Gender earnings gap among the youth in Malawi

While young women's engagement in economic activities is an essential component of development, gender gaps are still commonly observed worldwide and especially in developing countries like Malawi. This study introduces recent data to provide new evidence for a sub‐Saharan country that has yet been closely examined. Using the International Labour Organization's School‐to‐Work Transition Survey (ILO SWTS) individual‐level data, I examine the gender earnings gap among the youth in Malawi by conducting Mincer earnings regressions with Heckman selection correction and applying Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition methods. I find that young women in Malawi earn significantly less than young men and that women are significantly less likely to engage in income‐generating work activities. Also, substantial unadjusted gender earnings difference in Malawi is overwhelmingly due to differences in returns. Moreover, detailed decomposition results show that gender differences in work‐related individual characteristics and firm characteristics also contribute to the gender earnings gap. The results suggest that any effort to reduce the gender earnings gap should involve improved access to education as well as better workplaces for women.     

Informal employment and its effect on the income distribution in urban China

This paper discusses the issue of informal employment and its effect on the income distribution in China using datasets from the China Urban Labour Surveys of 2005 and 2010. Based on a new definition of informal employment, we estimated the proportion of informal employment relative to total non-agricultural employment in urban China and found it to be 49.7% in 2005 and 40.3% in 2010. Meanwhile, our study illustrated that informal employees' earnings were 67% that of formal employees, and this large earnings gap raised the Gini coefficient to 0.42 in 2005. The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition result shows that the earnings gap explains more than half of the overall personal income inequality in urban China. These results indicate that informal employment has a significant effect on the income distribution in urban China. Consequently, regulating the labour market, eliminating job discriminations and legislating the informal employment should be considered as alternative means of reducing inequality in China.     

The inequality of nutrition intake among adults in China

This paper constructs a multidimensional Theil Index to estimate and decompose the inequality of nutrition intake among the adult population in China. Using 1991–2009 China Health and Nutrition Surveys (CHNS), this paper features two major findings. First, we show that the nutrition inequality has remained small in contrast to the large and increasing inequality in population income. Second, using Theil decompositions and Oaxaca–Blinder (O-B) decompositions, we find that, unlike income inequality, nature factors (such as age and gender) and regional factors play a more important role than socioeconomic factors in nutrition inequality. This finding provides a plausible explanation to the different time trends of nutrition inequality and income inequality. Moreover, it suggests that policies that aim to reduce the socioeconomic disparities may not automatically transfer to closing the gap in nutrition intake, which in turn is a potentially important determinant of population health and the long-term economic development.     

Evidence of Earnings Inequality Based on Caste in Nepal

In this article, the monthly earnings gap between Dalit and non‐Dalit caste members in Nepal is estimated using two methods: Blinder‐Oaxaca decomposition method and the matching‐based nonparametric decomposition method. The nonparametric decomposition method estimates the monthly earnings gap based on a one‐to‐many matching of the given income‐generating characteristics, taking into account the differences in the support of the distribution of those characteristics for Dalits and non‐Dalits. According to the results, the majority of the earnings gap between Dalits and non‐Dalits is attributed to the endowment effect. Dalits earn less than non‐Dalits because Dalits have some characteristics that non‐Dalits do not, that are unfavorable in the labor market. That this endowment effect works against Dalits could be a reflection of the social exclusion and job segregation faced by Dalits in the past.     

Estimation of Public–Private Wage Differentials in Turkey with Sample Correction

The aim of this study is to determine how the change in the balance between public–private sector employments affected public and private earnings during the 1990s and 2000s in Turkey. We use the Oaxaca–Blinder and quantile decomposition methods to determine the wage gap between public and private sectors utilizing the 1994 Household Income Distribution and Consumption Expenditure Survey and the 2008 Household Budget Survey conducted by the Turkish Statistical Institute. The study determined that the primary difference in the average wages between sectors arises from the differences in the endowments without correction for gender. After adjusting for correction using quantile regression, we find that the difference in the endowments between sectors at lower quantiles explains the majority of the raw wage gap; whereas a substantial amount of the raw wage gap is explained by the sector effect at higher quantiles.     

Examining employment discrimination in South Africa, 1997–2016

This study examines employment discrimination by race and gender in 1997–2016 by employing a sample that represents the labour force (excluding informal sector workers, agricultural workers, domestic workers, self-employed and employers) aged between 15 and 65 years. Probit models are conducted to estimate labour force participation, employment and occupational attainment likelihoods. This is followed by the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition, and the results indicate that the unexplained component of the white–African employment probability gap reveals a downward trend in absolute terms in 2002–2014, but in relative terms it still accounts for about 50% of the gap in 2016. The unexplained component is most dominant in the male–female employment gap decomposition. While these results suggest that employment discrimination (unexplained component) against Africans and females remains serious, the improvement of education and skills level of the workseekers (explained component) from the previously disadvantaged groups remain crucial to improve their employment prospects.     

A detailed decomposition analysis of the public-private sector wage gap in South Africa

The present study examines the public-private sector wage gap in South Africa using individual cross-sectional data for 2000–14. Results from unconditional quantile regressions and generalised Oaxaca–Blinder type decompositions show that the wage gap is an inverted-U shape across the wage distribution. The ‘composition effect’ is more important than the ‘price effect’ at the bottom of the distribution while the opposite applies at the top. Key factors underpinning the ‘composition effect’ are unionisation, industry of employment and education, while those associated with the ‘price effect’ are education, race and occupation.     

An Empirical Analysis of Income Inequality between a Minority and the Majority in Urban China: The Case of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

Based on 2006 urban survey data of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, this paper studies the impact of ethnic characteristics on the region’s income determination mechanism. Using the decomposition methods of Blinder and Oaxaca, Fields, and Morduch and Sicular, we analyze income gaps between employed Hui and Han as well as income inequality within the two groups. The main conclusions are that there is almost no income gap between Han and Hui in Ningxia, but different ethnic characteristics affect the income determination mechanism. Ethnic factors such as religion and social capital have no obvious effect on the income determination.     

Some evidence on the cohort earnings differentials of men in Japan

This study analyses the cohort earnings differentials of full-time working men in Japan using large micro data on individuals. Log earnings differentials between two cohorts of the same age calculated from 2012 and 2017 surveys reveal a substantial earnings decline for university graduates around age 43 and senior high school graduates around age 38 in 2017. These cohorts experienced a severe deterioration of job opportunities after the bubble burst. The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition shows that the composition effect dominates the wage structure effect. In particular, a shortened length of tenure and a decline in the share of those working in a large firm are the main causes of the earnings gap for senior high school graduates and for university graduates, respectively. While an increase in the proportion of those working in the service sector and a reduced share of regular workers are also important determinants for the earnings differentials for high school graduates, deteriorated opportunities for promotion to supervisory positions play an important role for university graduates. Extending this analysis to a longer time period and estimating the cohort earnings differential equation clarify that the observed stability of cohort earnings differentials for university graduates emerge not only from the importance of firm size differentials in determining their earning differentials, but also from the high stability of firm size differentials between cohorts for university graduates.     

Decomposition of the increase in earnings inequality in urban China: A distributional approach

This study examines changes in Chinese urban income distribution from 1987 to 1996 and 1996 to 2004 using nationwide household data and investigates the causes of these changes. The Firpo, Fortin, and Lemieux (2007, 2009) method based on unconditional quantile regressions is used to decompose changes in income distribution and income inequality measures, such as variance and a 10:90 ratio. The decomposition results show that wage structure effects, such as a widening gender earnings gap, increases in returns to college education, and increases in earnings differentials between industries, company ownership types, and regions, have been the major contributors to the overall increases in income inequality. It was also found that at different points on the income distribution (e.g., the lower or upper half), the contributing factors that increase income inequality are different.     

Gender earnings differentials in Taiwan: A stochastic frontier approach

We examine Taiwan's male–female earnings gaps over the past three decades in order to assess the progress in assimilating women into the labor market. Two alternative methods of evaluating earnings gaps are employed in this paper: the traditional Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition method and the less well-known method of evaluating labor market efficiency. Men and women's earnings are converging during this period (1978–2003) while at the same time there is little change in the level of gender discrimination measured by the standard Oaxaca–Blinder method. Using the labor market efficiency (stochastic frontier) model we find increases in labor market efficiency over time for both males and females; however, females enjoy a much faster rate of increase in efficiency. We conclude that the relative increase in female efficiency represents a decline in discrimination against females.     

中国区域经济收敛与地区差距的再检验

本文首先收集1985—2006年中国28个省市数据验证中国区域经济增长的条件β收敛和绝对β收敛,然后运用Blinder—Oaxaca分解方法来分析造成我国东部地区与中西部地区发展差距的原因。实证结果显示,我国自1985年来区域经济增长没有表现出收敛性。当我们将全国划分为东部地区和中西部地区后,我们发现东部地区经济增长收敛,而中西部地区经济增长不收敛。Blinder—Oaxaca分解结果显示,中西部地区与东部地区经济发展差距扩大的最主要原因是中西部地区实物资本投资不足。随着改革开放的深入,外商直接投资和开放程度在地区差距中发挥的作用越来越大,而教育和地理位置的优惠政策的作用则越来越小。     

Decomposing Gender Wage Differentials in Urban Ethiopia: Evidence from Linked Employer–Employee (LEE) Manufacturing Survey Data

Abstract

This study estimates the magnitude of gender wage differentials for a sample of workers from the Ethiopian manufacturing sector using the traditional Oaxaca–Blinder and an augmented Cotton–Neumark methodologies. In doing so, it separates part of the estimated log of gender wage differential explained by differences in human capital characteristics between men and women from that which is not explained by such differences. The latter is known in the literature as “treatment” component or “discrimination” due to differing pay structures for the two gender groups. Accordingly, it is found that in Ethiopia's manufacturing sector men on average get up to 30% more than women depending on the measure used. However, once we control for a number of individual and establishment level characteristics, the level of wage premium for men over women is close to 5% or around 12 Ethiopian cents per hour. Out of this, both decomposition procedures estimate that close to 60% of the premium is a result of discrimination (different treatment of men and women in the labour market). Using an augmented decomposition technique, it is found that out of the 60% “discrimination component” close to 13% is due to men's treatment advantage in the labour market and the remaining 47% is due to women's treatment disadvantage. Also it is found that firm level characteristics are important contributors to the total discrimination component. Without controlling for establishment level characteristics, the discrimination component would have been around 27% indicating that ignoring establishment characteristics in decomposition exercises would result into a biased estimation, and in this case it would have underestimated the level of discrimination by close to 50%.     

An empirical analysis of the gender earnings gap between the public and private sectors in Korea: A comparative study with the US

This paper conducts an empirical analysis of the gender earnings gap in the public and private sectors by comparing the cases in Korea with those in the US. Using comparable data sets by the Panel Study of Income Dynamics for the US and the Korean Income Panel Study for Korea, this study decomposes the gender earnings gap in order to identify the causal factors. One of the main factors attributable to a much lower gender earnings gap found in the Korean public sector is the self-selection by female workers with high levels of human capital who decide to enter the public sector. Another factor is the differing levels of efforts made by institutions, in areas such as wage structure, the enforcement of gender equality related laws, and the provision of paid family leave, which may affect differently the gender earnings gap in the public and private sector jobs. The empirical results of this study suggest that the differing levels of institutional efforts lower the gender earnings gap within the Korean public sector.     

Gender Discrimination and Worker Selectivity: A Comparison of the Self-employed and Wage Earners

This study compares the size and nature of the gender earnings differentials for the self-employed and wage earners in Korea, taking into account the workers’ self-selection of each employment type. The two-stage estimates of the earnings equation, corrected for worker selectivity, are used to decompose the gender earnings differentials into productivity-related and discriminatory factors. Our results suggest that the size of the gender earnings gap is larger in the wage sector than in the self-employment sector, but not by large margin, and so is the discrimination effect when not controlled for worker selectivity. With worker selectivity controlled, the discrimination effect is greatly intensified in the wage sector, while it becomes not significant in the self-employment sector. These findings imply that the observed gender earnings gap in the wage sector is largely ascribed to discrimination against women, while the gender earnings gap in the self-employment sector is mostly due to productivity difference that, in part, is caused by worker selectivity.     

中国农村收入不平等—基于微观调查数据的回归分解

论文利用2003-2008年CGSS的微观个体调查数据,运用回归分解方法对中国农村收入不平等进行分解。首先对收入不平等进行测算,研究发现农村收入极端不平等,并且呈上升趋势。回归分解结果表明,年龄、教育、性别、东部地区虚拟变量、政治地位、婚姻、健康和幸福感是对农村收入不平等的决定要素。其中教育、年龄、性别、东部地区虚拟变量和健康对农村收入不平等的贡献显著。其余变量对农村收入不平等的贡献相对较小,但其对农村收入不平等的影响也不能被忽视。研究结论对政府制定科学合理的收入分配政策和有效调控收入差距具有借鉴作用。     

How and why do Chinese urban students outperform their rural counterparts?

This paper aims to measure and understand the rural–urban student cognitive ability gap in China. Using the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) 2013/2014 data, we find that the cognitive ability test scores of urban students are approximately 1.41 points (17%) higher than those of rural students, on average. This difference is equivalent to 37 and 41% of the standard deviation of urban and rural students' test scores, respectively. Instead of the raw test score, when the cognitive ability is estimated with the 3-parameter Logistic item response theory model, the rural–urban gap is somewhat reduced. The regression and Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition analyses show that nearly one-half of the rural–urban gap can be accounted for by differences in observed characteristics, especially number of siblings, parental education, and interaction between parents and teachers. We then discuss the policy implications of these results and propose a few potential ways to reduce the rural–urban gap in students' cognitive abilities.     

Parenthood penalty and gender wage gap: Recent evidence from Thailand

This study first examines the evolution of gender wage gap in Thailand, using cross-sectional data from the Labor Force Survey (LFS) for 1985–2017. We find that education, occupation, and industry significantly contribute to gender wage gap convergence in Thailand. Furthermore, for females, the wage gap between mothers and non-mothers has increased over time, while for males, the changes are relatively small. Thereafter, we examine the gender wage gap associated with marriage and parental status, using panel data from the Socio-Economic Survey (SES) for 2005–2012, and find wage penalty for both motherhood and fatherhood in Thailand.     

Explaining Regional Differences in Black Earnings Discrimination among Full-time Working Men

Using data from the 2000 Census 1% PUMS, this paper analyzes the causes of regional differences in Black earnings discrimination. The methodology is a two stage process used to generate and analyze a cross section of earnings discrimination across cities. In the first stage, a city measure of discrimination is constructed using the Oaxaca decomposition method. The second stage then utilizes these estimated measures of discrimination as a dependent variable in OLS models to test various discrimination theories. While the second stage offers some evidence that increases in the size of both the Black labor force and immigrant labor force are positively related to greater discrimination, increasing overall income inequality is found to robustly increase Black earnings discrimination.     

Basic education and income inequality in Brazil

This paper attempts to elucidate the long-term impact of basic education on income inequality in Brazil. It does so, first, by examining how investment in basic education affects incomes and, second, by assessing the extent to which government involvement in the financing of education services and the taxing of the returns of education investment contributes to the achievement of a more equitable distribution of income.On the basis of the empirical evidence available in Brazil, it is possible to suggest that: (i) education per se cannot significantly reduce inequality, (ii) government policies in terms of education subsidies and taxes on lifetime earnings do not show a clear redistribution pattern, and (iii) there exist effective policy tools in the area of employment, education wastage, cost recovery practices which could help bridge the gap between rates of return to education and reduce income inequality.