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Importing Equality? The Impact of Globalization on Gender Discrimination

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Author Info
Sandra E. Black
Elizabeth Brainerd

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Abstract

While researchers have long held that discrimination cannot endure in an increasingly competitive environment, there has been little work testing this dynamic process. This paper tests the hypothesis (based on Becker 1957) that increased competition resulting from globalization in the 1980s forced employers to reduce costly discrimination against women. The empirical strategy exploits differences in market structure across industries to identify the impact of trade on the gender wage gap: because concentrated industries face little competitive pressure to reduce discrimination, an increase in competition from increased trade should lead to a reduction in the gender wage gap. We compare the change in the residual gender wage gap between 1976 and 1993 in concentrated versus competitive manufacturing industries, using the latter as a control for changes in the gender wage gap that are unrelated to competitive pressures. We find that increased competition through trade did contribute to the relative improvement in female wages in concentrated relative to competitive industries, suggesting that, at least in this sense, trade may benefit women by reducing firms' ability to discriminate.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 9110.

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Date of creation: Aug 2002
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9110

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination

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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please 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.)

  1. Borghans, Lex & ter Weel, Bas & Weinberg, Bruce A., 2005. "People People: Social Capital and the Labor-Market Outcomes of Underrepresented Groups," IZA Discussion Papers 1494, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Henrekson, Magnus & Dreber, Anna, 2004. "Female Career Success: Institutions, Path Dependence and Psychology," Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 574, Stockholm School of Economics, revised 27 Jan 2005.
  3. Abigail Wozniak, 2006. "Product Markets and Paychecks: Deregulation's Effect on the Compensation Structure in Banking," IZA Discussion Papers 1957, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Seguino, Stephanie, 2006. "The Road to Gender Equality: Global Trends and the Way Forward," MPRA Paper 6510, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  5. Susanne Prantl & Alexandra Spitz-Oener, 2009. "How does entry regulation influence entry into selfemployment and occupational mobility?," Discussion Papers 267, SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Ebru Kongar & Mark Price, 2007. "Is White the New Blue? The Impact on Gender Wage and Employment Differentials of Offshoring of White-collar Jobs in the United States," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2007_06, University of Utah, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  7. Günseli Berik & Yana van der Meulen Rodgers & Joseph E. Zveglich, Jr., 2002. "Does Trade Promote Gender Wage Equity? Evidence from East Asia," SCEPA Working Papers 2002-14, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Heyman, Fredrik & Svaleryd, Helena & Vlachos, Jonas, 2008. "Competition, Takeovers and Gender Discrimination," Working Paper Series 734, Research Institute of Industrial Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Oostendorp, Remco, 2004. "Globalization and the gender wage gap," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3256, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. Runli Xie, 2009. "Trade-Off Between Consumption Growth and Inequality: Theory and Evidence for Germany," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2009-034, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  11. John J. Donohue III, 2005. "The Law and Economics of Antidiscrimination Law," NBER Working Papers 11631, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Mary E. Graham & Julie L. Hotchkiss, 2008. "Elimination of gender-related employment disparities through statistical process control," Working Paper 2008-24, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. [Downloadable!]
  13. Spielmann, Christian & Busse, Matthias, 2005. "Gender Inequality and Trade," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Kiel 2005 8, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  14. Berik, Gunseli & Van der Meulen Rodgers, Yana & Zveglich, Joseph E., 2003. "International trade and wage discrimination : evidence from East Asia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3111, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  15. Barry Reilly & Puja Vasudeva Dutta, 2005. "The Gender Pay Gap and Trade Liberalisation: Evidence for India," PRUS Working Papers 32, Poverty Research Unit at Sussex, University of Sussex. [Downloadable!]
  16. Ebru Kongar, 2005. "Importing Equality or Exporting Jobs?: Competition and Gender Wage and Employment Differentials in U.S. Manufacturing," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2005_13, University of Utah, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  17. Fatma El-Hamidi & Mona Said, 2007. "Have Economic Reforms Paid Off? Gender Occupational Inequality in the New Millennium in Egypt," Working Papers 338, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2008.
  18. Thorsten Beck & Ross Levine & Alexey Levkov, 2007. "Big Bad Banks? The Impact of U.S. Branch Deregulation on Income Distribution," NBER Working Papers 13299, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
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