Wage Growth and Job Mobility in the Early Career: Testing a Statistical Discrimination Model of the Gender Wage Gap

Philippe Belley (), Nathalie Havet () and Guy Lacroix
Additional contact information
Philippe Belley: Kansas State University

No 6893, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The paper focuses on the early career patterns of young male and female workers. It investigates potential dynamic links between statistical discrimination, mobility, tenure and wage profiles. The model assumes that it is more costly for an employer to assess female workers' productivity and that the noise/signal ratio tapers off more rapidly for male workers. These two assumptions yield numerous theoretical predictions pertaining to gender wage gaps. These predictions are tested using data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. As predicted by our statistical discrimination model, we find that men and women have the same wage at the start of their career, but that female wages grow at a slower rate, creating a gender wage gap. Also consistent with our model, we find that mean wages are higher for workers who keep their job, while wage growth is stronger for workers who change job.

Keywords: tenure; job transitions; gender wage gap; returns to mobility; experience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J41 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2012-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published - published in: Research in Labor Economics, 2015, 42, 231-260

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https://docs.iza.org/dp6893.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Wage Growth and Job Mobility in the Early Career: Testing a Statistical Discrimination Model of the Gender Wage Gap (2015)
Working Paper: Wage Growth and Job Mobility in the Early Career: Testing a Statistical Discrimination Model of Gender Wage Gap (2013)
Working Paper: Wage Growth and Job Mobility in the Early Career: Testing a Statistical Discrimination Model of Gender Wage Gap (2013)
Working Paper: Wage Growth and Job Mobility in the Early Career: Testing a Statistical Discrimination Model of the Gender Wage Gap (2012)
Working Paper: Wage Growth and Job Mobility in the Early Career: Testing a Statistical Discrimination Model of Gender Wage Gap (2012)
Working Paper: Wage Growth and Job Mobility in the Early Career: Testing a Statistical Discrimination Model of the Gender Wage Gap (2012)
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