The Distribution of the Gender Wage Gap

Abstract

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Occupational Characteristics and the Gender Pay Gap

“…The findings is consistent with that of Bhalotra and Fernández (2018), who observe a similar relationship for the Mexican labor market. The authors argue that the level of substitution between men and women, which varies across tasks, can explain the differences in the GPG.…”

“…That is, occupations with mainly manual nonroutine tasks have, on average, higher GPGs. This finding is consistent with that of Bhalotra and Fernández (2018) who find lower level of substitutability between men and women in occupations with manual tasks. The result also highlights that this relationship is more likely to appear in occupations that are mainly done in private firms.…”

“…Moreover, in contrast to the raw data, occupations with more routine tasks have larger GPGs on average. According to the literature, occupations with linear earnings (Goldin, 2014) and with non-routine tasks (Bhalotra and Fernández, 2018) have a higher level of substitution. These relations indicate the importance of substitution when it comes to the GPG: The more that employees can replace each other, the less pricey is the absence of a particular employee and the lower is the GPG.…”

The rise in women’s labour force participation in Mexico: Supply vs demand factors

“…Cordourier and Gómez Galvarriato (2004) also show evidence that female participation in industry jobs increased after the trade liberalization reforms of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Bhalotra and Fernandez (2018) estimate a structural equilibrium model of the Mexican labour market, finding evidence that demand-side trends during the 1990s and 2000s were favourable to women, independently of their level of schooling.…”

“…After 2000, the decadal growth rate slowed, reverting to 3.7 pp. FLFP growth in the 1990s was among the largest decadal increases in the world (Bhalotra and Fernandez 2018;Ñopo 2012;World Bank 2012). Veiled by these average rates of growth was considerable spatial variation.…”