TY  - JOUR
AU  - Weinberger,Catherine
AU  - Kuhn,Peter
TI  - The Narrowing of the U.S. Gender Earnings Gap, 1959-1999: A Cohort-Based Analysis
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12115
PY  - 2006
Y2  - March 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12115
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12115.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Catherine Weinberger
ISBER
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-2150
Tel: 805 729 2641
E-Mail: weinberg@econ.ucsb.edu

Peter J. Kuhn
Department of Economics
University of California, Santa Barbara
2127 North Hall
Santa Barbara, CA  93106
Tel: 805/893-3666
Fax: 805/893-8830
E-Mail: pjkuhn@econ.ucsb.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 2006-03-27
AB  - Using Census and Current Population Survey data spanning 1959 through 1999, we assess the relative contributions of two factors to the decline in the gender wage gap: changes across cohorts in the relative slopes of men%u2019s and women%u2019s age-earnings profiles, versus changes in relative earnings levels at labor market entry. We find that changes in relative slopes account for about one-third of the narrowing of the gender wage gap over the past 40 years. Under quite general conditions, we argue that this provides an upper bound estimate of the contribution of changes in work experience and other post-school investments (PSIs) to the decline of the gender wage gap.
ER  -