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Swimming Upstream, Floating Downstream: Comparing Women's Relative Wage Positions in the U.S. and Denmark

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Author Info

  • Datta Gupta, Nabanita

    () (Aarhus University)

  • Oaxaca, Ronald L.

    () (University of Arizona)

  • Smith, Nina

    () (Aarhus University)

Abstract

We compare how U.S. and Danish gender wage gaps have developed between 1983 and 1995 using U.S. PSID and Danish Longitudinal Sample data. Using a new decomposition method, we show that changes in returns to observable skills and ranking effects outweigh women’s gains due to qualifications and account for a rising gap in Denmark, while these effects cannot counter the large decline in the wage gap in the U.S. in this period. Increased wage dispersion has a minimal effect on the gap in both countries. Women at the highest decile in Denmark face the biggest increase in the gap, while in the U.S., the decline is largest at the top and at the middle of the distribution.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 756.

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Length: 38 pages
Date of creation: Apr 2003
Date of revision:
Publication status: published in: Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 2006, 59 (2), 243-266
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp756

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Keywords: decomposition method; gender wage gaps;

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References

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  1. Gubta, Nabanita Datta & Smith, Nina, 2000. "Children and Career Interruptions: The Family Gap in Denmark," CLS Working Papers 00-3, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Centre for Labour Market and Social Research.
  2. Fortin, N.M. & Lemieux, T., 1996. "Rank Regressions, Wage Distributions and the Gender Gap," Cahiers de recherche 9607, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
  3. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2003. "Understanding International Differences in the Gender Pay Gap," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(1), pages 106-144, January.
  4. Blackaby, D. H. & Murphy, P. D. & O'Leary, N. C., 1999. "The payment of public sector workers in the UK: reconciliation with North American findings," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 239-243, November.
  5. Edin, Per-Anders & Richardson, Katarina, 1999. "Swimming with the tide: solidarity wage policy and the gender earnings gap," Working Paper Series 1999:3, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
  6. Albrecht, James & Björklund, Anders & Vroman, Susan, 2001. "Is There a Glass Ceiling in Sweden?," IZA Discussion Papers 282, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  7. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2000. "Gender Differences in Pay," NBER Working Papers 7732, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  8. Blau, Francine D & Kahn, Lawrence M, 1992. "The Gender Earnings Gap: Learning from International Comparisons," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(2), pages 533-38, May.
  9. David Neumark, 1987. "Employers' discriminatory behavior and the estimation of wage discrimination," Special Studies Papers 227, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
  10. Ronald L. Oaxaca & Michael R. Ransom, 1999. "Identification in Detailed Wage Decompositions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(1), pages 154-157, February.
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Cited by:
  1. 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.
  2. Christophe Nordman & François-Charles Wolff, 2007. "Is there a glass ceiling in Morocco? Evidence from matched worker-firm data," Working Papers DT/2007/04, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
  3. Asplund, Rita & Napari, Sami, 2011. "Intangibles and the gender wage gap: An analysis of gender wage gaps across occupations in the Finnish private sector," Discussion Papers 1243, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
  4. Nabanita Datta Gupta & Ronald Oaxaca & Nina Smith, 2006. "Analysing trends in US and Danish gender wage gaps in the 1980s and 1990s," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 13(10), pages 643-647.
  5. Rita Asplund & Sami Napari, 2011. "Intangibles and the Gender Wage Gap: An Analysis of Gender Wage Gaps Across Occupations in the Finnish Private Sector," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 305-325, December.

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