Suchergebnisse

AbstractWe measure the discriminatory ethnic and gender wage gaps in Georgia. Gender wage discrimination is larger than the ethnic wage discrimination. We use the estimated gaps in a general‐to‐specific vector autoregression framework to test for Granger causality between discrimination and growth, and estimate the long‐run effects of each variable on the other. Granger causality is found to be bidirectional, but it is only the net long‐run effect of discrimination on growth that is a large and highly significant negative effect. In the long‐run, a 10% increase in ethnic (gender) discrimination reduces economic growth by 3%–4% (8%–10%). Additionally, ethnic and gender wage differentials are found to be counter‐cyclical.

Many governments encourage migrants to participate in volunteer activities as a stepping stone to labour market integration. In the present study, we investigate whether this prosocial engagement lowers the hiring discrimination against them. To this end, we use unique data from a field experiment in which fictitious job applications are sent in response to real vacancies in Belgium. Ethnic origin and volunteer activities are randomly assigned to these applications. While non-volunteering native candidates receive more than twice as many job interview invitations as non‐volunteering migrants, no unequal treatment is found between natives and migrants when they reveal volunteer activities.

Detecting ethnic discrimination in the labour market using individual data is aggravated by individual ethnic‐specific characteristics that are unobserved by the researcher. In an attempt to estimate the effect of skin colour on the probability of being employed (vs, unemployed), the labour market success of foreign‐born adopted individuals is compared with that of natives. Specifically, the unexplained differences in the probability of being employed between natives and adoptees is investigated using Oaxaca‐Blinder decomposition methodology. It is found that adoptees with dissimilar looks to natives fare worse in the labour market, measured as a lower probability of being employed, than natives, and that these differences can be attributed to an unexplained difference rather than a difference in characteristics observed by the researcher. Also, such large differences are not found for adoptees with a similar appearance to natives. Hence, we cannot exclude the possibility that skin colour discrimination exists in the labour market.

This article provides an econometric estimate of labour market discrimination in the North West province of South Africa. Using data obtained from the October 1995 Household Survey, it was found that in 1995 statistically significant gender discrimination exists against women in North West's labour market. The male discriminatory wage advantage of 127 per cent and the female discriminatory disadvantage of 195 per cent were ascribed to the overrewarding and underrewarding of some personal characteristics of males and females, respectively. Productivity differentials of 40 per cent in favour of females and a premium paid to women measuring 71 per cent also exist. Discrimination explains 50 per cent of the wage gap between genders, while productivity differentials and the premium account for 13 and 37 per cent respectively. The study supports 'affirmative action' and suggests policies that aim to alter the occupational distributions, and these may need to target educational decisions made prior to labour market entry. (Dev South Afr/DÜI)