Work

Gender Wage Gap Accounting: The Role of Selection Bias

Year: 2015

Type: article

Abstract: Mulligan and Rubinstein (2008) (MR) argued that changing selection of working females on unobservable characteristics, from negative in the 1970s to positive in the 1990s, accounted for nearly the entire closing of the gender wage gap. We argue that their female wage equation estimates are inconsistent. Correcting this error substantially weakens the role of the rising selection bias (39 % versus 78 %) and strengthens the contribution of declining discrimination (42 % versus 7 %). Our findings resonate better with related literature. We also explain why our finding of positive selection in the 1970s provides additional support for MR's main hypothesis that an exogenous rise in the market value of unobservable characteristics contributed to the closing of the gender gap.

Source: Demography

DOI: 10.1007/s13524-015-0418-x

Authors: Michael Bar, Seik Kim, Oksana Leukhina

Institutions: San Francisco State University, Korea University, University of Washington

Language: English

Topic: Labor market dynamics and wage inequality

Subfield: Economics and Econometrics

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Gender equality

Open Access status: bronze

OpenAlex ID: W2216096161