TY - UNPB

T1 - Non scholae, sed vitae discimus!

T2 - the importance of fields of study for the gender wage gap among German university graduates during labor market entry and the first years of their careers

AU - Braakmann, Nils

N1 - Auch im Internet unter der Adresse www.leuphana.de/vwl/papers verfügbar

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - This paper investigates the gender wage gap among German university graduates in their first job and five to six years into their careers. We find that women earn about 30% less than men at their first job and about 35% less after five to six years. Results from standard decomposition techniques show that 80% of the earnings gap in the first job can be attributed to differences in endowment of which between 74 and 78% are related to different fields of studies. Adding employer information leads to an explained share of about 90% of the earnings gap with fields of study still accounting for about half of the gap. These also play a dominant role in a model without employer information after five to six years, directly explaining between 26 and 33% of the earnings gap. Adding employer information, however, leads to insignificant results. Together with detailed information on experiences after graduation, these variables account for about 44 to 50% of the earnings gap later in the graduates careers.

AB - This paper investigates the gender wage gap among German university graduates in their first job and five to six years into their careers. We find that women earn about 30% less than men at their first job and about 35% less after five to six years. Results from standard decomposition techniques show that 80% of the earnings gap in the first job can be attributed to differences in endowment of which between 74 and 78% are related to different fields of studies. Adding employer information leads to an explained share of about 90% of the earnings gap with fields of study still accounting for about half of the gap. These also play a dominant role in a model without employer information after five to six years, directly explaining between 26 and 33% of the earnings gap. Adding employer information, however, leads to insignificant results. Together with detailed information on experiences after graduation, these variables account for about 44 to 50% of the earnings gap later in the graduates careers.

KW - Sustainability sciences, Management & Economics

KW - Gender wage gap

KW - decomposition

KW - field of study

M3 - Working papers

T3 - Working paper series in economics

BT - Non scholae, sed vitae discimus!

PB - Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre der Universität Lüneburg

CY - Lüneburg

ER -