whether gender really explains differences between the wage levels of male
and female workers, one must identify and "control" for the impact of other
possible factors. Econometric analysis can be a useful tool in conducting
this inquiry.
An econometrician would starts with gathering relevant data from a
certain number of workers in target companies. She sets the workers' wages
as the "dependent variables" and the other information (such as work
experience, education, and gender) as "explanatory variables." By
performing a regression, a statistical tool that estimates the relationships
between variables, she can calculate the affect of the explanatory variables
on wage rates. Once she has determined the combined impact of the
explanatory variables, the econometrician can explore seperately the
relationship between gender and compensation.
She does this by running a regression in which all of the explanatory
variables remain unchanged but gender is altered. Assume that the
regression demonstrates that a female worker with 12 years of education
and 5 years of work experience earns $5.5 per hour, but a male worker with
the same profile earns $7.2 per hour. This discrepancy alone is not enough
to conclude that there is gender discrimination. The econometrician must
perform another set of calculations.
First, the econometrician assumes that all workers are female, and uses
the regression to calculate their average wage rates. Second, she repeats the
calculation, assuming that all workers are male. Finally, she compares the
two averages. Any statistically significant difference is strong evidence that
the employers are not treating their female and male workers equally.
94. NHÀ KINH TẾ LƯỢNG VÀ VẤN ĐỀ GIỚI TÍNH
Chúng ta biết mức lương của một lao động phụ thuộc vào các yếu tố như
trình độ văn hóa, tay nghề và kinh nghiệm. Nhiều người cho là giới tính
