The Gender Wage Gap: - among Swedish municipalities
2015 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
Though successively decreasing over time, gender wage gaps are still large in all
western countries. When gender wage gaps exist, there is an unequal distribution of
economic power between men and women. This paper examines variables that
significantly relate to the differences in the size of the gender wage gap across
Swedish municipalities. With data gathered from Statistics Sweden and the Swedish
Social Insurance Agency for the year 2011, a series of OLS regressions are
performed. By examining what variables are statistically related to variations in the
gender wage gap over municipalities, for example, average wage, human capital,
gender segregation and work absence, the aim is to further contribute to the field of
gender economics. The results in this paper show that the gender wage gap exists in
all 290 Swedish municipalities. It varies greatly with women earning only 56 percent
of men’s wages in Danderyd to women earning 87 percent of men’s wages in
Haparanda. In municipalities where average wages are high the gender wage gap is
large. Long-term illness and lowered capacity to work are strong factors negatively
affecting the gender wage gap. In municipalities where women are more affected by
long-term illness and lowered capacity to work than men the gender wage gap is
larger. Furthermore, there is a significant relation between the gender wage gap and
human capital. The gender wage gap is larger in municipalities where a large share of
the population has a higher education.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2015. , p. 34
Keywords [en]
Gender wage gap, Wage gap, Regional economics, Gender inequality, Gender segregation, Swedish labor market
Keywords [sv]
Lönegap, genus, inkomstskillnader mellan kvinnor och män, geografisk ekonomi, jämställdhet, Svenska kommuner
National Category
Economic Geography Economics Gender Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-26897ISRN: JU-IHH-NAA-1-20150006OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-26897DiVA, id: diva2:816178
Subject / course
IHH, Economics
Presentation
2015-05-19, Internationella Handelshögskolan i Jönköping, Jönköping, 13:20 (English)
Supervisors
Examiners
2015-06-082015-06-022015-06-08Bibliographically approved