Do Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills Explain the Gender Wage Gap in Middle-Income Countries? : An Analysis Using STEP Data

Tognatta, Namrata ; Valerio, Alexandria ; Sanchez Puerta, Maria Laura

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: gender wage gap;    skills;    cognitive skills;    noncognitive skills;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7878
RP-ID  :  WPS7878

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Gender-based wage discrimination is ahighly researched area of labor economics. However, moststudies on this topic have focused on schooling and paidlimited attention to the mechanisms through which cognitiveand noncognitive skills influence wages. This paper usesdata from adults in seven low- and middle-income countriesthat participated in the STEP Skills Measurement Survey toconduct a comparative analysis of gender wage gaps. Thepaper uses schooling and skills measures, including readingproficiency and complexity of on-the-job computer tasks toproxy cognitive skills, and personality and behavioralmeasures to proxy for noncognitive skills in wagedecompositions. The analysis finds that years of schoolexplain most of the gender wage gap. The findings alsosuggest that cognitive and noncognitive skills affect men’sand women’s earnings in different ways, and that the effectsof these skills vary across the wage distribution andbetween countries.