IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/oxdevs/v38y2010i1p83-112.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gender Wage Discrimination in Rural and Urban Labour Markets of Bangladesh

Author

Listed:
  • Salma Ahmed
  • Pushkar Maitra

Abstract

Female wages in Bangladesh are significantly lower than male wages. This paper quantifies the extent to which discrimination can explain this gender wage gap across the rural and urban labour markets of Bangladesh, using unit record data from the 1999-2000 Labour Force Survey. The gender wage differential is decomposed into a component that can be explained by differences in productive characteristics and a component not explained by observable productive differences, which is attributed to discrimination. An attempt is also made to improve on the standard methodology by implementing a wage-gap decomposition method that accounts for selectivity bias, on top of the usual “explained” and “unexplained” components. Analytical results from this paper show that gender wage differentials are considerably larger in urban areas than in rural areas and a significant portion of this wage differential can be attributed to discrimination against women. The results also show that selectivity bias is an important component of total discrimination.

Suggested Citation

  • Salma Ahmed & Pushkar Maitra, 2010. "Gender Wage Discrimination in Rural and Urban Labour Markets of Bangladesh," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(1), pages 83-112.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:38:y:2010:i:1:p:83-112
    DOI: 10.1080/13600810903551611
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13600810903551611
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13600810903551611?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kapsos, Steven., 2008. "The gender wage gap in Bangladesh," ILO Working Papers 994134173402676, International Labour Organization.
    2. Stepan Jurajda, 2000. "Gender Wage Gap and Segregation in Late Transition," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 306, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    3. repec:ilo:ilowps:413417 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tanvir Pavel & Syed Hasan & Nafisa Halim & Pallab Mozumder, 2018. "Natural hazards and internal migration: The role of transient versus permanent shocks," Discussion Papers 1805, School of Economics and Finance, Massey University, New Zealand.
    2. Avinno Faruk, 2021. "Analysing the glass ceiling and sticky floor effects in Bangladesh: evidence, extent and elements," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(9), pages 1-23, September.
    3. Daudu Abdulrazaq K. & Kareem Oyedola W. & Olatinwo Latifat K. & Shuaib Suleiman B. & Abdulrahman Abdulganiyu I., 2023. "Does Gender Wage Gap Exist among Farm Workers in Nigeria? Evidence from Decomposition-Matching Analysis," Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 11(1), pages 115-137, October.
    4. Salma Ahmed & Pushkar Maitra, 2015. "A Distributional Analysis of the Gender Wage Gap in Bangladesh," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(11), pages 1444-1458, November.
    5. Nordman, Christophe Jalil & Sarr, Leopold & Sharma, Smriti, 2015. "Cognitive, Non-Cognitive Skills and Gender Wage Gaps: Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data in Bangladesh," IZA Discussion Papers 9132, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Danquah, Michael & Iddrisu, Abdul Malik & Boakye, Ernest Owusu & Owusu, Solomon, 2021. "Do gender wage differences within households influence women's empowerment and welfare? Evidence from Ghana," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 916-932.
    7. Mustafizur Rahman & Md. Al-Hasan, 2019. "Male–Female Wage Gap and Informal Employment in Bangladesh: A Quantile Regression Approach," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 20(1), pages 106-123, March.
    8. repec:ilo:ilowps:483489 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. McIntyre, Lynn & Rondeau, Krista & Kirkpatrick, Sharon & Hatfield, Jennifer & Islam, Khaled Shamsul & Huda, Syed Nazmul, 2011. "Food provisioning experiences of ultra poor female heads of household living in Bangladesh," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(6), pages 969-976, March.
    10. Paez, Gustavo Nicolas & Tin, Myat Su, 2021. "Gender-based differences in Myanmar’s labor force," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).
    11. Ahmed, Salma & McGillivray, Mark, 2015. "Human Capital, Discrimination, and the Gender Wage Gap in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 506-524.
    12. Mohamed Saalim & Sobin George, 2021. "Determinants of Wage Differentials Among In-Migrant Workers: Insights from a Primary Study Conducted in Kozhikode District, Kerala, India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(4), pages 981-997, December.
    13. Rahman, Rushidan I. & Islam, Rizwanul., 2013. "Female labour force participation in Bangladesh : trends, drivers and barriers," ILO Working Papers 994834893402676, International Labour Organization.
    14. Ahmed, Salma & Feeny, Simon & Posso, Alberto, 2015. "What firm characteristics determine women’s employment in manufacturing? Evidence from Bangladesh," MPRA Paper 84492, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Olgica Bošković & Nikola Njegovan, 2012. "Gender Inequality In The Labour Market In Serbia," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 57(192), pages 113-136, January –.
    16. World Bank, 2016. "Bangladesh Social Protection and Labor Review," World Bank Publications - Reports 25265, The World Bank Group.
    17. Mumita Tanjeela & Shannon Rutherford, 2018. "The Influence of Gender Relations on Women’s Involvement and Experience in Climate Change Adaptation Programs in Bangladesh," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(4), pages 21582440188, November.
    18. Ahmed, Salma, 2015. "Dynamics and diversity: How are religious minorities faring in the labour Market in Bangladesh?," MPRA Paper 75153, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 18 Nov 2016.
    19. Rahman, Mustafizur & Al-Hasan, Md., 2018. "Male-Female wage gap and informal employment in Bangladesh: A quantile regression approach," MPRA Paper 90131, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Zhou, Mo & Nelson, Robert, 2017. "Gender Wage Gap and Discrimination in Developing Countries," 2017 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2017, Mobile, Alabama 252727, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dagmar Brožová, 2006. "Diskriminace žen v ekonomické teorii vybrané problémy [The economics of sex discrimination]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2006(5), pages 646-660.
    2. Huynh, Phu., 2016. "Assessing the gender pay gap in Asia's garment sector," ILO Working Papers 994904713402676, International Labour Organization.
    3. Danquah, Michael & Iddrisu, Abdul Malik & Boakye, Ernest Owusu & Owusu, Solomon, 2021. "Do gender wage differences within households influence women's empowerment and welfare? Evidence from Ghana," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 916-932.
    4. Tairi Room, 2004. "Search Intensity and Wage Differences," Bank of Estonia Working Papers 2004-1, Bank of Estonia, revised 12 Oct 2004.
    5. Jiří Večerník, 2001. "Earnings disparities in the czech republic: evidence of the past decade and cross-national comparison," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2001(3).
    6. Kathryn Anderson & Richard Pomfret, 2000. "Gender Effects of Transition: The Kyrgyz Republic," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 2000-08, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.
    7. Intan NURPRATIWI & Syamsurijal AK & YUNISVITA, 2020. "Factors that influence wages differences in formal sector on male and female workers in Palembang City," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(1(622), S), pages 147-158, Spring.
    8. Karolina Goraus & Joanna Tyrowicz & Lucas van der Velde, 2017. "How (Not) to make women work?," GRAPE Working Papers 1, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    9. Mustafizur Rahman & Md. Al-Hasan, 2022. "The Reverse Gender Wage Gap in Bangladesh: Demystifying the Counterintuitive," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(4), pages 929-950, December.
    10. Sanika Sulochani Ramanayake & Taniya Ghosh, 2017. "Role of Gender Gap in Economic Growth: Analysis on Developing Countries versus OECD Countries," Working Papers id:11690, eSocialSciences.
    11. Randall K. Filer & Jan Hanousek, 2002. "Data Watch: Research Data from Transition Economies," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(1), pages 225-240, Winter.
    12. Jaromír Gottvald, 2003. "Determinanty mezd zaměstnanců v podnicích v České republice a Slovenské republice [Determinants of individual wages in the Czech republic and Slovak republic firms]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2003(4), pages 541-563.
    13. Stepan Jurajda & Heike Harmgart, 2002. "Sex Segregation and Wage Gaps in East and West Germany," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp202, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    14. Avinno Faruk, 2021. "Analysing the glass ceiling and sticky floor effects in Bangladesh: evidence, extent and elements," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(9), pages 1-23, September.
    15. Stepan Jurajda & Katherine Terrell, 2000. "Optimal Speed of Transition: Micro Evidence from the Czech Republic," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 355, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    16. Intan Nurpratiwi & Syamsurijal Abdul Kadir & Yunisvita Yunisvita, 2019. "Factors that Influence Wages Differences in Formal Sector on Male and Female Workers in Palembang City," Business & Management Compass, University of Economics Varna, issue 4, pages 327-343.
    17. McIntyre, Lynn & Rondeau, Krista & Kirkpatrick, Sharon & Hatfield, Jennifer & Islam, Khaled Shamsul & Huda, Syed Nazmul, 2011. "Food provisioning experiences of ultra poor female heads of household living in Bangladesh," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(6), pages 969-976, March.
    18. Ahmed, Salma & McGillivray, Mark, 2015. "Human Capital, Discrimination, and the Gender Wage Gap in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 506-524.
    19. Ahmed, Salma, 2015. "Dynamics and diversity: How are religious minorities faring in the labour Market in Bangladesh?," MPRA Paper 75153, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 18 Nov 2016.
    20. Ján Vravec & Radovan Baèík, 2012. "Discrimination Of Women In The Labour Market Of Sr And Models Of Discrimination," Polish Journal of Management Studies, Czestochowa Technical University, Department of Management, vol. 5(1), pages 280-293, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:38:y:2010:i:1:p:83-112. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CODS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.