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The Gender Wage Gap among Young Adults in the United States: The Importance of Money versus People
- Journal of Human Resources
- University of Wisconsin Press
- Volume 43, Number 4, Fall 2008
- pp. 884-918
- 10.1353/jhr.2008.0006
- Article
- Additional Information
Using two single-cohort longitudinal surveys, the NLS72 and the NELS88, I investigate the impact of four noncognitive traits—self-esteem, external locus of control, the importance of money/work and the importance of people/family—on wages and on the gender wage gap among these young workers. I find that gender differences in these noncognitive factors, especially the importance of money/work, have a modest but significant role in accounting for the gender wage gap. Methodologically, this paper proposes a correction to the Oaxaca-Blinder-Ransom decomposition that results in a truly decomposable approach compatible with the simple pooled regression that includes a gender dummy.