Early-Career Work Experience and Gender Wage Differentials

We estimate a wage model that includes an array of variables measuring the fraction of time worked during each year of the career. This array fully characterizes past employment experience, regardless of how sporadic it has been. Our model yields substantially higher estimated returns to experience...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of labor economics 1995-01, Vol.13 (1), p.121-154
Main Authors: Light, Audrey, Ureta, Manuelita
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Careers
Economic models
Employment
Experience
Gender differentiation
Gender wage gap
Human capital
Instrumental variables estimation
Labor economics
Men
Null hypothesis
Sexes
Statistical analysis
Studies
Wage differential
Wage differentials
Wages
Wages & salaries
Women
Work experience
Workforce
Working women
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Summary:We estimate a wage model that includes an array of variables measuring the fraction of time worked during each year of the career. This array fully characterizes past employment experience, regardless of how sporadic it has been. Our model yields substantially higher estimated returns to experience and lower returns to tenure than do models that measure experience cumulatively and use the standard quadratic functional form. We find that the data reject the standard model but fail to reject our model. Furthermore, we find that 12% of the male-female wage gap is due to differences in the timing of work experience.
ISSN:0734-306X
1537-5307
DOI:10.1086/298370