Empirical analyses of sex differences in the career consequences of
family migration have focused on adjudicating between the human
capital and the gender-role explanations but have ignored the potential
infl uence of gender inequality in the structure of the labor market.
In this paper we estimate conditional difference-in-difference models
with individual-, family- and occupation-level data to test a structural
explanation that attributes sex differences in the returns to family
migration to occupational sex segregation. Despite using measures of
relevant occupational characteristics and occupational fi xed effects,
our results do not support the structural explanation. Instead, the
results add to the body of empirical evidence that is consistent with the
gender-role explanation of sex differences in the experience of family
migration.