Unobserved heterogeneity and labor market discrimination

Arbeitspapier

Sexual minorities have historically been subject to many kinds of discrimination. Prejudicial treatment in the labor market could arguably be one of them. Despite that, economic literature has remained mostly silent on the topic. This paper fills that void by leveraging on a novel longitudinal data set that collects detailed information on sexual orientation. I develop an empirical strategy that exploits the fact that sexuality is not a dichotomous trait but rather a wide assortment of sexual preferences. I use empirical models that rely on the identification of unobserved heterogeneity, in the forms of skills and sexual orientation, to allow schooling, employment, and income to be endogenously determined. I find that, after controlling for differences in skills distributions, there are no income gaps against employed homosexuals. However, consistent with the existence of discrimination, homosexuals are 10-20 percentage points less likely to be employed than heterosexuals. These gaps cannot be explained by differences in observable characteristics or skills and are larger among men and the college educated. The results suggest that selection on the employment margin contributes to the elimination of the income gaps as only the highly skilled homosexuals - and thus, higher paid - are employed.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: Upjohn Institute Working Paper ; No. 18-294

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Labor Discrimination
• Thema: Wage gap ; discrimination ; unobserved heterogeneity ; skills

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Sarzosa, Miguel
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
• (wo): Kalamazoo, MI
• (wann): 2018

Weitere Informationen

• DOI: doi:10.17848/wp18-294
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/202892
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:43 MEZ