the effect of occupational segregation on the relative earnings of black males abstract an earnings model which incorporates racial differences in occupational attainment is employed to investigate sources of the earnings differential between black and white males our results suggest that occupational segregation of black men accounts for nearly half of the observed racial earnings differential

the gender earnings differential in the russian transition economy using data from the russia longitudinal monitoring survey rlms the first nationally representative household survey in the russian federation the author examines the gender earnings differentia

the north south divide questions of existence and stability this paper investigates the relationship between regional earnings and unemployment by use of information primarily from the general household surveys of 1975 and 1982 conventional earnings functions are augmented to capture the effects of the level and duration of unemployment and of regional differences in living costs in common with previous studies the authors find personal characteristics and the occupation or industry of employment to be important in earnings determination in this paper however they generally find that although higher unemployment is associated with reduced regional earnings ceteris paribus long term unemployment has little influence in regional earnings determination copyright 1990 by royal economic society

the use of quantile regressions in estimating gender wage differentials a case study of the philippines quantile regressions are used to analyse the size components and nature of the gender earnings differentials as well as the returns to education by gender in the philippines over the entire conditional distribution of earnings using data from the 1999 apis survey this approach allows more focused conclusions about the nature of gender earnings differentials incorporating the quantile regression approach to the oaxaca blinder decomposition allows the localization of gender discrimination to particular quantiles of the earnings distribution and permits more targeted policy intervention

on decomposing the wage gap a critical comment on blinder s method many studies have found that the impact of schooling on earnings is greater for females than for males despite the fact that females tend to earn less both absolutely and controlling for personal characteristics this study investigates possible

unequal assignment and unequal promotion in job ladders in this study gender differentials in professional status attainment are analyzed in the theoretical literature unequal treatment of females is often rationalized by their higher probability of quitting to test this hypothesis empirically we use data from the austrian microcensus and find that neither the risk of childbearing nor different productive characteristics can explain the crowding of females in lower hierarchical positions females have to fulfill higher ability standards to be promoted work experience is not rewarded in the same manner as it is for men

detecting and removing discrimination under equal opportunities policies abstract this paper surveys part of the recent voluminous literature on the economics of discrimination focusing on two key questions first how should discrimination be measured and can in fact unambiguous estimates be derived as the basis for detecting where discrimination is present and setting in train measures to eliminate it second to what extent has the implementation of equal opportunities legislation improved the relative standing of women and minority workers in the labour force this section includes a discussion of the likely effects of recent changes in the law such as the equal value amendment in the uk or the introduction of comparable worth in the usa the survey concludes that our ability to detect discrimination at all precisely is still rudimentary and consequently policy measures are likely to be inefficient for this reason

bootstrapping statistical inferences of decomposition methods for gender earnings differentials applying the standard bootstrapping technique with corrections for heteroskedasticity for a sample of the 1997 urban household survey in china the present article attempts to test 1 whether the commonly used decomposition methods for gender earnings differentials give significantly different results and 2 whether the explained component is significantly different from the unexplained component which is commonly referred to as discrimination within each decomposition method based on a national data set the empirical results indicated some significant differences in both tests the implication of the results is that the proposed bootstrapping technique can be regarded as a guideline on applying which approach to decompose gender earnings differentials among different methods without losing important information and on evaluating the relative importance of the decomposition components for any chosen method

a bayesian approach to decomposing wage differentials abstract we decompose wage differentials using a bayesian monte carlo markov chain method this method makes it easy to obtain the posterior distributions of the characteristics and coefficients effects used to test the significance of the two effects

intertemporal market effect on gender earnings differentials lawyers in canada 1970 80 the conventional methodology for decomposition of cross sectional earnings differentials is extended to include a market effect on intertemporal changes in earnings and to analyse the changes in gender differentials over time the integrated cross sectional and intertemporal methodology is illustrated by a decomposition of the change in the earnings differential that occurred during the 1970s between male and female lawyers in canada an unprecedented rate of growth in the supply of lawyers during the 1970s in canada was associated with changes in the gender earnings differential in the legal profession this rapid supply growth had an almost negligible net impact on female earnings but a negative impact of 15 on the male earnings this explains the narrowing of the earnings differential by almost 30 over the decade although three fifths of the gender differential in 1970 and half of the differential in 1980 were attributable to the differences in the characteristics of the two groups these chang

rates of return to degrees across british regions o leary n c and sloane p j rates of return to degrees across british regions regional studies earlier papers have found considerable heterogeneity in the returns to degrees in relation to subjects of study degree classification and higher education institution this paper examines heterogeneity of returns across british regions using the labour force survey it finds substantial regional variations in the financial rewards available to graduates with much higher returns in london and the south east than elsewhere adjusting for regional differences in the cost of living narrows such differences considerably decompositional analysis suggests that coefficient effects dominate composition effects consistent with agglomeration and productivity spillover effects being important o leary n c et sloane p j le taux de rendement des diplomes universitaires a travers les regions de la grande bretagne regional studies des articles anterieures ont trouve que le rendement des diplomes universitaires pa

panel estimates of the earnings gap in norway do female immigrants experience a double earnings penalty this study explores the possibility that being both a female and an immigrant will impose an earnings disadvantage on immigrant women in norway well known techniques are used to decompose the earnings gap between norwegian men and immigrant women into portions attributable to productivity differentials portions attributable to a gender effect and portions attributable to an ethnic effect the analysis supports the following conclusions first there is evidence of a double negative effect on female immigrant earnings second gender effect is more important than ethnic effect finally the discrimination estimates are robust to the alternative methods used in decomposing norwegian men immigrant women earnings gap

union certification success under voting versus card check procedures evidence from british columbia 1978 1998 the author estimates the impact of compulsory election laws on certification success using data on over 6 500 private sector certifications from british columbia over the years 1978 98 a unique quasi experimental design is used by exploiting two changes in the union recognition law first in 1984 the introduction of mandatory elections and second in 1993 the repeal of elections and their replacement by the original card check procedure the author also estimates the effectiveness of management opposition tactics across union recognition regimes success rates declined by an average of 19 percentage points during the voting regime and then increased by about the same amount when card checks were re instituted the results indicate that the mandatory election law can account for virtually the entire decline in addition the findings suggest that management opposition was twice as effective under elections as under card checks

evolution of the gender earnings gap among canadian university graduates this paper reports the results of an empirical analysis of the gender earnings gap among recent canadian bachelor s level university graduates the overall gap as of two years leaving university narrowed significantly across successive cohorts of graduates but widened significantly from two to five years out for all groups differences in the explanatory variables explain account for between 40 and essentially the entire gap across the different periods this portion rising from two to five years out and across cohorts by the final group all of the gap is thus explained at the two year point in time and most of it is explained at the five year mark meaning that labour market returns measured in this manner are largely gender neutral for the last group of graduates hours of work is the single most important influence while past work experience job characteristics family status and province of residence and language have smaller and more mixed effects

working part time by choice or by constraint the selection of workers into part time jobs and the wages they earn are analysed using the 1989 labour market activity survey we focus on the distinction between voluntary and involuntary part time workers since involuntary part time workers earn substantially lower wages than other workers we find that the selection of individuals into involuntary part time work is more closely tied to job characteristics than personal or human capital characteristics the lower wage earned by involuntary part time workers is largely due to differences in returns and selection effects rather than differences in endowments

wage determination of registered nurses in proprietary and nonprofit nursing homes this study explores why registered nurses employed in nonprofit nursing homes earn higher wages than those employed in proprietary facilities previous studies have explained this finding in a property rights context where higher wages were posited to result from the weaker incentives for cost minimization accompanying nonprofit status this paper tests an alternative explanation of sectoral wage differences which is predicated on the reason for the coexistence offor profit and nonprofit firms in a given industry informational constraints concerning the quality of care are posited to cause the long term health care market to fail to provide care at the upper levels of a quality of care continuum nonprofits are viewed as a response to this form of market failure acting to fulfill customers demand for higher quality and higher cost long term care with attendant demand for higher quality nurses than in for profit homes both the observed sectoral pattern in selectivity and wage decompositions based on selectivity corrected wage regressions call into question the property right explanation yet are consistent with an asymmetric information explanation

a selectivity model of employer size wage differentials this article investigates wage differentials for employees of different size firms utilizing an econometric methodology that allows the size of employer to be treated as endogenous in the context of discrete ordered employer size data as a result we are able to estimate i employer size wage gaps which are corrected for selectivity bias and ii the magnitude and direction of the selection bias decompositions of the resulting wage differentials are computed with comparisons of the conditional on sorting across employer size and unconditional wage gaps

recovery from a currency crisis some stylized facts abstract using a comprehensive data set of over 100 developing countries this paper examines how economies recover from a currency crisis some of the regularities found are listed below first it takes less than 3 years for the gdp growth rate to fully recover its tranquil period average the level of gdp however remains permanently below its initial trend suggesting that the shocks underlying a crisis are persistent second the credit crunch problem lasts much longer than the reduction in the gdp growth rate third the pre crisis credit expansion and reserve inadequacy which have been widely recognized as the main causes of a crisis also are closely related to the extent of the post crisis recession fourth crisis episodes that are caused mainly by illiquidity rather than by insolvency tend to exhibit a sharp recovery

labor market discrimination against men with disabilities in the year of the ada the americans with disabilities act ada provides civil rights protections to persons with disabilities but the debate that preceded passage of the act was not based on empirical estimates that could be used to measure its performance this article estimates the extent of wage discrimination against men with disabilities in 1990 providing a reference that can be used to evaluate the impact of the ada the results show large productivity standardized wage differentials between disabled and nondisabled men that are weakly correlated with the strength of prejudice against different impairments physical limitations explain part but not all of the wage differentials the results also show that low employment rates are a more serious problem than wage discrimination for workers with disabilities provide civil rights protections to persons with disabilities the act s supporters promised that it would increase the employment and wages of persons with disabilities and reduce their dependency on public programs the promises were not based on empirical estimates of discrimination and there is no empirical base against which to compare the promises to the performance of the ada this article estimates the extent of wage discrimination against men with disabilities in 1990 providing a reference that can be used to evaluate the impact of the act the ada does not grant a right to employment to all persons with disabilities it requires that persons with disabilities be able to perform the jobs they seek subject to reasonable accommodations by employers this article therefore considers men who are able to work even though their health limits the amount or kind of work they can perform the ada s provisions assume that low wages and low employment rates for persons with disabilities are the result of discrimination caused by prejudice prejudice against persons with disabilities is well documented but so are the limiting effects of physical impairments on workplace productivity hahn 1987 margolis and shapiro 1987 clogston 1990 the core of the debate concerning the value of the ada is whether the poor labor market outcomes of persons with disabilities are the result of discrimination or the limiting effects of health con

the impact of unionization on male female earnings differences in canada the impact of unionization on male female earnings differences in canada is analyzed using data spanning 1981 to 1988 a period in which the male female unionization gap narrowed considerably gender differences in union density union wages and nonunion wages are decomposed into characteristics related and discriminatory components we find that the drop in the gender unionization gap prevented an increase of 7 percent in the overall wage differential between men and women also male female earnings differences in the nonunion sector make a substantially larger contribution to the gender earnings gap than do those in the union sector

rural electrification and employment in poor countries evidence from nicaragua summary this paper shows that rural electrification is associated with big changes in the time use of men and women in nicaragua even in the absence of labor saving appliances electricity is shown to increase the propensity of rural nicaraguan women to work outside the home by about 23 but to have no impact on male employment these findings suggest significant potential benefits to rural electrification that are not generally captured in cost benefit analyses such as greater women s earnings and reduced deforestation

an analysis of the male racial earnings differential in the uk using the general household survey 1986 an analysis of the male racial earnings differential in the uk using the general household survey applied economics vol 18 no 11 pp 1233 1242

the definition of part time employment a switching regression model with unknown sample selection rejecting the standard less than thirty five hours per week categorization of part time workers this paper offers an empirically justified definition of the part time employed the definition is based on the distinction through wage payments that employers make between a high hours full time and a low hours part time group of workers a switching regression model of wage equations with deterministic but unknown sample selection is estimated resulting in a significant split between high hours and low hours workers that is higher than the standard definition wage differentials are calculated and decomposed and estimates from the structural choice model are presented copyright 1991 by economics department of the university of pennsylvania and the osaka university institute of social and economic research association

is bigger still better the decline of the wage premium at large firms author affiliation william e even evenwe muohio edudavid a macpherson david macpherson trinity edu acknowledgment we thank daniel becker christopher bollinger and barry hirsch for helpful comments 1 introductionlarge firms pay higher wages than small firms this fact was first documented nearly 100 years ago and has been confirmed by myriad studies since then considerable effort has been directed toward testing different theoretical explanations for the size premium these include the fact that larger firms employ a more skilled work force and provide them with more and better capital pay efficiency wages to deal with greater monitoring costs pay compensating differences for less pleasant working conditions or greater risk that results from the type of human capital that is acquired or share rents with workers because of union threats or monopoly profits while there has been extensive research attempting to determine the importance of these different explanations of the size premium a recent trend has gone unnoticed namely the firm size premium has fallen substantially over the past 20 years for example we show that workers in firms with over 500 workers earned 55 more than workers in firms with fewer than 25 workers in the early 1990s our most recent data indicate that the size premium dropped by 15 percentage points over the past 20 years we also show that the size premium fell much more rapidly among less educated workers for example among workers with less than a high school degree the size premium fell by 30 percentage points this study documents the trends in the size premium and explores some possible explanations for the trends section 2 provides an overview of the theoretical explanations and empirical evidence on the size premium in section 3 we discuss our data and review the evidence on trends in the size premium empirical analysis of the trends is provided in section 4 our main conclusions are as follows first the size premium dropped over the past 20 years for two primary reasons i the type of worker employed by large and small firms has become more similar over time and ii large and small firms have become more similar in terms of the ways in which they reward workers holding observed characteristics constant in addition while the size premium has diminished over time it remains quantitatively significant particularly among highly educated workers 2 backgroundoi and idson 1999 provide a wide ranging summary of the extant research on the size premium their review points out that the size premium was first documented nearly 100 years ago among female workers at textile firms their summary of empirical studies shows that the largest firms e g firms with 500 or more employees pay wages that are 30 50 higher than those of the smallest firms e g firms with fewer than 25 employees numerous theories for the size premium have been proposed and no single theory is capable of providing an empirical explanation for the entire size premium the more prominent theories for the size premium are based upon size related differences in monitoring costs capital technology working conditions monopoly power or union effects the monitoring costs explanation for the size premium first proposed by oi 1983 argues that greater monitoring costs at large firms cause them to hire more able workers to conserve on monitoring costs because larger firms hire more able workers wages increase with firm size in addition because of greater monitoring costs large firms may be more likely to pay efficiency wages or deferred pay to reduce monitoring problems and utilize higher capital labor ratios to conserve on the number of workers empirical evidence indicates that the greater use of advanced technology by large firms explains part of the size premium dunne and schmitz 1995 reilly 1995 tan and batra 1997 troske 1999 yu et al

educational inequalities between children of marriage migrants and those of local born parents quantile regression results from taiwan abstractthis article studies educational inequalities between children of marriage migrants and those of local born parents using student test scores from taiwan we first find an average raw score gap of 9 5 for children of foreign parents we then employ quantile regression methodology and find that after introducing our extensive list of covariates score gaps vanish for children with a mother from mainland china in all quantiles and for children with a southeast asian mother in the highest quantiles in contrast we identify large residual score gaps for children with a parent from a culturally more distant country in all quantiles different from previous studies which found the largest impact for language usage and parent education we find that the physical home environment has the highest explanatory power in our analysis

psychological traits and earnings differentials among men a study of second generation immigrants in sweden the purpose of this study is to analyse the impact of psychological traits on earnings differentials between second generation immigrants and individuals with native born parents the study is base