Higher Education Expansion & Labour Income Inequality in High-income Countries: A Gender-specific Perspective

Petra Sauer (), Philippe Van Kerm and Daniele Checchi

No 837, LIS Working papers from LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg

Abstract: In most high-income countries, women now surpass men in completing tertiary education. Yet, the implications of this shift for earnings inequality remain underexplored. This article investigates how the gendered expansion of higher education is related to the distribution of earnings. Using Luxembourg Income Study data for 27 countries at two time points, we apply Recentered Influence Function regression to examine the relationship between tertiary attainment and earnings inequality. The findings point to a gendered pattern: while men’s educational attainment is positively associated with the Gini coefficient of earnings, women’s attainment is linked to reduced inequality—both in 1995 and 2015, and after accounting for job characteristics. The strength of these associations declined over time, in line with the broader expansion of higher education. Gendered inequality both within and between educational groups further contributes to explaining cross-national and temporal variation in the inequality effects of tertiary education.

Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2025-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-des and nep-edu
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lis:liswps:837

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