Product market competition and gender discrimination

Dudley Cooke (d.cooke@exeter.ac.uk), Ana Fernandes and Priscila Ferreira (priscila@eeg.uminho.pt)
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Dudley Cooke: University of Exeter

No 105, GEE Papers from Gabinete de Estratégia e Estudos, Ministério da Economia

Abstract: This paper presents novel empirical evidence for the prediction from Becker’s (1957) famous theory, that competition will drive discrimination out of the market. We use a comprehensive firm entry deregulation reform in Portugal as a quasi-natural experiment to study the effect of increased product market competition on gender discrimination. We use employer-employee data for the universe of private sector firms and workers, and exploit the staggered implementation of the reform across municipalities for identification. Increased competition following the deregulation reduces the gender pay gap for medium- and high-skill workers but not for the low-skilled. The gender pay gap is also reduced for workers in managerial positions, except for the CEO. We also find that the share of females in managerial positions increased in affected municipalities. Existing evidence has shown that gender discrimination reduces output; our findings suggest that deregulation can contribute to reduce inefficiencies arising from gender discrimination.

Keywords: Deregulation; Discrimination; Entry; Gender Pay Gap; Product Market Competition; Wage Structure. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J31 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2018-05, Revised 2018-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-com, nep-gen and nep-hrm
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https://www.gee.gov.pt//RePEc/WorkingPapers/GEE_PAPERS_105.pdf First version, 2018 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Product market competition and gender discrimination (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mde:wpaper:0105

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