Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/150838 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research No. 293
Publisher: 
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin
Abstract: 
In this article I analyze the changes in the gender wage gap in the western region, eastern region and in reunified Germany during the period 1999 - 2006. I use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and implement two alternative decomposition methodologies; the Juhn, Murphy and Pierce (1991) decomposition, and a methodology that totally differences the Oaxaca-Blinder (1973) decomposition, found in Smith and Welch (1989). I conclude that most of the increase in the gender wage gap occurred during a period of remarkably risingwage inequality and argue that both trends are caused simultaneously by the same set of factors. Furthermore, German women were, on average, treated favorably in the returns to their educational attainment, potential experience and tenure compared men, and that the increasing gender wage gap was mainly due to changes in the gender differentials in human capital endowments, particularly worker's potential experience, changes in the gender distribution across industries, company sizes and occupational positions and to changes in discrimination in the returns to job-specific training.
Subjects: 
Wages
gaps
discrimination
decomposition
characteristics effect
coefficient effect
JEL: 
D30
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.