Strategic work behaviors of female taxi drivers and gender pay gap

This paper empirically tests for the gender wage gap and the strategic behavior of female taxi drivers using a large dataset of hourly income data of Singapore's taxi drivers. We estimate a fixed-effects model of taxi drivers' earnings and find a 4.5% wage gap between female and male drivers. Strategic preference of female drivers in selecting morning and midnight peak hours, and also using more phone bookings, helps them narrow the overall wage gap relative to male taxi drivers. On average, the peak and midnight hours' trips contribute incrementally more to female taxi drivers' earnings by 2.8% and 6.7%, respectively, relative to male drivers during the same time periods. Female taxi drivers circumvent their time constraints by planning their schedules and routes to level the playing field with male drivers.