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Measuring and testing for gender discrimination in professions: the case of English family doctors

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  • H Gravelle
  • A Risa Hole

Abstract

In 2004 the income of female GPs was 70%, and their wages (income per hour) were 91%, of those of male GPs. We compare estimates of gender discrimination from Oaxaca decompositions using models of wages (income/hours), OLS and 2SLS models of income, and propensity score matching. We propose a new direct test for within workplace gender discrimination based on a comparison of the differences in income of female and male GPs in practices in which all GPs are of the same gender with the differences in male and female income in mixed gender practices. We find that the coefficients on log hours in the log income models are positive but significantly less than 1, so that log wage models are misspecified. Discrimination, as measured by the unexplained difference in mean log income varied between 21% to 28%. However, our direct tests could not reject the null hypothesis of no within workplace gender discrimination.

Suggested Citation

  • H Gravelle & A Risa Hole, 2008. "Measuring and testing for gender discrimination in professions: the case of English family doctors," Discussion Papers 08/27, Department of Economics, University of York.
  • Handle: RePEc:yor:yorken:08/27
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    Cited by:

    1. Stephen Morris & Rosalind Goudie & Matt Sutton & Hugh Gravelle & Robert Elliott & Arne Risa Hole & Ada Ma & Bonnie Sibbald & Diane Skåtun, 2011. "Determinants of general practitioners' wages in England," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(2), pages 147-160, February.
    2. Gravelle, Hugh & Hole, Arne Risa & Santos, Rita, 2011. "Measuring and testing for gender discrimination in physician pay: English family doctors," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 660-674, July.
    3. Terence Chai Cheng & Anthony Scott & Sung-Hee Jeon & Guyonne Kalb & John Humphreys & Catherine Joyce, 2010. "What Factors Influence the Earnings of GPs and Medical Specialists in Australia? Evidence from the MABEL Survey," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2010n12, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    4. Terence Chai Cheng & Anthony Scott & Sung‐Hee Jeon & Guyonne Kalb & John Humphreys & Catherine Joyce, 2012. "What Factors Influence The Earnings Of General Practitioners And Medical Specialists? Evidence From The Medicine In Australia: Balancing Employment And Life Survey," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(11), pages 1300-1317, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender discrimination. Professions. Family doctors. Propensity score matching.;

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets

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