IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa11p1272.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Could gender wage discrimination explain regional differences in productivity?

Author

Listed:
  • Yolanda Pena-Boquete
  • Melchor Fernandez

Abstract

Human capital and productive structure could account for an important part of the differences in productivity between Spanish regions; nevertheless we consider that gender wage discrimination could also have effects on it. The existence of a degree of discrimination means that there is a wage differential in which employer prefer to hire less productive workers instead of discriminated workers. Thus, the cost of producing a unit of product would be higher than the cost of producing without discrimination, i.e. discrimination could has effects on productivity. Based on Becker (1957) we develop a maximization problem with discrimination using an aggregate production function with constant elasticity of substitution (CES). As a result, we get a productivity function depending on discrimination and other traditional factors such as wages or production. Our results show that the discrimination growth hast a negative and significant effect on productivity for the Spanish regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Yolanda Pena-Boquete & Melchor Fernandez, 2011. "Could gender wage discrimination explain regional differences in productivity?," ERSA conference papers ersa11p1272, European Regional Science Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p1272
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa11/e110830aFinal01272.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert J. Barro, 2013. "Inflation and Economic Growth," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 14(1), pages 121-144, May.
    2. Ramon Gomez-Salvador & Alberto Musso & Marc Stocker & Jarkko Turunen, 2006. "Labour productivity developments in the euro area," Occasional Paper Series 53, European Central Bank.
    3. Seguino, Stephanie, 2002. "Gender, quality of life, and growth in Asia 1070 to 1990," MPRA Paper 6547, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Becker, Gary S., 1971. "The Economics of Discrimination," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 2, number 9780226041162, December.
    5. Matthias Busse & Christian Spielmann, 2006. "Gender Inequality and Trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(3), pages 362-379, August.
    6. Seguino, Stephanie, 2000. "Gender Inequality and Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(7), pages 1211-1230, July.
    7. Black, Dan A, 1995. "Discrimination in an Equilibrium Search Model," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(2), pages 309-333, April.
    8. Yolanda Pena‐Boquete, 2009. "A comparative analysis of the evolution of gender wage discrimination: Spain vs. Galicia," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(1), pages 161-180, March.
    9. Polachek,Solomon W. & Siebert,W. Stanley, 1993. "The Economics of Earnings," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521367288, January.
    10. Abigail Barr, 1995. "The missing factor: entrepreneurial networks, enterprises and economic growth in Ghana," CSAE Working Paper Series 1995-11, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    11. Juan R. Cuadrado-Roura & Begoña García-Greciano & José Luis Raymond, 1999. "Regional Convergence in Productivity and Productive Structure: The Spanish Case," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 22(1), pages 35-53, April.
    12. Baldwin, Marjorie & Johnson, William G., 1992. "A test of the measures of non-discriminatory wages used to study wage discrimination," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 223-227, June.
    13. Esteve-Volart, Berta, 2004. "Gender discrimination and growth: theory and evidence from India," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 6641, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Altonji, Joseph G. & Blank, Rebecca M., 1999. "Race and gender in the labor market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 48, pages 3143-3259, Elsevier.
    15. Schwieren,Christiane, 2003. "The gender wage gap – due to differences in efficiency wage effects or discrimination?," Research Memorandum 046, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    16. Krugman, Paul R, 1996. "Making Sense of the Competitiveness Debate," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 12(3), pages 17-25, Autumn.
    17. Garcia-Minguez, Patricio & Sanchez-Losada, Fernando, 2003. "Statistical discrimination and growth: should we subsidize discriminated against workers?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 255-261, May.
    18. Berta Esteve-Volart, 2000. "Sex Discrimination and Growth," IMF Working Papers 2000/084, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Melchor Fernandez & Yolanda Pena-Boquete, 2011. "Macroeconomic consequences of gender discrimination: a preliminary approach (refereed paper)," ERSA conference papers ersa10p1066, European Regional Science Association.
    2. Akyeampong, Emmanuel & Fofack, Hippolyte, 2013. "The contribution of African women to economic growth and development in post-colonial Africa : historical perspectives and policy implications," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6537, The World Bank.
    3. Baliamoune–Lutz, Mina & McGillivray, Mark, 2015. "The impact of gender inequality in education on income in Africa and the Middle East," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-11.
    4. Schober, Thomas & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2011. "Gender Wage Inequality and Economic Growth: Is There Really a Puzzle?--A Comment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 1476-1484, August.
    5. Thierry Baudassé & Rémi Bazillier, 2014. "Gender inequality and emigration: Push factor or selection process?," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 139, pages 19-47.
    6. Lark, Olga & Videnord, Josefin, 2023. "Do Exporters Import Gender Inequality?," Working Papers 2023:6, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    7. Zheng Fang & Chris Sakellariou, 2013. "Discrimination in the Equilibrium Search Model with Wage-Tenure Contracts," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 14(2), pages 451-480, November.
    8. Giovanni Sulis, 2012. "Gender wage differentials in Italy: a structural estimation approach," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(1), pages 53-87, January.
    9. Lanning, Jonathan A., 2014. "A search model with endogenous job destruction and discrimination: Why equal wage policies may not eliminate wage disparity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 55-71.
    10. David Branham, 2008. "Taking Advantage of an Untapped Pool: Assessing the Success of African American Head Coaches in the National Football League," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 35(4), pages 129-146, December.
    11. Lagerlöf, Johan N.M., 2020. "Strategic gains from discrimination," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    12. Luca Flabbi, 2010. "Gender Discrimination Estimation In A Search Model With Matching And Bargaining," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 51(3), pages 745-783, August.
    13. Thomas Schober & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2009. "Gender Wage Inequality and Economic Growth: Is there Really a Puzzle?," NRN working papers 2009-08, The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    14. Simon Janssen & Simone Tuor Sartore & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2016. "Discriminatory Social Attitudes and Varying Gender Pay Gaps within Firms," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 69(1), pages 253-279, January.
    15. Wu, Bao & Liu, Zijia & Gu, Qiuyang & Tsai, Fu-Sheng, 2023. "Underdog mentality, identity discrimination and access to peer-to-peer lending market: Exploring effects of digital authentication," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    16. Joanna Wolszczak-Derlacz, 2013. "The Impact Of Gender Wage Gap On Sectoral Economic Growth – Cross-Country Approach," Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 8(3), pages 103-122, September.
    17. Barr & Oduro, Abena, 2000. "Ethnicity and wage determination in Ghana," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2506, The World Bank.
    18. Rosalia Castellano & Antonella Rocca, 2015. "Assessing the gender gap in labour market index: volatility of results and reliability," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 42(8), pages 749-772, August.
    19. Romina Kazandjian & Ms. Lisa L Kolovich & Ms. Kalpana Kochhar & Ms. Monique Newiak, 2016. "Gender Equality and Economic Diversification," IMF Working Papers 2016/140, International Monetary Fund.
    20. Beyza Ural & William Horrace & Jin Hwa Jung, 2009. "Inter-industry gender wage gaps by knowledge intensity: discrimination and technology in Korea," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(11), pages 1437-1452.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p1272. 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: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ersa.org .

    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.