Can Differences in Characteristics Explain Ethnic Wage Gap in Latvia?

Kārlis Vilerts; Oļegs Krasnopjorovs

doi:10.1515/eb-2017-0001

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Can Differences in Characteristics Explain Ethnic Wage Gap in Latvia?

Economics and Business

Volume 30 (2017): Issue 1 (April 2017)

By: Kārlis Vilerts and Oļegs Krasnopjorovs

Open Access

|Apr 2017

Abstract

We used anonymized micro data from Labour Force Survey to estimate the ethnic wage gap in Latvia and find the factors that explain it. We found that a notable ethnic wage gap still exists in Latvia with non-Latvians earning 10 % less than Latvians in 2015. The results of Oaxaca-Ransom decomposition show that approximately two thirds of the ethnic wage gap are explained by differences in characteristics with the most important effects in favour of Latvians caused by segregation in better paying occupational groups, having Latvian citizenship and better education (higher education levels and more favourable segregation by education fields). This was partly offset by favourable segregation in sectors for non-Latvians. Quantile regressions show that ethnic wage gap is statistically significant in all deciles of wage distribution.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/eb-2017-0001 | Journal eISSN: 2256-0394 | Journal ISSN: 1407-7337

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Language: English

Page range: 5 - 15

Published online: Apr 12, 2017

Published in print: Apr 1, 2017

Published by: Riga Technical University

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

Keywords:

Discrimination,

ethnic wage gap,

income inequality,

Oaxaca-Ransom decomposition

Related subjects:

Business and economics,

Political economics,

Political economics, other,

Business management,

Business management, other,

Mathematics and statistics for economists,

Statistics,

Econometrics

© 2017 Kārlis Vilerts, Oļegs Krasnopjorovs, published by Riga Technical University
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Volume 30 (2017): Issue 1 (April 2017)