The Career Evolution of the Sex Gap in Wages: Discrimination Versus Human Capital Investment
ISBN: 978-1-80455-126-4, eISBN: 978-1-80455-125-7
Publication date: 23 January 2023
Abstract
Several studies find that there is little sex gap in wages at labor market entry, and that the sex gap in wages emerges (and grows) with time in the labor market. This evidence is consistent with (i) there is little or no sex discrimination in wages at labor market entry, and (ii) the emergence of the sex gap in wages with time in the labor market reflects differences between women and men in human capital investment (and other decisions), with women investing less early in their careers. Indeed, some economists explicitly interpret the evidence this way. We show that this interpretation ignores two fundamental implications of the human capital model, and that differences in investment can complicate the interpretation of both the starting sex gap in wages (or absence of a gap), and the differences in “returns” to experience. We then estimate stylized structural models of human capital investment and wage growth to identify the effects of discrimination (or other sources of a starting pay gap) and differences in human capital investment.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
Vaccaro is very grateful for financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). We thank Alex Bryson, Paul Oyer, reviewers of earlier versions of this paper, and the editors and anonymous referees for helpful comments.
Citation
Neumark, D. and Vaccaro, G. (2023), "The Career Evolution of the Sex Gap in Wages: Discrimination Versus Human Capital Investment", Polachek, S.W. and Tatsiramos, K. (Ed.) 50th Celebratory Volume (Research in Labor Economics, Vol. 50), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 117-150. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0147-912120230000050004
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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