou aplicar e avaliar os efeitos do Programa de capacitação com os cuidadores. A Fase III verificou os efeitos da intervenção e uma possível generalização das habilidades aprendidas pelos participantes, em outros ambientes. O programa foi realizado em dois momentos que ocorreram simultaneamente, a capacitação teórica e a capacitação prática. Na capacitação teórica foram apresentados aos cuidadores referenciais teóricos que pudessem auxiliá-los durante o ensino de habilidades aos adultos com deficiência intelectual. Na capacitação prática os comportamentos dos cuidadores foram modelados favorecendo a aprendizagem dessas habilidades pelos adultos com DI. Os resultados indicaram que nas sessões, após a linha de base, os participantes (cuidadores e adultos com DI) conseguem adquirir habilidades e continuar a utilizá-las nas etapas de sondagem e manutenção. Assim como, os cuidadores, por meio de orientações sistematizadas, podem ensinar novos comportamentos aos adultos com DI, no contexto das atividades do cotidiano. Por outro lado, os dados sugerem que os adultos com deficiência intelectual são capazes de aprender os comportamentos necessários para a realização das atividades do cotidiano, quando estratégias de ensino adequadas são utilizadas.