Globalization and the Gender Wage Gap
There are several theoretical reasons why globalization will have a narrowing as well as widening effect on the gender wage gap, but little is known about the actual impact, except for a number of country studies. The author provides a cross-country study of the impact of globalization on the occupational gender wage gap, based on the rarely used but most far-ranging survey of wages around the world, the International Labour Organization's October Inquiry. This annual survey was started in 1924 and contains a wealth of information on wages and the gender wage gap. For the period 1983-99, there is information on the gender wage gap in 161 narrowly defined occupations in more than 80 countries around the world. The author finds the following: (i) The occupational gender wage gap appears to be narrowing with increases in GDP per capita; (ii) There is a significantly narrowing impact of trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) net inflows on the occupational gender wage gap for low-skill occupations, both in poorer and richer countries, and for high-skill occupations in richer countries; (iii) There is no evidence of a narrowing impact of trade, but there is evidence of a widening impact of FDI net inflows on the high-skill occupational gender wage gap in poorer countries; (iv) Wage-setting institutions have a strong impact on the occupational gender wage gap in richer countries.
Summary: | There are several theoretical reasons
why globalization will have a narrowing as well as widening
effect on the gender wage gap, but little is known about the
actual impact, except for a number of country studies. The
author provides a cross-country study of the impact of
globalization on the occupational gender wage gap, based on
the rarely used but most far-ranging survey of wages around
the world, the International Labour Organization's
October Inquiry. This annual survey was started in 1924 and
contains a wealth of information on wages and the gender
wage gap. For the period 1983-99, there is information on
the gender wage gap in 161 narrowly defined occupations in
more than 80 countries around the world. The author finds
the following: (i) The occupational gender wage gap appears
to be narrowing with increases in GDP per capita; (ii) There
is a significantly narrowing impact of trade and foreign
direct investment (FDI) net inflows on the occupational
gender wage gap for low-skill occupations, both in poorer
and richer countries, and for high-skill occupations in
richer countries; (iii) There is no evidence of a narrowing
impact of trade, but there is evidence of a widening impact
of FDI net inflows on the high-skill occupational gender
wage gap in poorer countries; (iv) Wage-setting institutions
have a strong impact on the occupational gender wage gap in
richer countries. |
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