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The Gender Pay Gap and Its Determinants Across the Human Capital Distribution

Author

Listed:
  • Ariel J. Binder
  • Amanda Eng
  • Kendall Houghton
  • Andrew Foote

Abstract

This paper links American Community Survey data and postsecondary transcript records to examine how the gender pay gap varies across the distribution of education credentials for a sample of 2003-2013 graduates. Although recent literature emphasizes gender inequality among the most-educated, we find a smaller gender pay gap at higher education levels. Field-of-degree and occupation effects explain most of the gap among top bachelor’s graduates, while work hours and unobserved channels matter more for less-competitive bachelor’s, associate, and certificate graduates. We develop a novel decomposition of the child penalty to examine the role of children in explaining these results.

Suggested Citation

  • Ariel J. Binder & Amanda Eng & Kendall Houghton & Andrew Foote, 2023. "The Gender Pay Gap and Its Determinants Across the Human Capital Distribution," Working Papers 23-31, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    • Handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:23-31
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    File URL: https://www2.census.gov/library/working-papers/2023/adrm/ces/CES-WP-23-31R.pdf
    File Function: Revised version, 2024
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    File URL: https://www2.census.gov/library/working-papers/2023/adrm/ces/CES-WP-23-31.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2023
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. John Eric Humphries & Juanna Schrøter Joensen & Gregory F. Veramendi, 2024. "The Gender Wage Gap: Skills, Sorting, and Returns," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 114, pages 259-264, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    gender pay gap; postsecondary transcript records; college selectivity; human capital; field and occupation choice; labor supply;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education
    • 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

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