Gender wage differences in West Germany: a cohort analysis
Abstract
A comprehensive descriptive analysis of gender wage differences over a long time period is missing for West Germany. Using an empirical approach which takes into account explicitely changes of wage distributions for both males and females as well as life-cycle and birth cohort effects, we go beyond conventional decomposition techniques of the average gender wage gap. The paper provides some stylized facts of the level and dynamics of the gender wage gap from 1975 - 1995. The empirical analysis is based upon the IAB-Beschäftigtenstichprobe. Our findings confirm the importance of distributional effects relating to skill level and employment status. While life-cycle wage growth is in general much lower for females compared to males, comparing their estimated time trends implies that the gender wage gap has narrowed substantially in the lower part of the wage distribution especially for low-and medium-skilled females but much less so in the upper part of the wage distribution. Surprisingly, we do not find any cohort effects for wages of female employees. --Download Info
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Paper provided by ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research in its series ZEW Discussion Papers with number 00-48.Length:
Date of creation: 2000
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:5332
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Related research
Keywords: Gender Wage Gap; Quantile Regression; Cohort Analysis;Find related papers by JEL classification:
- J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
- J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
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.:
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- Lauer, Charlotte, 2000. "Gender wage gap in West Germany: how far do gender differences in human capital matter?," ZEW Discussion Papers 00-07, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
- Boockmann, Bernhard & Steiner, Viktor, 2000.
"Cohort effects and the returns to education in West Germany,"
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00-05, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Fitzenberger, Bernd & Schnabel, Reinhold & Wunderlich, Gaby, 2001.
"The gender gap in labor market participation and employment: a cohort analysis for West Germany,"
ZEW Discussion Papers
01-47, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
- Bernd Fitzenberger & Reinhold Schnabel & Gaby Wunderlich, 2004. "The gender gap in labor market participation and employment: A cohort analysis for West Germany," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 83-116, February.
- Beblo, Miriam & Wolf, Elke, 2002. "Wage Penalties for Career Interruptions: An Empirical Analysis for West Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 02-45, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
- Heinze, Anja & Wolf, Elke, 2006. "Gender Earnings Gap in German Firms: The Impact of Firm Characteristics and Institutions," ZEW Discussion Papers 06-20, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
- Fitzenberger, Bernd & Wunderlich, Gaby, 2001. "The changing gender gap across the wage distribution in the UK," ZEW Discussion Papers 01-56, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
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