Title: The effect of higher education on the gender wage gap

Authors: Ilias Livanos; Imanol Núñez

Addresses: Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. ' Departamento de Gestion de Empresas, Universidad Pública de Navarra, 13 006, Pamplona, Spain

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the effect of an academic degree on the gender wage gap, examining the cases of Greece and the UK. Using Labour Force Survey (LFS) micro-data, we first compare the returns to higher education for each gender separately, we then decompose the gender wage gap between graduates and individuals with secondary education only, and finally we analyse the effect of higher education on the (un)explained part of the wage gap. For that purpose, an extension of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition technique is used. We find that the unexplained part, which is often related to discrimination, is lower for graduates in both countries.

Keywords: discrimination; graduates; higher education; gender wage gap; Greece; UK; United Kingdom; academic degrees; secondary education.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEED.2012.044952

International Journal of Education Economics and Development, 2012 Vol.3 No.1, pp.33 - 47

Published online: 23 Aug 2014 *

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