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What Accounts for Gender Income Inequality? Empirical Evidence from Vietnamese Small and Medium Manufacturing Enterprises

Author

Listed:
  • Ha, Hu Van

    (University of Waikato, New Zealand and Thuongmai University, Vietnam;)

  • Doan, Tinh

    (Australian National University, Australia)

  • Holmes, Mark

    (University of Waikato, New Zealand)

Abstract

This paper examines the gender income inequality between male and female workers in small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in Vietnam. Using the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition approach to a dataset obtained from a unique employee survey during the 2011-2015 period, we find that the gender income gap (7.4%) in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is smaller than the common gendered wage gap (10%) in the general workforce in Vietnam. Our results reveal that education and experience play less important roles in the workers’ earning in SMEs where education and high skills may not highly demanded. The gender wage gap is mostly unexplained by observed factors or endowments in our models. The largest part of the gendered wage gap is still mystified which may include gender discrimination that is unobservable. Overall, the gender income inequality in the sector in Vietnam is not as worse as seen in higher skilled sectors as well as in many other countries. This helps shed light on the mechanism of gender income inequality and helps policy makers to tackle the causes of income gap or inequality between sexes as well as amongst all workers. Classification-JEL: J31, J16, O15, O53

Suggested Citation

  • Ha, Hu Van & Doan, Tinh & Holmes, Mark, 2022. "What Accounts for Gender Income Inequality? Empirical Evidence from Vietnamese Small and Medium Manufacturing Enterprises," Journal of Economic Development, The Economic Research Institute, Chung-Ang University, vol. 47(1), pages 65-84, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:jecdev:0048
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender Income Gap; Decomposition; Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs);
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East

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