A meta-analysis of the international gender wage gap

Arbeitspapier

Since the early seventies, hundreds of authors have calculated gender wage differentials between women and men of equal productivity. This meta-study provides a quantitative review of this vast amount of empirical literature on gender wage discrimination as it concerns differences in methodology, data, countries and time periods. We place particular emphasis on a proper consideration of the quality of the underlying study which is done by a weighting with quality indicators. The results show that data restrictions have the biggest impact on the resulting gender wage gap. Moreover, we are able to show what effect a misspecification of the underlying wage equation - like the frequent use of potential experience - has on the calculated gender wage gap. Over time, raw wage differentials world-wide have fallen substantially; however, most of this decrease is due to an increased labor market productivity of females.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Reihe Ökonomie / Economics Series ; No. 143

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials ; Labor Discrimination
• Subject: gender wage differential ; meta-analysis ; Lohndifferenzierung ; Geschlecht ; Fraueneinkommen ; Empirische Methode ; Modellierung ; Welt

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Weichselbaumer, Doris ; Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS)
• (where): Vienna
• (when): 2003

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/71215
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET