The Male-Female Gap in Physician Earnings: Evidence from a Public Health Insurance System

Engelbert Theurl () and Hannes Winner
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Engelbert Theurl: Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Innsbruck, Austria

No 2010-01, NRN working papers from The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

Abstract: Empirical evidence from U.S. studies suggests that, on average, female physicians earn less than their male counterparts. This gap in earnings does not disappear when individual and market characteristics are con- trolled for. This paper investigates whether a gender earnings difference can also be observed in a health care system predominantly financed by public insurance companies. Using a unique data set of physicians' earn- ings recorded by a public social security agency in an Austrian province between 2000 and 2004, we find a gender gap in average earnings of about 32 percent. A substantial share of this gap (20 to 47 percent) cannot be explained by individual and market characteristics, leaving labor market discrimination as one possible explanation for the observed gender earn- ings difference of physicians.

Keywords: Health care financing; physician earnings; wage composition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 I18 J31 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2010-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-ias and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The male–female gap in physician earnings: evidence from a public health insurance system (2011)
Working Paper: The male-female gap in physician earnings: Evidence from a public health insurance system (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jku:nrnwps:2010_01

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