Does credentialism affect the gender wage gap? Evidence from Chile

Abstract

The expansion of higher education across the globe changed the dynamics of social inclusion and exclusion during the last century. As a result of the increase in higher‐education enrollment, societies have reduced social gaps in education and labor. Moreover, higher‐education expansion policies have led to a diversification in the quality of higher‐education institutions and workforce configurations, which has allowed for the increased participation of women in the education and labor market. Evidence on higher‐education expansion has shown only a minor decrease in gender gaps in the labor market. One explanation is the presence of credential market configuration, where degrees signal social status. This research focuses on how educational credentialism affects the gender wage gap, using the CASEN Household Survey of Chile. It aims to assess the effects of a credential on earnings, using a regression framework and data set between 2013 and 2017. The results point to a differential effect of credentials across genders, interpreted as a systematic bias toward human capital pricings, with particular effects on the gender wage gap.

Assessing job training effectiveness in Chile: A longitudinal approach

“…This approach diminishes the measurement error in the dependent variable through access to administrative records on wages. Still, the effects could be biased by not considering the heterogeneity of the distribution of the hours worked and the effects of distributions on discriminated populations (Didier, 2021b). Moreover, the estimates presented could be affected by the configuration of the labor market, the occupational structure, and the profile of the career of those studied.…”

“…Another element that could be hidden by estimating the average effect of training on a labor market or national economy is the heterogeneous response to the intervention. In this case, there is a mix‐up between which outcomes were possible to produce by specific training characteristics (e.g., timing, intensity, nature of the skill, follow‐up procedures) and some premarket characteristics that can play a role in the observed outcome (e.g., discrimination, motivations, cognitive abilities, and prior skill development, among others) (Carneiro et al, 2005; Didier, 2021b; Saar et al, 2014; Van der Mee, 2011).…”

Wage heterogeneity in the graduate market: Industry and public-private differences in Chile

“…Nevertheless, these theories, approaches, and evidence from developed countries could not be informative for policy prescriptions regarding educational policy development for developing economies. For example, the expansion of educational systems across developed countries occurred in a very early time frame compared to developing economies (Marginson, 2016), situating the discussions regarding educational mismatch and credentialism in the labor market on highly different historical and economic grounds (Didier, 2021b). Countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States began to deal with mismatches between supply and demand for a highly educated workforce and the subsequent employability crisis (Kivinen & Ahola, 1999;Mcquaid & Lindsay, 2005;Towl & Senior, 2010) from the eighties when countries in Latin America and Asia were expanding their preschool and compulsory education levels (Ancheta Arrabal, 2019;Di Gropello, 2006).…”