Gender wage gaps and economic crisis in Greece

ABSTRACT

We examine gender wage gap (GWG) in Greece for 2013, by using a survey data set. Our findings show first, that the unadjusted GWG is 15.3%, while European Commission reports a value of 15%. Secondly, we derive the ‘adjusted’ GWG, using the Oaxaca and Ransom (OR) and the Juhn, Murphy and Pierce (JMP) methods to be ranging from 10% to 13.6%. Thirdly, looking into the behaviour of the full population, we find a decreasing trend for the discrimination effects, an increasing trend for the residuals effects and a ‘random’ endowments effects while moving to higher deciles. These three effects are associated to the economic crisis 2008–2015. Fourthly, our findings do not show evidence of either a ‘glass ceiling’ effect or a ‘sticky floor’ effect. Finally, that there is strong evidence that investing in higher education reduces the wage discrimination between sexes.     

Public-private sector wage differentials in Germany: Evidence from quantile regression

This paper measures and decomposes the differences in earnings distributions between public sector and private sector employees in Germany for the years 1984–2001. Oaxaca decomposition results suggest that conditional wages are higher in the public sector for women but lower for men. Using the quantile regression decomposition technique proposed by Machado and Mata (2004), we find that the conditional distribution of wages is more compressed in the public sector. At the low end of wages, differences in characteristics explain less than the raw wage gap when it is the opposite at high wages. Separate analyses by work experience and educational groups reveal that the most experienced employees and those with basic schooling do best in the public sector. All these results are stable over the 80s and 90s.I thank Michael Lechner and the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, for letting me work with the full sample of the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). I am grateful to an anonymous referee and particularly to the editor, Bernd Fitzenberger, for providing me detail comments and suggestions that have significantly improved the paper. I have also benefited from discussions with Michael Lechner and Ruth Miquel.First version received: April 2002/Final version received: June 2004     

Sibling gender and wage differences

Family influences on economic performance are investigated. In particular, sibship sex composition is related to hourly wages using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. The wages of men are increasing in the proportion of siblings who are brothers, but the wages of women are insensitive to sibling gender. Nonwage outcomes are generally unaffected. Contrasts by age structure and demographic group are also presented. The analysis addresses econometric challenges like the endogeneity of fertility and selection into the workforce. In addition, mechanisms such as labour market interactions, human capital investment and role model effects are documented. A questionnaire on job search indicates a same-gender bias in the use of brothers and sisters in obtaining employment. Developmental and psychological assessments suggest that brothers may be associated with worse childhood home environments and more traditional family attitudes among women. The findings are policy relevant and contribute to an understanding of gender differences and earnings inequality.     

市场歧视对城镇地区性别工资差距的影响

本文使用基于分位数回归的反事实分析方法研究了中国城镇地区的性别工资差距问题,发现了以下三个结论:第一,性别工资差距在工资分布不同位置上存在不对称现象。从横截面数据来看,在工资分布顶端性别工资差距较小,在工资分布末端性别工资差距较大。从时序数据来看,在工资分布顶端性别工资差距越来越小,在工资分布末端性别工资差距越来越大。第二,性别工资差距在横截面数据上表现出不对称现象的原因是,女性在工资分布顶端受到的歧视程度低,在末端受到的歧视程度高。第三,性别工资差距在工资分布末端越来越大的原因是,女性受到的歧视程度越来越高;在工资分布顶端越来越小的原因是,男性和女性个人特征方面(如受教育水平)的差别越来越小。     

The public-private sector wage gap in Zambia in the 1990s: A quantile regression approach

We investigate the determinants of wages in Zambia and based on the quantile regression approach, we analyze how their effects differ at different points in the wage distribution and over time. We use three cross-sections of Zambian household data from the early nineties, which was a period of economic transition, because items as privatization and deregulation were on the political agenda. The focus is placed on the public-private sector wage gap, and the results show that this gap was relatively favorable for the low-skilled and less favorable for the high-skilled. This picture was further strengthened during the period 1991–1996.     

The Vietnam reforms,change in wage inequality and the role of the minimum wage

The Vietnam ‘renovation’ reforms were implemented during the 1990s, but their full effect was only felt several years later. We present evidence on the developments in real wage growth and inequality in Vietnam from 1998 to 2008. Using a variety of approaches (traditional measures of inequality, comparison of density functions, decomposition of the change in real wage by sector as well as a detailed decomposition of the change in the Gini), we present a consistent picture: contrary to what one might have expected given the nature of the reforms, inequality declined sharply in the private sector (but not in the state sector). This study links these developments to the policy of aggressively increasing the minimum wage over the past several years, differences in implementation by sector as well as variation in the over‐time changes in minimum wage.     

Dispersion in wage premiums and firm performance

Using matched employer–employee panel data, we estimate measures of pay dispersion per firm-year that take into account both firm and worker unobserved heterogeneity. Unlike research that controls only for differences in observables, we find that within-firm pay inequality is significantly associated to lower firm performance.     

Native-immigrant wage differentials in Greece: discrimination and assimilation

This article applies the Blinder–Oaxaca methodology in order to dissect the average earnings differentials between Greek workers and three different groups of immigrants into a part attributed to differences in characteristics and a part due to discrimination. It also seeks to identify the effect of assimilation (i.e. postmigration human capital) on immigrants’ earnings. We use information about 8429 individuals, of which 1185 are immigrants. The data are drawn from the Greek Labour Force Survey (2009). Our results suggest that discrimination is significantly higher for immigrants originating from non-EU countries than it is for EU foreigners, while it is negative for those who terminated education in Greece. Also, there is evidence that (i) post-migration human capital is a significant determinant of immigrants earnings, (ii) there is limited transferability of skills between sending countries and Greece and (iii) education is the main determinant of the wage gap between natives and immigrants.     

Collective bargaining and regional wage differences in Spain: an empirical analysis

This article analyses the importance of labour market institutions and, in particular, collective wage bargaining in shaping regional wage differences in the Spanish labour market. Using microdata from the Spanish Structure of Earnings Survey, our results reveal that there are significant inter-regional wage differences for similarly skilled workers. These differences are present throughout the whole wage structure and can be explained by both competitive and non-competitive factors, such as insufficient competition in product markets. In this context, industry-level collective bargaining plays a major role in accounting for regional wage differences, a role that in the Spanish case is enhanced due to its unusual regional dimension.     

Downsizing, wage inequality and welfare in a developing economy

This paper focuses on the cost cutting effects of firm downsizing in a developing economy. Using a dualistic production structure to depict a developing economy, the impacts of downsizing on wage inequality and social welfare are examined. Downsizing is revealed to not only narrow the wage gap between skilled and unskilled labor but also to raise the level of manufactured output and reduce the unemployment ratio in the urban sector. These effects improve the social welfare of the economy.     

Counter intuitive results in a simple model of wage negotiations

Summary. Short-term contracts and exogenous productivity growth are introduced in a simple wage bargaining model. The equilibrium utilities corresponding to militant union behaviour are independent of the contract length. Necessary and sufficient conditions for monotonic convergence to a unique steady state are derived. Otherwise, cyclic behaviour of wage shares is inevitable. A wage decrease can occur if strike is credible, but never when strike is not credible. In the limit, as time between bargaining rounds vanishes, this paradox survives. Received: September 3, 1998; revised version: February 10, 2000     

Gender wage gap studies: consistency and decomposition

This paper reviews the empirical literature on the gender wage gap, with particular attention given to the identification of the key parameters in human capital wage regression models. This is of great importance in the literature for two main reasons. First, the main explanatory variables in the wage model, i.e., measures of work experience and time-out-of-work, are endogenous. As a result, applying traditional estimators may lead to inconsistent parameter estimates. Second, empirical evidence on the gender wage gap hinges on estimates of the parameters of interest. Accordingly, their economic meaning may be limited by restrictive assumptions included in wage models. This challenges both researchers and policymakers who require precise measures of the gender wage gap in order to create and enforce efficient equality policies. This paper is a substantially revised version of the first chapter of my thesis. I am grateful to Christian Dustmann and Wendy Carlin for their great support and comments. I also thank Bernd Fitzenberger, colleagues at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration and IZA, and three anonymous referees for their helpful comments and suggestions.     

Integrated Conditional Moment testing of quantile regression models

In this paper we propose a consistent test of the linearity of quantile regression models, similar to the Integrated Conditional Moment (ICM) test of Bierens (1982) and Bierens and Ploberger (1997). This test requires re-estimation of the quantile regression model by minimizing the ICM test statistic with respect to the parameters. We apply this ICM test to examine the correctness of the functional form of three median regression wage equations.     

Tracing the impact of large minimum wage changes on household welfare in Indonesia

Minimum wage legislation has been introduced and expanded in many developed and developing countries, in the hope that it would improve the living standards of the poor and reduce inequality. This study examines the impact of large minimum wage changes in Indonesia. The results indicate serious limitations of the minimum wage for improving living standards and reducing inequality.     

The impact of immigrant concentration in schools on grade retention in Spain: a difference-in-differences approach

Since the late 1990s, Spain has played host to a sizeable flow of immigrants who have been absorbed into the compulsory stage of the education system. In this article, our aim is to assess the impact of that exogenous increase in the number of immigrant students from 2003 to 2009 on grade retention using Spanish data from PISA 2003 and 2009. For this purpose, we use the difference-in-differences method as a dose treatment capable of detecting whether the immigrant concentration has had a significant effect on student performance. Our results evidenced that their arrival does not on average decrease school promotion rates with respect to 2003 and is even beneficial to native students. However, although the concentration of immigrant students at the same school does have a negative impact on immigrant students generating more grade retention, native students are unaffected until concentrations of immigrant students is above 15%.     

Pre-recession wage inflation and the strength of the subsequent recovery

This study shows that the rate of wage inflation in the year before a recession is positively related to the rate of employment growth in the subsequent recovery. A possible explanation for this relationship is downward nominal wage rigidity. It is also found that the prior rate of wage inflation is not significantly related to the employment decline during the ensuing recession, suggesting that prior wage inflation has a greater impact on the strength of the recovery from a recession than on the severity of the recession.     

The immigration surplus and the substitutability of immigrant and native labor: evidence from Spain

How immigration affects the labor market of the host country is a topic of major concern for many immigrant-receiving nations. Spain is no exception, as a consequence of the rapid increase in immigrant flows experienced over the past few decades. We assess the impact of immigration on Spanish natives’ incomes by estimating the net immigration surplus (IS) under the assumption of perfect and imperfect substitutabilities between immigrant and native labor of similar educational attainment. To address the imperfect substitutability between immigrant and native labor, we use information on the occupational distribution of immigrants and natives of similar educational attainment to learn about the equivalency of skilled immigrants to skilled and unskilled natives. The results show that the magnitude of the IS significantly rises with the degree of imperfect substitutability between immigrant and native labor.     

Labour mobility and wage inequality in the presence of endogenous foreign investment

This paper examines the impact of labour mobility and increased competition on skilled–unskilled wage inequality and foreign investment. Unlike the existing literature this paper considers a model where foreign investment is endogenously determined. The paper shows that in the shortrun, inflow of either skilled or unskilled labour has no effect on wage inequality but increased competition increases wage inequality. Inflow of either type of labour increases foreign investment but the impact of increased competition on foreign investment cannot be unambiguously determined. Inflow of skilled labour increases wage inequality in the longrun and its effect on foreign investment is positive. Increased competition in the longrun increases wage inequality, foreign investment and welfare.     

International knowledge spillovers and wage inequality in developing countries

In this paper, international knowledge spillovers are incorporated in a horizontal innovation model, designed to explain the observed uncertain effects that openness of trade can have on wage inequality in small developing countries. Openness of trade can produce two different effects: an increase in the relative price of less-skilled labor-intensive products and a wider skill discrepancy due to knowledge spillovers from the more to less developed country. The former triggers a fall in the wage premium, while the latter widens the wage premium gap in a developing country. These two opposing forces explain the observed uncertain effects of openness to trade on wage inequality in developing countries.