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Emerging ethnic wage gap: Estonia during political and economic transition

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  • Leping, Kristian-Olari
  • Toomet, Ott

Abstract

We analyse the ethnic wage gap in Estonia, a former Soviet republic and current EU member, which hosts a substantial Russian-speaking minority. The analysis covers a lengthy period from the final years of the Soviet Union until the first years of EU membership. We document the rise of a substantial wage gap among males in favour of the Estonian-speaking population. This result is robust with respect to controls for language skills, education, industry and occupation. The main factors causing the unexplained wage gap include different ethnicity-specific returns to education and working in the capital city. The gap for young and established workers is of equal size. We argue that the most plausible explanations are establishment-level segregation, possibly related to sorting and screening discrimination. Unobserved human capital, related to the segregated school system, may also play a certain role. Journal of Comparative Economics 36 (4) (2008) 599-619.

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  • Leping, Kristian-Olari & Toomet, Ott, 2008. "Emerging ethnic wage gap: Estonia during political and economic transition," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 599-619, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:36:y:2008:i:4:p:599-619
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    6. Vilerts Kārlis & Krasnopjorovs Oļegs, 2017. "Can Differences in Characteristics Explain Ethnic Wage Gap in Latvia?," Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 30(1), pages 5-15, November.
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    15. Aristei, David & Perugini, Cristiano, 2012. "Inequality and reforms in transition countries," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 2-10.
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    18. Toomet, Ott & Van Der Leij, Marco & Rolfe, Meredith, 2013. "Social networks and labor market inequality between ethnicities and races," Network Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(3), pages 321-352, December.
    19. Thanh-Tam Nguyen-Huu, 2021. "Do “inferior” jobs always suffer from a wage penalty? Evidence from temporary workers in Cambodia and Pakistan," Post-Print hal-04248181, HAL.
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