Why is there Inter-Ethnic Variation in the Gender Wage Gap?
The Role of "Cultural" Factors
Heather Antecol (Illinois State University) October 1998
Abstract
This paper seeks to explain why there is inter-ethnic variation in the gender wage gap among first generation, and among second-and-higher generation immigrants to the U.S. using the 1990 U.S. Census, contrasting the role of human capital factors and "cultural" factors, i.e., differences in preferences regarding family structure and women’s role in market versus home work. While human capital factors do play an important role, especially among second-and-higher generation immigrants, controlling for these factors does not eliminate inter-ethnic variation in the gender wage gap. In fact, for first generation immigrants, I find that even after controlling for all observable characteristics in the United States, a one percentage point increase in the home country gender wage gap is associated with a 0.9 percentage point increase in the gender wage gap across ethnic origin groups in the United States. This positive correlation, which is almost 1 for 1, exists despite the huge measurement error associated with the home country gender wage gap. I argue that this strong positive correlation suggests the importance of cultural factors. Although I amunable to detect the effect of home country factors for second-and-higher generation immigrants, there appears to be a role for “tastes” regarding work and family, in addition to the more commonly-analyzed human capital and institutional factors, in explaining why some women earn more relative to men than others.
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