Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP13577
Authors: Andreas Menzel; Christopher Woodruff
Abstract: Data from 70 large export-oriented garment manufacturers in Bangladesh show that gender wage gaps are similar to those found in higher-income countries. Among pro-duction workers, women’s wages are 8 percent lower. We show that by combining short administrative panels, survey data from a representative sample of workers, and struc-ture, we can estimate how the wage gap evolves over workers’ careers. Gender differ-ences in internal and across-factory promotions contribute roughly equally to the emergence of the gender gap over worker careers. Differences in promotion rates ap-pear to arise mainly from career concerns rather than frictions coming from household responsibilities.
Keywords: gender wage gaps; export-oriented manufacturing; monopsony in motion
JEL Codes: J16; J31; O14
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| women's wages (J31) | gender wage gap (J31) |
| internal promotions + external promotions (M51) | differences in promotion rates (J62) |
| men's faster wage growth (J31) | gender wage gap (J31) |
| quicker movement out of entry-level positions (J62) | men's faster wage growth (J31) |
| differences in skills (J24) | static wage gaps (J31) |
| promotion frequencies (M51) | gender wage gap (J31) |
| grade gap (I24) | gender wage gap (J31) |