Abstract
This article studies the trend in wage discrimination in Spain from 1995 to 2002, when the third plan for equal opportunities
for men and women was in action. To account for the criticism of Heckman et al. (J Hum Cap 2:1–31, 2008), we first introduce a novel approach to the analysis of wage discrimination with methods that are robust to model (mis-)
specification. Following their idea, we apply semiparametric methods for the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition of wage differentials
between men and women. We extend the methodology to semiparametric quantile estimation. The study is completed by some descriptive
analysis, also based on nonparametric techniques. We find that, while the wage gap has diminished from 1995 to 2002 this is
mainly due the smaller gap in returns of endowments for wages above the median, and due to the endowments of women for lower
and particularly high wages. Respective the quantiles, in contrast to other EU member states, the Spanish wage gap is widest
for low wages but almost U-shaped in 2002 whereas this was not that evident in 1995.
for men and women was in action. To account for the criticism of Heckman et al. (J Hum Cap 2:1–31, 2008), we first introduce a novel approach to the analysis of wage discrimination with methods that are robust to model (mis-)
specification. Following their idea, we apply semiparametric methods for the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition of wage differentials
between men and women. We extend the methodology to semiparametric quantile estimation. The study is completed by some descriptive
analysis, also based on nonparametric techniques. We find that, while the wage gap has diminished from 1995 to 2002 this is
mainly due the smaller gap in returns of endowments for wages above the median, and due to the endowments of women for lower
and particularly high wages. Respective the quantiles, in contrast to other EU member states, the Spanish wage gap is widest
for low wages but almost U-shaped in 2002 whereas this was not that evident in 1995.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Pages 1-23
- DOI 10.1007/s12122-011-9124-7
- Authors
- Ignacio Moral-Arce, Institute for Fiscal Studies, Ministry of Finance, Madrid, Spain
- Stefan Sperlich, Département des Sciences Économiques, Université de Genève, Bd du Pont d‘Arve 40, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland
- Ana I. Fernández-Saínz, Departamento de Economía Aplicada III, Universidad del País Vasco, Basque, Spain
- Maria J. Roca, Cantabrian Chamber of Commerce, Santander, Spain
- Journal Journal of Labor Research
- Online ISSN 1936-4768
- Print ISSN 0195-3613