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Selection into Employment and the Gender Wage Gap across the Distribution and over Time

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  • Gallego Granados, Patricia

    (DIW Berlin)

  • Wrohlich, Katharina

    (DIW Berlin)

Abstract

Using quantile regression methods, this paper analyses the gender wage gap across the wage distribution and over time (1990-2014), while controlling for changing sample selection into full-time employment. Our findings show that the selection-corrected gender wage gap is much larger than the one observed in the data, which is mainly due to large positive selection of women into fulltime employment. However, we show that selection-corrected wages of male and female workers at the lower half of the distribution have moderately converged over time. The reason for this development have been changes in the composition of the male full-time employment force over time, which in spite of the rather constant male full-time employment rate, have given place to a small but rising selection bias in male observed wages. In the upper half of the wage distribution, however, neither the observed nor the selection-corrected gender wage gap has narrowed over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Gallego Granados, Patricia & Wrohlich, Katharina, 2019. "Selection into Employment and the Gender Wage Gap across the Distribution and over Time," IZA Discussion Papers 12859, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12859
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    Cited by:

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    2. Daniel Graeber & Alexander S. Kritikos & Johannes Seebauer, 2021. "COVID-19: a crisis of the female self-employed," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 1141-1187, October.
    3. Bonaccolto-Töpfer, Marina & Castagnetti, Carolina & Rosti, Luisa, 2023. "Changes in the gender pay gap over time: the case of West Germany," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 57, pages 1-11.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    gender wage gap; quantile regression; selection into employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

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