Supplementary Data for: Francine D. Blau and Lawrence M. Kahn, “The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations”, Journal of Economic Literature , 55 ,3 (Sept 2017): 789-865

Name: Supplementary Data for: Francine D. Blau and Lawrence M. Kahn, “The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations”, Journal of Economic Literature , 55 ,3 (Sept 2017): 789-865
Published: 2024-11-07
License: This work is licensed under an Other license created by the PSID, namely that you agree not to redistribute data or other materials without the written agreement of ICPSR, unless: 1. You serve as the OFFICIAL or DESIGNATED REPRESENTATIVE at an ICPSR MEMBER INSTITUTION and are assisting AUTHORIZED USERS with obtaining data, or 2. You are collaborating with other AUTHORIZED USERS to analyze the data for research or instructional purposes.

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Lawrence Kahn, Cornell University; Francine Blau, Cornell University

Version: View help for Version V2

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
20160995_PSID_regready_sept26.dta	application/x-stata-dta	30.6 MB	11/07/2024 10:07:AM
CHANGES.txt	text/plain	100 bytes	11/13/2024 12:24:PM

Project Citation:

Kahn, Lawrence, and Blau, Francine. Supplementary Data for: Francine D. Blau and Lawrence M. Kahn, “The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations”, Journal of Economic Literature , 55 ,3 (Sept 2017): 789-865. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-11-13. https://doi.org/10.3886/E210483V2

Project Description

Summary: Using PSID microdata over the 1980-2010, we provide new empirical evidence on the extent of and trends in the gender wage gap, which declined considerably over this period. By 2010, conventional human capital variables taken together explained little of the gender wage gap, while gender differences in occupation and industry continued to be important. Moreover, the gender pay gap declined much more slowly at the top of the wage distribution that at the middle or the bottom and by 2010 was noticeably higher at the top. We then survey the literature to identify what has been learned about the explanations for the gap. We conclude that many of the traditional explanations continue to have salience. Although human capital factors are now relatively unimportant in the aggregate, women’s work force interruptions and shorter hours remain significant in high skilled occupations, possibly due to compensating differentials. Gender differences in occupations and industries, as well as differences in gender roles and the gender division of labor remain important, and research based on experimental evidence strongly suggests that discrimination cannot be discounted. Psychological attributes or noncognitive skills comprise one of the newer explanations for gender differences in outcomes. Our effort to assess the quantitative evidence on the importance of these factors suggests that they account for a small to moderate portion of the gender pay gap, considerably smaller than say occupation and industry effects, though they appear to modestly contribute to these differences.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: PSID

Geographic Coverage: USA

Time Period(s): 1980 – 2010 (1980, 1990, and 2010)

Collection Date(s): 1980 – 2010

Universe: PSID Family database

Methodology

Unit(s) of Observation: Individual workers

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Published Versions

V2 [2024-11-13]

V1 [2024-11-07]

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