Full Citation

Title: NAFTA and the Gender Wage Gap

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2016

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI:

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: Using US Census data for 1990-2000, we estimate effects of NAFTA on US wages, focusing on differences by gender. We find that NAFTA tariff reductions are associated with substantially reduced wage growth for married blue-collar women, much larger than the effect for other demographic groups. We investigate several possible explanations for this finding. It is not explained by differential sensitivity of female-dominated occupations to trade shocks, or by household bargaining that makes married women workers less able to change their industry of employment than other workers. We find some support for an explanation based on an equilibrium theory of selective non-participation in the labor market, whereby some of the higher-wage married women workers in their industry drop out of the labor market in response to their industry's loss of tariff. However, this does not fully explain the findings so are left with a puzzle.

Url: http://econ.msu.edu/seminars/docs/Hakobyan McLaren NAFTA.pdf

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Hakobyan, Shushanik; McLaren, John

Publisher: Fordham University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Gender, Labor Force and Occupational Structure

Countries: