1 论文标题
Do Male-Female Wage Di˙fferentials Reflect Diff˙erences in the Return to Skill? Cross-City Evidence From 1980-2000
2 作者信息
Paul Beaudry and Ethan Lewi
3 出处和链接（比如，NBER working paper No.11000）
NBER Working Paper No. 18159
June 2012
4 摘要
Over the 1980s and 1990s the wage differentials between men and women (with similar observable
characteristics) declined significantly.  At the same time, the returns to education increased. It has
been suggested that these two trends may reflect a common change in the relative price of a skill which
is more abundant in both women and more educated workers. In this paper we explore the relevance
of this hypothesis by examining the cross-city co-movement in both male-female wage differentials
and returns to education over the 1980-2000 period.  In parallel to the aggregate pattern, we find that
male-female wage differentials at the city levels moved in opposite direction to the changes in the
return to education. We also find this relationship to be particularly strong when we isolate data variation
which most likely reflects the effect of technological change on relative prices. We take considerable
care of controlling for potential selection issues which could bias our interpretation. Overall, our cross-city
estimates suggest that most of the aggregate reduction in the male-female wage differential observed
over the 1980-2000 period was likely due to a change in the relative price of skill that both females
and educated workers have in greater abundance