Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP15093
Authors: Stephanie Briel; Aderonke Osikominu; Gregor Pfeifer; Mirjam Reutter; Sascha Satlukal
Abstract: We analyze gender differences in expected starting salaries along the wage expectations distribution of prospective university students in Germany, using elicited beliefs about both own salaries and salaries for average other students in the same field.Unconditional and conditional quantile regressions show 5-15% lower wage expectations for females. At all percentiles considered, the gender gap is more pronounced in the distribution of expected own salary than in the distribution of wages expected for average other students.Decomposition results show that biased beliefs about the own earnings potential relative to others and about average salaries play a major role in explaining the gender gap in wage expectations for oneself.
Keywords: gender pay gap; wage expectations; biased beliefs; decomposition analysis; conditional quantile regression; unconditional quantile regression; RIF regression
JEL Codes: J16; D84; D91; C21
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Gender (J16) | Wage Expectations (J31) |
| Biased Beliefs (D91) | Gender Gap in Wage Expectations (J79) |
| Misperceptions of Average Salaries (J31) | Gender Gap in Wage Expectations (J79) |
| Biased Beliefs and Misperceptions (D91) | Unexplained Gender Gap in Wage Expectations (J79) |