IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/serxxx/v60y2015i04ns021759081550054x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Differences In Decline: Quantile Regression Of Male–Female Earnings Differential In Malaysia

Author

Listed:
  • SIEW CHING GOY

    (Faculty of Social Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan 94300, Sarawak, Malaysia)

  • GERAINT JOHNES

    (Department of Economics, Management School, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YX, UK)

Abstract

Semiparametric estimation has gained significant attention in the study of wage inequality between men and women in recent years. By extending the wage gap at the mean towards the entire wage distribution using quantile regression, it enables researchers to ascertain the direction and the proportions of differences in characteristics and returns to these characteristics at different parts of the wage distribution. This line of research has been prominent in western society but has not yet been explored in the context of the Malaysian labor market. To fill the gap, this paper examines the gender earnings gap in Malaysia between 1994 and 2004 using Malaysia Population and Family Survey data. The gender earnings differential, as measured by the log percentage point is 53% in 1994. The difference reduces to 45% for a restricted sample and 42% for the unrestricted sample in 2004. However, it was found that the gender wage gap reduces as we move up the wage distribution. This suggests that women suffer from a sticky floor effect, i.e., the gender wage gap is bigger at the bottom of distribution. More importantly, the observed gender wage differentials do not reflect differences in the productive characteristics of the workers. In fact, it accounts for very little, if any, of the gap in Malaysia. However, the extent of the price effect is larger at the bottom end of the distribution than at the top.

Suggested Citation

  • Siew Ching Goy & Geraint Johnes, 2015. "Differences In Decline: Quantile Regression Of Male–Female Earnings Differential In Malaysia," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 60(04), pages 1-20.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:serxxx:v:60:y:2015:i:04:n:s021759081550054x
    DOI: 10.1142/S021759081550054X
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S021759081550054X
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S021759081550054X?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicodemo, Catia, 2009. "Gender Pay Gap and Quantile Regression in European Families," IZA Discussion Papers 3978, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Sandrine Rospabe & Robert Breunig, 2004. "The male-female wage gap in France: an analysis using non-parametric methods," Econometric Society 2004 Australasian Meetings 205, Econometric Society.
    3. James Albrecht & Anders Bjorklund & Susan Vroman, 2003. "Is There a Glass Ceiling in Sweden?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(1), pages 145-177, January.
    4. James Albrecht & Aico van Vuuren, 2004. "Gender Wage Gaps in the Netherlands with Sample Selection Adjustments," Econometric Society 2004 North American Winter Meetings 504, Econometric Society.
    5. Albrecht, James & van Vuuren, Aico & Vroman, Susan, 2004. "Decomposing the Gender Wage Gap in the Netherlands with Sample Selection Adjustments," IZA Discussion Papers 1400, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Manquilef-Bächler, Alejandra A. & Arulampalam, Wiji & Smith, Jennifer C., 2009. "Differences in Decline: Quantile Regression Analysis of Union Wage Differentials in the United Kingdom, 1991-2003," IZA Discussion Papers 4138, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Florentino Felgueroso & Juan Prieto Rodríguez & María José Pérez-Villadóniga, 2007. "Collective Bargaining and the GenderWage Gap: A Quantile Regression Approach," Working Papers 2007-06, FEDEA.
    8. Becker, Gary S., 1971. "The Economics of Discrimination," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 2, number 9780226041162, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Seneviratne, Prathi, 2020. "Gender wage inequality during Sri Lanka’s post-reform growth: A distributional analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).

    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. Claudio Quintano & Rosalia Castellano & Antonella Rocca, 2010. "Male-female discrimination: an analysis of gender gap and its determinants," Statistica, Department of Statistics, University of Bologna, vol. 70(2), pages 171-190.
    2. Florentino Felgueroso & María J. Pérez‐Villadóniga & Juan Prieto‐Rodriguez, 2008. "The Effect Of The Collective Bargaining Level On The Gender Wage Gap: Evidence From Spain," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 76(3), pages 301-319, June.
    3. Kaya, Ezgi, 2017. "Quantile regression and the gender wage gap: Is there a glass ceiling in the Turkish labor market?," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2017/5, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    4. Tindara Addabbo & Donata Favaro & Stefano Magrini, 2012. "Gender differences in productivity rewards: the role of human capital," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 59(1), pages 81-110, March.
    5. Wolf Dieter Heinbach & Markus Spindler, 2007. "To Bind or Not to Bind Collectively? Decomposition of Bargained Wage Differences Using Counterfactual Distributions," IAW Discussion Papers 36, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung (IAW).
    6. Coral Río & Carlos Gradín & Olga Cantó, 2011. "The measurement of gender wage discrimination: the distributional approach revisited," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(1), pages 57-86, March.
    7. Grandner, Thomas & Gstach, Dieter, 2012. "Decomposing wage discrimination in Germany and Austria with counterfactual densities," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 145, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    8. Thomas Grandner & Dieter Gstach, 2015. "Decomposing wage discrimination in Germany and Austria with counterfactual densities," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 42(1), pages 49-76, February.
    9. Petreski, Marjan. & Mojsoska-Blazevski, Nikica., 2015. "The gender and motherhood wage gap in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia : an econometric analysis," ILO Working Papers 994895293402676, International Labour Organization.
    10. Yekaterina Chzhen & Karen Mumford, "undated". "Gender Gaps Across the Earnings Distribution in Britain: Are Women Bossy Enough?," Discussion Papers 09/27, Department of Economics, University of York.
    11. Tindara ADDABBO & Donata Favaro, 2007. "Education and wage differentials by gender in Italy," CHILD Working Papers wp04_07, CHILD - Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics - ITALY.
    12. Thomas Grandner & Dieter Gstach, 2012. "Decomposing wage discrimination in Germany and Austria with counterfactual densities," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp145, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    13. Tindara Addabbo & Donata Favaro & Stefano Magrini, 2010. "Gender differences in productivity rewards in Italy: the role of human capital," Working Papers 2010_11, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    14. Florentino Felgueroso & Juan Prieto Rodríguez & María José Pérez-Villadóniga, 2007. "Collective Bargaining and the GenderWage Gap: A Quantile Regression Approach," Working Papers 2007-06, FEDEA.
    15. Martina Mysíková, 2012. "Gender Wage Gap in the Czech Republic and Central European Countries," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2012(3), pages 328-346.
    16. Anna Ruzik & Magdalena Rokicka, 2010. "The Gender Pay Gap in Informal Employment in Poland," CASE Network Studies and Analyses 406, CASE-Center for Social and Economic Research.
    17. Thomas Dohmen & Hartmut Lehmann & Anzelika Zaiceva, 2008. "The Gender Earnings Gap inside a Russian Firm: First Evidence from Personnel Data - 1997 to 2002 ; Updated Version," ESCIRRU Working Papers 6, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    18. Hiau Joo Kee, 2005. "Glass Ceiling or Sticky Floor? Exploring the Australian Gender Pay Gap using Quantile Regression and Counterfactual Decomposition Methods," CEPR Discussion Papers 487, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    19. repec:gdk:wpaper:19 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Luca Flabbi & Mario Macis & Andrea Moro & Fabiano Schivardi, 2019. "Do Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leadership on Gender Gaps and Firm Performance," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(622), pages 2390-2423.
    21. Collischon Matthias, 2019. "Is There a Glass Ceiling over Germany?," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 20(4), pages 329-359, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Earnings; discrimination; gender; J16; J31; J71;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • 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
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

    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:wsi:serxxx:v:60:y:2015:i:04:n:s021759081550054x. 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: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/ser/ser.shtml .

    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.