Gender gap in reservation wages and the choice of education field

Figures & data

Figure 1. The size of the gender gap in reservation wages in relation to the gender pay gap

Note: The vertical lines represent 95% confidence intervals.

Table 1. Gender gap in reservation wages: decomposition results

Total gap	−0.082
	Explained	% of the total gap	Unexplained	% of the total gap
Men’s coefficients as reference
Age	0.007	−8%	−0.042	51%
Education	0.033	−40%	−0.026	31%
Marriage	0.003	−4%	−0.006	8%
Time of job search	−0.000	0%	−0.002	3%
Field of education	−0.011	13%	−0.066	80%
Rest	0.001	−1%	0.027	−33%
Total	0.033	−40%	−0.115	140%
Pooled coefficients as reference
Age	0.004	−4%	−0.039	48%
Education	0.031	−38%	−0.024	29%
Marriage	−0.007	9%	0.004	−5%
Time of job search	−0.000	0%	−0.002	3%
Field of education	−0.034	41%	−0.043	52%
Rest	0.000	−1%	0.028	−34%
Total	−0.006	7%	−0.076	93%
Reweighted coefficients as reference (Cotton)
Age	0.005	−6%	−0.041	50%
Education	0.031	−38%	−0.024	29%
Marriage	0.001	−1%	−0.004	4%
Time of job search	−0.000	0%	−0.003	3%
Field of education	−0.007	8%	−0.070	85%
Rest	0.001	−1%	0.027	−33%
Total	0.031	−38%	−0.113	138%

Table 2. Gender gaps in reservation wages and male and female ‘expected returns’ by education fields

Field of education	N (total)	Gender gap in reservation wages by education type^a	‘Expected returns’ in relation to other fields^b:
			Women	Men
Social care, health	279	−0.116***	0.023	0.004
		(0.043)	(0.020)	(0.037)
Education and pedagogy	394	−0.063*	−0.056***	−0.101***
		(0.037)	(0.018)	(0.033)
Social science, economics, law	2,041	−0.131***	−0.004	0.010
		(0.016)	(0.009)	(0.015)
Arts and humanities	367	−0.121***	0.027	0.036
		(0.034)	(0.023)	(0.028)
Services	1,901	−0.096***	0.006	−0.015
		(0.015)	(0.010)	(0.013)
Agriculture and veterinary	450	−0.091***	−0.037*	−0.059***
		(0.031)	(0.021)	(0.019)
Mathematics, IT and physics	585	−0.036	0.060**	−0.019
		(0.030)	(0.024)	(0.016)
Engineering, production processes, construction	3,339	−0.138***	−0.003	0.029***
		(0.014)	(0.012)	(0.010)

Notes: Clustered standard errors in parentheses. *** denotes p < 0.01, ** denotes p < 0.05, and * denotes p < 0.1. All regressions control for age, education level, marital status, months of job search, size of the place of residence, regions and year dummies. ^a The gender gap is obtained from estimating regressions in which the logarithm of reservation wage is regressed on female dummy. ^b The expected returns to fields of education are obtained from estimating regressions in which logarithm of reservation wage is regressed on a given field of education (i.e. a dummy variable equal to one for a given field and zero for all other fields).