(Translated by https://www.hiragana.jp/)
The gender wage gap and occupational segregation in the Mexican labour market
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/qua/journl/v13y2016i1p51-72.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The gender wage gap and occupational segregation in the Mexican labour market

Author

Listed:
  • Pedro Orraca

    (University of Sussex)

  • Francisco-Javier Cabrera

    (Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas A.C.)

  • Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas A. C.

    (University of Sussex)

Abstract

This study examines the role of occupational segregation in explaining the gender wage gap in Mexico. Using census data and based on the Brown et al. (1980) decomposition, it is observed that male-female wage differentials increased between 2000 and 2010. For both years, within occupation wage differentials generally increased the gender wage gap, whereas between occupation wage differentials provided the opposite effect. Since within occupation wage differentials are driven by the unexplained component, the results suggest that the gender wage gap is primarily a product of differences in the average returns to productivity related characteristics within occupations. Occupational segregation does not increase malefemale wage differentials since women do not appear to encounter barriers into high paying occupations. This result is robust to the use of different levels of occupational aggregation and when correcting the wage equations for selectivity-bias.

Suggested Citation

  • Pedro Orraca & Francisco-Javier Cabrera & Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas A. C., 2016. "The gender wage gap and occupational segregation in the Mexican labour market," EconoQuantum, Revista de Economia y Finanzas, Universidad de Guadalajara, Centro Universitario de Ciencias Economico Administrativas, Departamento de Metodos Cuantitativos y Maestria en Economia., vol. 13(1), pages 51-72, Enero-Jun.
    • Handle: RePEc:qua:journl:v:13:y:2016:i:1:p:51-72
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://econoquantum.cucea.udg.mx/index.php/EQ/article/view/4871
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://econoquantum.cucea.udg.mx/index.php/EQ/issue/view/494
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. DiNardo, John & Fortin, Nicole M & Lemieux, Thomas, 1996. "Labor Market Institutions and the Distribution of Wages, 1973-1992: A Semiparametric Approach," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(5), pages 1001-1044, September.
    2. Démurger, Sylvie & Gurgand, Marc & Li, Shi & Yue, Ximing, 2009. "Migrants as second-class workers in urban China? A decomposition analysis," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 610-628, December.
    3. Hugo Ñopo, 2008. "Matching as a Tool to Decompose Wage Gaps," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(2), pages 290-299, May.
    4. Oaxaca, Ronald, 1973. "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 14(3), pages 693-709, October.
    5. Gurleen Popli, 2008. "Gender wage discrimination in Mexico: A distributional approach," Working Papers 2008006, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2008.
    6. Miller, Paul W, 1987. "The Wage Effect of the Occupational Segregation of Women in Britain," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 97(388), pages 885-896, December.
    7. Ernesto Aguayo-Tellez & Jim Airola & Chinhui Juhn & Carolina Villegas-Sanchez, 2014. "Did Trade Liberalization Help Women? the Case of Mexico in the 1990s," Research in Labor Economics, in: New Analyses of Worker Well-Being, volume 38, pages 1-35, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    8. Jenkins, Stephen P., 1994. "Earnings discrimination measurement : A distributional approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 81-102, March.
    9. Alan S. Blinder, 1973. "Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 8(4), pages 436-455.
    10. Michael P. Kidd, 1993. "Sex Discrimination and Occupational Segregation in the Australian Labour Market," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 69(1), pages 44-55, March.
    11. José Mata & José A. F. Machado, 2005. "Counterfactual decomposition of changes in wage distributions using quantile regression," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(4), pages 445-465.
    12. Lee, Lung-Fei, 1983. "Generalized Econometric Models with Selectivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(2), pages 507-512, March.
    13. Gyourko, Joseph & Tracy, Joseph, 1988. "An Analysis of Public- and Private-Sector Wages Allowing for Endogenous Choices of Both Government and Union Status," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(2), pages 229-253, April.
    14. Sergio Firpo & Nicole M. Fortin & Thomas Lemieux, 2009. "Unconditional Quantile Regressions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(3), pages 953-973, May.
    15. Liu, Pak-Wai & Zhang, Junsen & Chong, Shu-Chuen, 2004. "Occupational segregation and wage differentials between natives and immigrants: evidence from Hong Kong," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 395-413, February.
    16. Michael P. Kidd & Michael Shannon, 1996. "Does the Level of Occupational Aggregation Affect Estimates of the Gender Wage Gap?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 49(2), pages 317-329, January.
    17. Salardi Paola, 2013. "An analysis of pay and occupational differences by gender and race in Brazil - 1987 to 2006," Economics PhD Theses 0513, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    18. Dolton, Peter J & Kidd, Michael P, 1994. "Occupational Access and Wage Discrimination," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 56(4), pages 457-474, November.
    19. Randall S. Brown & Marilyn Moon & Barbara S. Zoloth, 1980. "Incorporating Occupational Attainment in Studies of Male-Female Earnings Differentials," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 15(1), pages 3-28.
    20. José A. Pagán & Miren Ullibarri, 2000. "Group Heterogeneity and the Gender Earnings Gap in Mexico," Economía Mexicana NUEVA ÉPOCA, CIDE, División de Economía, vol. 0(1), pages 23-40, January-J.
    21. Alison J. Wellington, 1993. "Changes in the Male/Female Wage Gap, 1976-85," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 28(2), pages 383-411.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Luis Monroy‐Gómez‐Franco & Paloma Villagómez‐Ornelas, 2024. "Stratification economics in the land of persistent inequalities," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 83(1), pages 157-175, January.
    2. María Padilla-Romo & Francisco Cabrera-Hernández, 2018. "The Effect of Children's Time in School on Mothers' Labor Supply: Evidence from Mexico's Full-Time Schools Program," Working Papers 2018-04, University of Tennessee, Department of Economics.
    3. Paloma Villagómez-Ornelas & Luis Monroy-Gómez-Franco, 2021. "Economic Inequality meets Social Stratification: An Application of Stratification Economics to Mexico," Papers 2021_03, Centro de Estudios Espinosa Yglesias.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pedro Orraca & Francisco Javier Cabrera & Gustavo Iriarte, 2016. "The gender wage gap and occupational segregation in the Mexican labour market," EconoQuantum, Revista de Economia y Negocios, Universidad de Guadalajara, Centro Universitario de Ciencias Economico Administrativas, Departamento de Metodos Cuantitativos y Maestria en Economia., vol. 13(1), pages 51-72, Enero-Jun.
    2. Orraca Romano, Pedro Paulo, 2016. "Essays on development and labour economics for Mexico," Economics PhD Theses 0816, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    3. Philippe Van Kerm, 2013. "Generalized measures of wage differentials," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 465-482, August.
    4. Siew, Ching Goy & Johnes, Geraint, 2012. "Revisiting The Impact of Occupational Segregation on the Gender Earnings Gap in Malaysia," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 46(1), pages 13-25.
    5. Pedro P. Orraca-Romano & Erika García-Meneses, 2016. "Why are the wages of the Mexican immigrants and their descendants so low in the United States?," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 31(2), pages 305-337.
    6. Karolina Goraus & Joanna Tyrowicz & Lucas Velde, 2017. "Which Gender Wage Gap Estimates to Trust? A Comparative Analysis," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(1), pages 118-146, March.
    7. Zhu, Rong, 2016. "Wage differentials between urban residents and rural migrants in urban China during 2002–2007: A distributional analysis," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 2-14.
    8. Debayan Pakrashi & Paul Frijters, 2017. "Migration and Discrimination in Urban China: A Decomposition Approach," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(4), pages 821-840, December.
    9. Raquel Vale Mendes, 2005. "Occupational segregation and the Portuguese gender wage gap," ERSA conference papers ersa05p130, European Regional Science Association.
    10. Atal, Juan Pablo & Ñopo, Hugo R. & Winder, Natalia, 2009. "New Century, Old Disparities: Gender and Ethnic Wage Gaps in Latin America," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1131, Inter-American Development Bank.
    11. Raquel Vale Mendes, 2009. "Gender wage differentials and occupational distribution," Notas Económicas, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, issue 29, pages 26-40, June.
    12. Sonja C. Kassenboehmer & Mathias G. Sinning, 2014. "Distributional Changes in the Gender Wage Gap," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(2), pages 335-361, April.
    13. Sandeep Mohapatra & Bruno Wichmann & Philippe Marcoul, 2018. "Removing The “Veil Of Ignorance”: Nonlinearities In Education Effects On Gender Wage Inequalities," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(4), pages 644-666, October.
    14. Fortin, Nicole & Lemieux, Thomas & Firpo, Sergio, 2011. "Decomposition Methods in Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 1, pages 1-102, Elsevier.
    15. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Tan, Michelle, 2011. "Noncognitive skills, occupational attainment, and relative wages," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 1-13, January.
    16. Mauricio Reis, 2017. "Fields of Study and the Earnings Gap by Race in Brazil," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 756-785, August.
    17. Jairo Guillermo Isaza Castro, 2014. "Occupational segregation, selection effects and gender wage differences: evidence from urban Colombia," Apuntes del Cenes, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, June.
    18. Karolina Goraus Tanska & Joanna Tyrowicz & Lucas Augusto van der Velde, 2020. "How rankings disguise gender inequality: A comparative analysis of cross-country gender equality rankings based on adjusted wage gaps," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-21, November.
    19. Amita Majumder & Chayanika Mitra, 2017. "Gender Bias in Education in West Bengal," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 15(1), pages 173-196, March.
    20. Essama-Nssah, B., 2012. "Identification of sources of variation in poverty outcomes," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5954, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Occupational segregation; gender wage differentials; Mexico.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:qua:journl:v:13:y:2016:i:1:p:51-72. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sandra Ivett Portugal Padilla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dmudgmx.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.