IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/somere/v14y1985i2p201-216.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Decomposing Income, Earnings, and Wage Differentials

Author

Listed:
  • JEREMIAH COTTON

    (University of Massachusetts, Boston)

Abstract

A reformulation of the widely used method for decomposing income, earnings, and wage differentials is undertaken in this article. This new formula is derived from the assumptions of the theory of discrimination that has motivated most of the empirical work on the subject. Unlike previous the decompositions, the method presented here yields separate terms representing the monetary advantage discrimination confers on whites and the monetary disadvantage to blacks.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeremiah Cotton, 1985. "Decomposing Income, Earnings, and Wage Differentials," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 14(2), pages 201-216, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:somere:v:14:y:1985:i:2:p:201-216
    DOI: 10.1177/0049124185014002005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0049124185014002005
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0049124185014002005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. F. L. Jones, 1983. "On Decomposing the Wage Gap: A Critical Comment on Blinder's Method," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 18(1), pages 126-130.
    2. Oaxaca, Ronald, 1973. "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 14(3), pages 693-709, October.
    3. Stanley H. Masters, 1974. "The Effect of Educational Differences and Labor-Market Discrimination on the Relative Earnings of Black Males," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 9(3), pages 342-360.
    4. F. L. Jones & Jonathan Kelley, 1984. "Decomposing Differences between Groups," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 12(3), pages 323-343, February.
    5. Alan S. Blinder, 1973. "Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 8(4), pages 436-455.
    6. Richard J. Butler, 1982. "Estimating Wage Discrimination in the Labor Market," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 17(4), pages 620-621.
    7. Farrell E. Bloch & Sharon P. Smith, 1977. "Human Capital and Labor Market Employment," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 12(4), pages 550-560.
    8. Nicholas M. Kiefer & Sharon P. Smith, 1977. "Union Impact and Wage Discrimination by Region," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 12(4), pages 521-534.
    9. James D. Gwartney & James E. Long, 1978. "The Relative Earnings of Blacks and other Minorities," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 31(3), pages 336-346, April.
    10. Halvorsen, Robert & Palmquist, Raymond, 1980. "The Interpretation of Dummy Variables in Semilogarithmic Equations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 474-475, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huong Thu Le & Ha Trong Nguyen, 2018. "The evolution of the gender test score gap through seventh grade: new insights from Australia using unconditional quantile regression and decomposition," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-42, December.
    2. Ben Jann, 2008. "A Stata implementation of the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition," ETH Zurich Sociology Working Papers 5, ETH Zurich, Chair of Sociology, revised 14 May 2008.
    3. Sonja C. Kassenboehmer & Mathias G. Sinning, 2014. "Distributional Changes in the Gender Wage Gap," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(2), pages 335-361, April.
    4. Ha Trong Nguyen & Luke B. Connelly & Huong Thu Le & Francis Mitrou & Catherine L. Taylor & Stephen R. Zubrick, 2020. "Ethnicity differentials in academic achievements: the role of time investments," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 1381-1418, October.
    5. Nguyen, Ha Trong & Connelly, Luke & Le, Huong Thu & Mitrou, Francis & Taylor, Catherine & Zubrick, Stephen, 2018. "Explaining the evolution of ethnicity differentials in academic achievements: The role of time investments," MPRA Paper 90534, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Ronald Bachmann & Mathias Sinning, 2016. "Decomposing the Ins and Outs of Cyclical Unemployment," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 78(6), pages 853-876, December.
    7. ChangHwan Kim, 2010. "Decomposing the Change in the Wage Gap Between White and Black Men Over Time, 1980-2005: An Extension of the Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition Method," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 38(4), pages 619-651, May.
    8. Vogel, Matt & van Ham, Maarten, 2016. "Disentangling Neighborhood Effects in Person-Context Research: An Application of a Neighborhood-Based Group Decomposition," IZA Discussion Papers 9793, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Ian W. Li & Paul W. Miller, 2012. "Gender Discrimination in the Australian Graduate Labour Market," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 15(3), pages 167-199.
    10. Jelena Nikolic & Ivica Rubil & Iva Tomic, 2014. "Changes in Public and Private Sector Pay Structures in Two Emerging Market Economies during the Crisis," Working Papers 1403, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb.
    11. Nguyen, Ha, 2015. "The evolution of the gender test score gap through seventh grade: New insights from Australia using quantile regression and decomposition," MPRA Paper 67586, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Naser Daneshvary & William L. Weber, 1991. "Sources Of Wage Differentials Between Native And Immigrant Workers: A Regional Analysis," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 21(2), pages 119-135, Summer.
    13. Stewart Williams, Jennifer Anne, 2009. "Using non-linear decomposition to explain the discriminatory effects of male-female differentials in access to care: A cardiac rehabilitation case study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(7), pages 1072-1079, October.
    14. Anees, Muhammad & Sajjad, Muhammad & Ahmed, Ishfaq, 2011. "A counterfactual decomposition analysis of immigrants-natives earnings in Malaysia," Economics Discussion Papers 2011-51, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    15. Ward-Warmedinger, Melanie E., 1999. "Salary and the Gender Salary Gap in the Academic Profession," IZA Discussion Papers 64, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Jakub Picka, 2014. "Problém "public-private pay gap" v České republice [The Public-Private Pay Gap in the Czech Republic]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2014(5), pages 662-682.
    17. Adam Pilny, 2017. "Explaining Differentials in Subsidy Levels Among Hospital Ownership Types in Germany," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(5), pages 566-581, May.
    18. Chen, Yiu Por (Vincent) & Zhang, Yuan, 2018. "A decomposition method on employment and wage discrimination and its application in urban China (2002–2013)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 1-12.
    19. Oscar Molina Tejerina & Luis Castro Peñarrieta, 2020. "Unexplained Wage Gaps in the Tradable and Nontradable Sectors: Cross-Sectional Evidence by Gender in Bolivia," Investigación & Desarrollo 0120, Universidad Privada Boliviana, revised Nov 2020.
    20. Brown, Charles & Corcoran, Mary, 1997. "Sex-Based Differences in School Content and the Male-Female Wage Gap," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(3), pages 431-465, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:somere:v:14:y:1985:i:2:p:201-216. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.