TY - JOUR
T1 - Incidence and duration of unemployment spells
T2 - Implications for the male-female wage differentials
AU - Baffoe-Bonnie, John
AU - Ezeala-Harrison, Fidelis
PY - 2005/9
Y1 - 2005/9
N2 - We demonstrate in this paper that the incidence of unemployment and duration of unemployment spells affect the male-female gender wage differential. The results indicate that after controlling for sample selectivity bias in the wage equation, the incidence of unemployment and duration of unemployment spells account for about 14.2% and 39.6%, respectively, of the wage differential that exists between males and females. We observed that while the duration of unemployment accounts for a substantial portion of the wage differential in both the service (48.8%) and the manufacturing (17.0%) sectors, the impacts of the incidence of unemployment and duration of unemployment spells variables on the wage differential are rather small in the service (0.07%) and the manufacturing (1.6%) sectors. Also, high incidence of unemployments is associated with low wages for males and females in all samples. In contrast, longer durations of unemployment spells tend to increase males' wages and decrease females' wages in the full and service sector samples. At the macro level, the results seem to suggest that promotion of gender wage equality should be associated with policies that will minimize the female's incidence of unemployment and duration of unemployment spells.
AB - We demonstrate in this paper that the incidence of unemployment and duration of unemployment spells affect the male-female gender wage differential. The results indicate that after controlling for sample selectivity bias in the wage equation, the incidence of unemployment and duration of unemployment spells account for about 14.2% and 39.6%, respectively, of the wage differential that exists between males and females. We observed that while the duration of unemployment accounts for a substantial portion of the wage differential in both the service (48.8%) and the manufacturing (17.0%) sectors, the impacts of the incidence of unemployment and duration of unemployment spells variables on the wage differential are rather small in the service (0.07%) and the manufacturing (1.6%) sectors. Also, high incidence of unemployments is associated with low wages for males and females in all samples. In contrast, longer durations of unemployment spells tend to increase males' wages and decrease females' wages in the full and service sector samples. At the macro level, the results seem to suggest that promotion of gender wage equality should be associated with policies that will minimize the female's incidence of unemployment and duration of unemployment spells.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.qref.2004.09.001
DO - 10.1016/j.qref.2004.09.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:24044548011
SN - 1062-9769
VL - 45
SP - 824
EP - 847
JO - Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance
JF - Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance
IS - 4-5
ER -