Ethnic and Gender Wage Disparities in Sri Lanka
The authors examine wage inequalities in Sri Lanka's formal sector using data from the Sri Lanka Integrated Survey 1999-2000. The study aims to: a) investigate whether the labor market is characterized by wage disparities among ethnic and gend...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, D.C.
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2002/06/1943368/ethnic-gender-wage-disparities-sri-lanka http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14265 |
| Summary: | The authors examine wage inequalities in
Sri Lanka's formal sector using data from the Sri Lanka
Integrated Survey 1999-2000. The study aims to: a)
investigate whether the labor market is characterized by
wage disparities among ethnic and gender groups; b) identify
the determinants of wages and the factors that affect the
wage differential; c) analyze the determinants of wages
across the conditional wage distribution; and d)
disaggregate the ethnic or gender wage disparities where
observed into a component affected by the endowment of
productive characteristics, as well as a component affected
by the returns to those productive characteristics in the
labor market. The authors find that ethnicity is not a
significant determinant of wages. The result is robust to
different specifications. In addition, ethnicity is not
significant in any of the emotional quantiles estimated.
However, there is gender disparity in wage rates in Sri
Lanka. The magnitude of this disparity varies depending on
the worker's ethnicity. This gender wage disparity
varies by about 10 percent for Tamils and 48 percent among
other ethnicities. In addition, the authors find that much
of the gender disparity is not explained by productive
characteristics, implying that discrimination against women
may play a role. The quantile regression estimates indicate
that the premium paid to male workers in the labor force is
more pronounced in the upper conditional wage rate distribution. |
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