Equal Employment Opportunity Law and the gender wage gap in Japan: A cohort analysis
Abstract
In this article, I perform a cohort-based analysis of the female-to-male wage gap using aggregate data in Japan from 1975 to 2005. While the inter-cohort closing in the gender wage gap is apparent, the convergence is smaller when the gap is calculated for each level of education. This pattern suggests that a certain portion of the gender wage convergence is due to changes in the educational composition of the workforce. I find that educational composition changes played a larger role in closing the pay gap for younger cohorts than it did for older cohorts. Highly educated women who entered the labor market after the enactment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law gained in that they had more regular full-time employment but did not experience wage gains relative to their male counterparts.Download Info
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Asian Economics.
Volume (Year): 21 (2010)
Issue (Month): 2 (April)
Pages: 142-155
Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/asieco
Related research
Keywords: Female-to-male wage gap Cohort Equal Employment Opportunity Law;References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- O'Neill, June & Polachek, Solomon, 1993. "Why the Gender Gap in Wages Narrowed in the 1980s," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(1), pages 205-28, January.
- Jennifer Hunt, 1997.
"The Transition in East Germany: When is a Ten Point Fall in the Gender Wage Gap Bad News?,"
NBER Working Papers
6167, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Jennifer Hunt, 2002. "The Transition in East Germany: When Is a Ten-Point Fall in the Gender Wage Gap Bad News?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(1), pages 148-169, January.
- Hunt, Jennifer, 1998. "The Transition in East Germany: When is a Ten Point Fall in the Gender Wage Gap Bad News?," CEPR Discussion Papers 1805, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Jennifer Hunt, 1997. "The Transition in East Germany: When is a Ten Point Fall in the Gender Wage Gap Bad News?," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 156, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
- Claudia Olivetti & Barbara Petrongolo, 2005.
"Unequal pay or unequal employment? A cross-country analysis of gender gaps,"
Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series
WP2005-008, Boston University - Department of Economics.
- Claudia Olivetti & Barbara Petrongolo, 2008. "Unequal Pay or Unequal Employment? A Cross-Country Analysis of Gender Gaps," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(4), pages 621-654, October.
- Olivetti, Claudia & Petrongolo, Barbara, 2006. "Unequal Pay or Unequal Employment? A Cross-Country Analysis of Gender Gaps," IZA Discussion Papers 1941, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Olivetti, Claudia & Petrongolo, Barbara, 2006. "Unequal Pay or Unequal Employment? A Cross-Country Analysis of Gender Gaps," CEPR Discussion Papers 5506, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Claudia Olivetti & Barbara Petrongolo, 2005. "Unequal Pay or Unequal Employment? A Cross-Country Analysis of Gender Gaps," Boston University - Department of Economics - Macroeconomics Working Papers Series WP2005-013, Boston University - Department of Economics, revised Aug 2008.
- Claudia Olivetti & Barbara Petrongolo, 2005. "Unequal Pay or Unequal Employment? A Cross-Country Analysis of Gender Gaps," Boston University - Department of Economics - Macroeconomics Working Papers Series WP2005-003, Boston University - Department of Economics, revised Oct 2008.
- Claudia Olivetti & Barbara Petrongolo, 2005. "Unequal Pay or Unequal employment? A Cross-Country Analysis of Gender Gaps," CEP Discussion Papers dp0711, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
- Blau, Francine D & Kahn, Lawrence M, 1997. "Swimming Upstream: Trends in the Gender Wage Differential in 1980s," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages 1-42, January.
- Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2004.
"The US Gender Pay Gap in the 1990s: Slowing Convergence,"
NBER Working Papers
10853, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2006. "The U.S. gender pay gap in the 1990s: slowing convergence," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 60(1), pages 45-66, October.
- Blau, Francine D. & Kahn, Lawrence M., 2006. "The U.S. Gender Pay Gap in the 1990s: Slowing Convergence," IZA Discussion Papers 2176, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Francine Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2006. "The US Gender Pay Gap in the 1990s: Slowing Convergence," Working Papers 887, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
- Edwards, Linda N., 1994. "The status of women in Japan: Has the equal employment opportunity law made a difference?," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 217-240.
- Yuji Genda, 2003. "Who Really Lost Jobs in Japan? Youth Employment in an Aging Japanese Society," NBER Chapters, in: Labor Markets and Firm Benefit Policies in Japan and the United States, pages 103-134 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Edwards, Linda N. & Pasquale, Margaret K., 2003. "Women's higher education in Japan: Family background, economic factors, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Law," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 1-32, March.
- Linda N. Edwards, 1988. "Equal employment opportunity in Japan: A view from the West," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 41(2), pages 240-250, January.
- Goldin, Claudia, 1989. "Life-Cycle Labor-Force Participation of Married Women: Historical Evidence and Implications," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 7(1), pages 20-47, January.
- Casey B. Mulligan & Yona Rubinstein, 2008. "Selection, Investment, and Women's Relative Wages Over Time," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 123(3), pages 1061-1110, August.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Hiroyuki Okamuro & Kenta Ikeuchi, 2012. "Work-Life Balance and Gender Differences in Self-Employment Income during the Start-up Stage in Japan," Global COE Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series gd12-260, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
- Abe, Yukiko, 2011. "The Equal Employment Opportunity Law and labor force behavior of women in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 39-55, March.
Lists
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.Statistics
Access and download statisticsCorrections
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:asieco:v:21:y:2010:i:2:p:142-155For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Wendy Shamier).
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

