Rank regressions, wage distributions, and the gender gap.

In this paper, we propose a novel rank-based procedure to decompose changes in the gender wage gap into three components: changes in the skill distribution, changes in the wage structure, and improvements in the position of women in a “distribution of reference.” Using CPS data from 1979 and 1991,...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Human Resources Vol. 33; no. 3; pp. 610 - 644
Autores principales: Fortin, Nicole M., Lemieux, Thomas
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: University of Wisconsin Press Summer98
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:In this paper, we propose a novel rank-based procedure to decompose changes in the gender wage gap into three components: changes in the skill distribution, changes in the wage structure, and improvements in the position of women in a “distribution of reference.” Using CPS data from 1979 and 1991, we perform the decomposition at each percentile of the wage distribution and show that the results are sensitive to the choice of distribution of reference (male versus overall wage distribution). We also find that relative wage gains of women may have been a source of increasing wage inequality among men. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.