Evaluating the gender wage gap in Sweden

• Main Author: Malmberg, Åsa
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Nationalekonomiska institutionen 2007
• Subjects: Glass ceiling; gender wage gap; conditional wage distribution; quantile regression; Economics; Nationalekonomi
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-7654

Using mainly quantile regressions, this paper evaluates the gender wage gap throughout the conditional wage distribution in Sweden. The gender wage is found to increase at the upper tail of the wage distribution, indicating an enforcement of the glass ceiling effect recorded in earlier studies. The results also indicate that the earlier noted trend of diminishing wage differences at the bottom of the wage distribution now is turning. The increase of overall wage inequalities coincides with a general increase in wage dispersion among high-income and low-income individuals. It is also noted that there are substantial differences in returns to productivity characteristics between the public and the private sectors, and that both the highest and the lowest unexplained gender wage gap is found in the public sector.