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Frontiers of Economics in China

ISSN 1673-3444

ISSN 1673-3568(Online)

CN 11-5744/F

Postal Subscription Code 80-978

Front Econ Chin    2012, Vol. 7 Issue (2) : 286-304    https://doi.org/10.3868/s060-001-012-0013-0
research-article
Statistical Discrimination and Gender Wage Gap: A Model
Xia Li()
School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai 200433, China
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Abstract

In this paper, I extend the model in Coate and Loury (CL) (1993) to show how statistical discrimination by employers can help create gender wage gap for men and women with equal earning potentials. Given that employers do not perfectly observe a worker’s skill type and partly rely on the average skills level of his (her) peers for inference purpose, employers’ differential treatment of male and female workers can create different skill-investment incentives for them, which in turn justify employers’ discrimination in the first place. The second result of this paper which is not possible within the original CL framework is that I point to the possibility that there exist circumstances under which the gender wage gap can not be eliminated without the formerly advantaged sex being negatively affected.

Keywords gender wage gap      home production      statistical discrimination     
Corresponding Author(s): Xia Li,Email:lixia2060@gmail.com   
Issue Date: 05 June 2012
 Cite this article:   
Xia Li. Statistical Discrimination and Gender Wage Gap: A Model[J]. Front Econ Chin, 2012, 7(2): 286-304.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fec/EN/10.3868/s060-001-012-0013-0
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fec/EN/Y2012/V7/I2/286
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