Evidence on the glass ceiling effect in France using matched worker-firm data

Authors: Jellal, Mohamed¹; Nordman, Christophe²; Wolff, Francois-Charles³

Source: Applied Economics, Volume 40, Number 24, December 2008 , pp. 3233-3250(18)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $50.43 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

In this article, we investigate the relevance of the glass ceiling hypothesis in France, according to which there exist larger gender wage gaps at the upper tail of the wage distribution. Using a matched worker-firm data set of about 1 30 000 employees and 14 000 employers, we estimate quantile regressions and rely on a principal component analysis to summarize information specific to the firms. Our different results show that accounting for firm-related characteristics reduces the gender earnings gap at the top of the distribution, but the latter still remains much higher at the top than at the bottom. Furthermore, a quantile decomposition shows that the gender wage gap is mainly due to differences in the returns to observed characteristics rather than in differences in characteristics between men and women.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00036840600994070

Affiliations: 1: Al Akhawaya University, 31500 Toulouse, France 2: IRD, 75010 Paris, France 3: LEN, Universite de Nantes, 44322 Nantes Cedex, France,CNAV and INED, Paris, France

Publication date: 2008-12-01

More about this publication?