Educational Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap for Recent College Graduates in Colombia

Laura Cepeda Emiliani and Juan Barón ()

No 9382, Borradores de Economia from Banco de la Republica

Abstract: In this paper we show the importance of subject of degree in explaining the gender wage gap in Colombia. In order to minimize the influence of gender differences in experience, promotions, and job changes on the wage gap, we focus on college graduates who have a formal job and who have been in the labor market at most one year. Using unique, administrative datasets with detailed subjects of degree, we find that the wage gap against women is on average 11% and that 40% of it can be explained by differences in subject of degree. Using a distributional decomposition, we find an increasing gender wage gap across the distribution of wages (from 2% at the bottom to 15% at the top), although subject of degree explains a lower 30% of the gap at the top. Policies designed to reduce the gender wage gap need to address the differing gender educational choices and the factors that influence them. These policies would be more effective in reducing the gap for median wage earners.

Keywords: Gender wage gap; subject of degree; decomposition. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J31 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 14
Date: 2012-03-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab, nep-lam and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Educational Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap for Recent College Graduates in Colombia (2012)
Working Paper: Educational Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap for Recent College Graduates in Colombia (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:col:000094:009382

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