Gender wage discrimination with employer prejudice and trade openness

Abstract

This paper studies the effect of trade liberalisation on gender wage inequality. A simple trade model with employer taste-based discrimination and imperfect competition provides an explanation for the heterogeneous effects of international trade on the gender wage gap within sectors. While import competition reduces rents and with them the gender wage gap, the effect of exports depends on the level of concentration of a sector. On the one hand, easier access to foreign markets has a competition effect through the selection of the low-cost firms in non-concentrated sectors. On the other hand, better export opportunities with easier access to foreign markets can increase profits of domestic firms’ in concentrated sectors and thus enable discriminatory firms to maintain wage gaps. Evidence from Uruguay supports the empirical relevance of the taste-based discrimination mechanism at the sector level.

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