Volume 28, Number 2 (Spring) 1993
Wellington, Alison J. 1993. "Changes in the Male/Female Wage Gap, 1976-85." Journal of Human Resources 28(2):383-411.
This study uses detailed information on work experience, tenure, and on-the-job training collected in 1976 and 1985 questionnaires of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to account for changes in wage differentials between white men and white women over these none years. Decompositions of changes in the wage gap are used to illustrate the contribution of individual factors. Between 1976 and 1985 the wage gap between white men and women narrowed by approximately 4 percent. This study finds that nearly 50 percent of this reduction was due to average changes in job tenure and other work history variables over this period.
Alison Wellington is an assistant professor of economics at Davidson College. She would like to thank Charles Brown, Mary Corcoran, Gary Solon, and John Bound for their suggestions and advice. She would also like to thank Debbie Laren for her computer assistance and her help with using the PSID. The data used in this article may be obtained beginning in December 1993 through December 1996 from the author at the following address: P.O. Box 1719, Davidson College, Davidson, N.C. 28036.
© 2002 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X