New Century, Old Disparities : Gender and Ethnic Earnings Gaps in Latin America and the Caribbean

Ntilde ; opo, Hugo

Washington, DC:Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank

关键词: Afrodescendants;    Indigenous;    Earnings;    Ethinicity;    Gaps;   

DOI  :  10.1596/978-0-8213-8686-6
RP-ID  :  72461

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Despite sustained economic growth at theend of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, LatinAmerica and the Caribbean still faces high inequality andweak indicators of well-being among certain populationgroups. Women, people of African ancestry, and indigenouspeoples are often at the bottom of the income distribution.The share of female-headed households rose in the past 20years. By the beginning of the 1990s, women headed 1.2percent of complete households (households in which bothhusband and wife are present) and 79.8 percent of single-head households. This book presents a regional overview ofgender and ethnic disparities in labor earnings during thislast turn of the century. Latin America and the Caribbeanprovide a rich environment for studying social inequality,because historical inequalities along gender and ethniclines persist, despite positive indicators of economicdevelopment. The extent of inequality and its probablecauses vary widely across the many countries in the region.The book adopts a sophisticated econometric methodology formeasuring earnings gaps and applies it consistently acrossand within countries to measure gender and racial or ethnicdifferences. The analysis includes a dynamic dimension thatsheds light on the evolution of earnings gaps over time. Thebook offers important insights on economic and politicalstrategies that could be adopted to reduce inequality. Thereduction of gender-based segregation in the workplacerepresents an area in which policy interventions can improvethe efficiency of labor markets. Determining whetheraddressing occupational rather than hierarchical segregationis more effective is one of the areas of policy design towhich this book aims to make a contribution. Latin Americaand the Caribbean is also a racially and ethnically diverseregion, with some 400 ethnic groups.