The Effects of Competition and Equal Treatment Laws on the Gender Wage Differential

By Doris Weichselbaumer, R. Winter‐Ebmer. Social Science Research Network, 2007

161 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper evaluates the impact of economic and legal variables on wage differentials between men and women. Since Becker (1957) economists have argued that competitive markets eliminate discrimination in the long run. On the other hand, practically all countries have enacted some sort of law mandating equal treatment of men and women. This paper uses a new international data set on the gender wage gap, which is constructed via a meta-analysis of existing studies. The findings show that both increased competition and the enactment of equal treatment laws reduce the gender wage gap.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, General Health Professions, Law

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e605fc2e2e52065e177ed21f347fbae911ff9dfa

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Economics and Econometrics

1. Salvatore Ruggieri
2. Andrea Weber
3. Andrea Romei
4. Christine Zulehner
5. Ana Rute Cardoso
6. R. Winter‐Ebmer
7. Pratik Gajane
8. Xintao Wu

In General Health Professions

1. Andrea Weber
2. R. Winter‐Ebmer

In Law

1. Andrea Romei
2. R. Winter‐Ebmer
3. Salvatore Ruggieri

Citations in the corpus

• Competition and Gender Prejudice: Are Discriminatory Employers Doomed to Fail? (2009, background): “3In a meta analysis, Weichselbaumer and Winter-Ebmer (2005, 2007) find that countries with a higher degree of product market competition and countries adopting equal opportunity legislation have smaller gender wage gaps, while countries with institutions that protect women from dangerous and…”
• Female-Led Firms and Gender Wage Policies (2010, background): “Studies have explained these trends to a certain degree, in the context of labor market institutions and general inequality (Blau and Kahn 2003), as well as of competition and equal treatment laws (Weichselbaumer and Winter-Ebmer 2007).”
• A Meta-Analysis of the International Gender Wage Gap (2005, unknown): “See Weichselbaumer and Winter-Ebmer (2003b) for an analysis of the change of terminology over time.”
• A multidisciplinary survey on discrimination analysis (2013, background): “Weichselbaumer and Winter-Ebmer (2007) consider the effects of the adoption of equality laws on wage differentials.”