Changes in Workplace Heterogeneity and How They Widen the Gender Wage Gap

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bruns, Benjamin
• 署名单位: Humboldt University of Berlin
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20160664
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 74-113
• 关键词: sex segregation; earnings; workers; TRENDS; FIRMS

摘要

Using linked employer-employee data for West Germany, I investigate the role of growing wage differentials between firms in the slowdown of gender wage convergence since the 1990s. The results show that two factors are at play: first, high-wage firms experience higher wage growth and employ disproportionately more men, and second, male firm premiums grow faster than female premiums in the same firms. These developments were catalyzed by a decline of union coverage, coupled with more firm-specific wage setting in collective bargaining agreements. Taken together, these conditions prevented the gender gap from narrowing by approximately 15 percent between the 1990s and 2000s. (JEL J16, J51, J31, J71)