Gender Wage Gaps in Central American Countries: Evidence from a Non-Parametric Approach

Ted Enamorado, Ana Carolina Izaguirre and Hugo Ñopo

No 4639, Research Department Publications from Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department

Abstract: This paper compares gender wage gaps for Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s using the non-parametric matching methodology introduced by Ñopo (2008), which allows an analysis not only of average gaps but also their distributions. While a simple comparison of average wages would suggest small or even negative gaps, the wage gap is substantial when workers with comparable human capital characteristics are considered. Although the gender wage gap declined from the mid-1990s to 2000, the gap appears to increase thereafter. The results also indicate that females have access barriers to certain human capital profiles, which contributes to wage gaps. The unexplained component of the gender wage gaps is more pronounced among poorer individuals. In Nicaragua, particularly, these unexplained gaps are negative for those at the lowest extreme of the earnings distribution.

Keywords: Gender; Race; Wage gaps; Central America (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 D31 J16 O54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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