New Century, Old Disparities: Gender and Ethnic Wage Gaps in Latin America

Hugo Ñopo, Juan Pablo Atal () and Natalia Winder
Additional contact information
Juan Pablo Atal: University of Pennsylvania
Natalia Winder: Inter-American Development Bank

No 5085, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper surveys gender and ethnic wage gaps in 18 Latin American countries, decomposing differences using matching comparisons as a non-parametric alternative to the Blinder-Oaxaca (BO) decomposition. It is found that men earn 9-27 percent more than women, with high cross-country heterogeneity. The unexplained pay gap is higher among older, informal and self-employed workers and those in small firms. Ethnic wage differences are greater than gender differences, and educational attainment differentials play an important role in explaining the gap. Higher ethnic wage gaps are found among males, single-income generators of households and full-time workers, and in rural areas. An important share of the ethnic wage gap is due to the scarcity of minorities in high-paid positions.

Keywords: matching; gender; ethnicity; Latin America; wage gaps (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 D31 J16 O54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 74 pages
Date: 2010-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-lam
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published - published also as 'New Century, Old Disparities. Gender and Ethnic Earnings Gaps in Latin America and the Caribbean', Latin American Development Forum;. © Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank, 2012

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Related works:
Working Paper: New Century, Old Disparities: Gender and Ethnic Wage Gaps in Latin America (2009)
Working Paper: New Century, Old Disparities: Gender and Ethnic Wage Gaps in Latin America (2009)
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