Wage Dispersion, Public Sector Wages and the Stagnating Danish Gender Wage Gap

University of Aarhus CLS Working Paper No. 98-018

52 Pages Posted: 25 Aug 1999

See all articles by Nabanita Datta Gupta

Nabanita Datta Gupta

Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Ronald L. Oaxaca

University of Arizona - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Nina Smith

Aarhus University - Department of Economics and Business Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: December 1998

Abstract

The Gender wage gap in Denmark has virtually stagnated since the early 1970's. This study examines whether this stagnation is mainly due to a changing wage dispersion or to changing prices on observed and unobserved skills. Since about half of the female labour force is employed in the public sector, the impact of the changing wage structure between the public and private sectors is investigated. The analysis is based on the Juhn-Murphy-Pierce decomposition applied to a pooled wage regression model. The equivalence between the former and the Oaxaca-Ransom generalized wage decomposition is established. These techniques are applied to a sample of Danish wage earners in the period 1983-94. The decomposition results suggest different explanations bethind the stagnation of the gender wage gap in the public and private sectors. The development in average public sector wages is calculated assuming observed and unobserved private sector prices are in effect.

JEL Classification: J7

Suggested Citation

Datta Gupta, Nabanita and Oaxaca, Ronald L. and Smith, Nina, Wage Dispersion, Public Sector Wages and the Stagnating Danish Gender Wage Gap (December 1998). University of Aarhus CLS Working Paper No. 98-018, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=176029 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.176029

Nabanita Datta Gupta (Contact Author)

Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University ( email )

Fuglesangs Allé 4
8210 Aarhus V
Denmark
+45 87165207 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://pure.au.dk/portal/da/ndg@econ.au.dk

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Ronald L. Oaxaca

University of Arizona - Department of Economics ( email )

McClelland Hall
Tucson, AZ 85721-0108
United States
520-621-4135 (Phone)
520-621-8450 (Fax)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Nina Smith

Aarhus University - Department of Economics and Business Economics ( email )

Universitetsparken
DK-8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
+45 8948 6413 (Phone)
+45 8615 5175 (Fax)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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