Academic literature on the topic 'Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition'

The Kitagawa–Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition approach has been widely used to attribute group-level differences in an outcome to differences in endowment, coefficients, and their interactions. The method has been implemented for Stata in the popular oaxaca command for cross-sectional analyses. In recent decades, however, research questions have been more often focused on the decomposition of group-based differences in change over time, for example, diverging income trajectories, as well as decomposition of change in differences between groups, for example, change in the gender pay gap over time. We review five existing methods for the decomposition of changes in group means and contribute an extension that takes an interventionist perspective suitable for applications with a clear before–after comparison. These decompositions of levels and changes over time can be implemented using the xtoaxaca command, which works as a postestimation command for different regression commands in Stata. It is built to maximize flexibility in modeling and implements all decomposition techniques presented in this article.

With regard to discrepancies in the cardiologic assistance, gender differences within predictive models are usually taken as ‘disparities’. However, such differences should be further scrutinised. We aimed to apply the Blinder–Oaxaca method in order to investigate potential sex-related disparities in the time from onset of symptoms to upscale assistance in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients transferred to referential hospitals. All public and private hospitals with 24/7 PCI facilities in the state were included, and 1077 STEMI individuals were prospectively enrolled. We applied the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition for the predictive model. The study included socioeconomic, clinical and geographic predictors. In ‘crude’ comparison under Student’s t-test, the logarithm of the total time was longer for female than male, reaching a difference of 0.22. In the Blinder–Oaxaca adjusted model, women presented higher total time than men. The total difference was 0.248 (95% CI = 0.051–0.445; p = 0.012), mostly related to the ‘explained’ portion, and the ‘unexplained’ portion reached a tiny fraction of the decomposition of elements, not significantly different from zero. There was no relevant unexplained fraction, also known as discrimination. Hence, the differences are attributable to the influence of the predictors as well as the contrafactual endowments for each sex.

Master of Science
Department of Agricultural Economics
Vincent R. Amanor-Boadu
Women represent approximately 50 percent of the active labor force in Sub-Saharan Africa. Even though women are involved in a variety of agricultural activities, they have limited access to resources and have restricted decision-making power compared to their male counterparts (FAO, 2011). These limitations and restrictions are likely to have a significant effect on women’s performance levels compared to men. The present research measures the gender-based performance differences, identifies factors that influence the financial performance levels, and factors contributing to generate disparities between male and female smallholders performance in northern Ghana. Data used in this study are from the Agriculture Production Survey (APS) focusing on the 2013-2014 cropping season. The study uses the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method to measure and decompose the gender performance gap in two parts: endowment effect and structural effect. Gross margin is used to measure farmer’s financial performance. The endowment effect is attributed to differences in the explanatory variables, and the structural effect is associated with differences in returns of the explanatory variables. Results from the study indicate there is a gender gap between male and female smallholder farmers with male farmers outperforming females by 46 percent. Land area had the largest significant impact on the explained part of the gender gap, followed by tractor service. The endowment effect portion of the decomposition models is accounted for 35 percent of the gender gap, and the remaining 65 percent is associated with the structural effect. The larger structural effect part suggests that developing programs to establish equality among male and female smallholder producers in terms of access to resources will not close the gender gap. Additionally, factors contributing positively overall to gross margin of smallholder farmers were land area, and tractor services and crops produced. Based on the results of this research, policymakers and agribusiness stakeholders may look to reduce the gender gap existing between smallholder farmers in northern Ghana by empowering women by providing them access to land area and tractor services. Further research into factors affecting the gender gap in financial performance in agricultural activities is warranted.

Magister Commercii - MCom
South African labour relations are associated with a history of extensive discrimination and segregation, subject to various types of discrimination during the apartheid era, including employment discrimination. This study explores the effect of Affirmative Action on the reduction (if any) of employment discrimination since the advent of democracy. It investigates whether the extent of employment discrimination by race and gender has decreased, 20 years since the economic transition. The first part of the study gives an overview of the South African labour legislations, both discriminative legislations and statutes aimed at redressing the imbalances of the past. The empirical part of the paper employs a sample that represents the labour force (excluding informal sector workers, agricultural workers, domestic workers and self-employed) aged between 15 and 65 years. The methodology in this study firstly estimates probit models describing the labour force participation, employment and occupational attainment, followed by the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, using data from OHS 1997-1999, LFS 2000-2007, QLFS 2008-2014 and NIDS 2008-2012. The OHS/LFS/QLFS decomposition results show that the unexplained component of the White-Black employment probability gap does not reveal any strong downward trend overtime. Also, results on the occupational attainment gap indicate that there was an increasing occupational attainment probability gap between Whites and Blacks which was partially driven by an increase in the unexplained component. This implies that Affirmative Action was not successful in reducing racial discrimination in the South African labour market. Additionally, the unexplained component is most dominant in the male-female employment gap decomposition. This suggests employment discrimination against females is very serious. However, the male-female highly-skilled employment likelihood shows no clear trend over time. These results suggest that when it comes to employment discrimination against females, this may have taken place more seriously when it comes to the unskilled or semi-skilled occupations.

Wage dispersion is one of the social and economic issues arousing public concern in Hong Kong. There are many studies exploring the possible causes and changes in wage dispersion. They often focus on the study of summary measures such as Gini and Theil indexes, or adopt OLS-based regression approach. In foreign studies on wage dispersion, Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, originated from Oaxaca (1974) and Blinder (1973), is a common method of decomposing changes or differences in mean wages between two groups into wage structure effect and composition effect, and then further decomposing the two effects into contributions of each control variable. Nevertheless, focusing on summary measures or decomposing mean wages can just give people an insight into the causes and changes in general wage dispersion but not the entire wage distribution. As pointed out by Chi, Li and Yu (2007), the estimation of the entire wage distribution and decomposition of the distributional changes in wage dispersion has been attracting the attention of labour economists. This thesis adopts a distributional approach proposed by Firpo, Fortin and Lemieux (2007) to study the changes in wage dispersion of Hong Kong since 1980s. The FFL approach comprises a two-stage procedure. Firstly, changes in dispersion are divided into wage structure effect and composition effect without directly estimating a wage-setting model. This is done by doing a proper reweighting to obtain counterfactual wage vectors. Kernel density estimation is used for visualizing the wage distribution in different years and the counterfactuals; secondly, novel recentered influence function (RIF) regressions across quantiles are performed to further decompose the two effects into contributions of each control variable. The findings are outlined as follows: first, there was an increase in wage dispersion over the whole wage distribution from 1980s but a decrease from 2001 to 2006; second, the composition effect dominates the wage structure effect over years; third, changes in the distribution of characteristics and the returns to these characteristics are highly responsive to each other, suggesting that our labour market is highly responsive to structural changes; fourth, The common wage-determining factors may not be able to explain the earnings-profile of low wage earners well. In brief, the development of the economy since 1980s increased the wage dispersion over years. Nevertheless, the economic downturn due to external shocks and internal unfavourable events and general skill-upgrading in labour-intensive industries decreased the wage dispersion since 2000s.

Everywhere around the world, whether in developing or developed countries, women earn less than men. This phenomenon is in no way new and it has been investigated for many years. Still, in today’s modern society, the wage gap does not appear to be closing. In times of economic instability, such as the economic crisis, the progress towards equality may be pushed back, since specific groups, sectors, and occupations may be affected differently. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the Italian gender wage gap with a closer look at the fluctuations during the period of the financial crisis. In order to analyse and understand the fluctuations of the pay gap, the three main theories used in the research are the human capital theory, occupational segregation, and theories regarding the labour market structure. By applying the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method, this study analyses to what extent the gap could be explained by differences in observable characteristics, such as level of education or age, and how much remains unexplained. The empirical model is applied to the Italian Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) microdata between the period of 2002 and 2016. The main findings show that the Italian gender wage gap, for the most part, remains unexplained. This indicates that the differentials in pay cannot be accounted for by differences in observable characteristics, such as education, age, contract type. The results of this research show that the Italian wage gap was, to some extent, negatively affected by the financial crisis. Furthermore, implemented austerity measures were found not to have significant negative impacts on the gap, which only increased in the initial phase of the crisis.

Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar o diferencial de rendimentos entre os setores de serviços e de indústria no Brasil, nos anos de 2004, 2009 e 2014. As informações foram obtidas a partir da Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD) desses anos. A hipótese central deste estudo é de que existe uma massa de trabalhadores sendo melhor remunerada no setor de serviços vis-à-vis o setor industrial, a qual vai contra a tese de que é na indústria onde estariam as profissões com maior valor agregado. A pesquisa também procura contribuir para a literatura acerca do setor de serviços, considerada escassa devido à heterogeneidade desse setor. Em primeiro momento, procura-se analisar o hiato salarial entre os setores através da decomposição proposta por Oaxaca (1973) e Blinder (1973). Após, utiliza-se o método de regressão RIF (Recentered Influence Function) de Firpo et al. (2007) com o objetivo de se obter estimativas por quantis de renda. Uma análise preliminar da distribuição da massa de salários entre esses dois setores revelou que o setor de serviços se encontra um pouco mais a direita na curva de distribuição, indicando que esse setor possui um número de expressivo de trabalhadores recebendo salários maiores daqueles da indústria. Constatou-se, também, que na decomposição salarial pela média o hiato salarial se mantém favorável aos trabalhadores do setor de serviços nos três anos analisados. No entanto, esse diferencial revelou-se maior em 2004. Apesar disso, a decomposição por quantis indicou que o diferencial de renda entre os setores se mantém favorável ao setor de serviços somente para os 75º e 90º quantis, contudo, as diferenças observadas nesses quantis se revelaram decrescentes na década analisada. O sinal negativo do efeito composição nos quantis que o setor de serviços remunera melhor indicou que os indivíduos empregados nesse setor possuem características mais produtivas relacionadas ao mercado de trabalho comparado ao setor de indústria. Já o sinal do efeito estrutura sinalizou que os retornos das características dos trabalhadores do setor de indústria foram menores que o retorno adquirido pelo outro setor. Nos demais quantis de renda, o setor de indústria foi o responsável por remunerar melhor os trabalhadores. Somente o 25º quantil apresentou crescimento do hiato nesse período. Para ambos os setores, ramos de alta tecnologia remuneram melhor para todos os quantis.
This study analyzes the income gap between the service and industry sectors in Brazil in the years 2004, 2009 and 2014. The information about these years was obtained from the National Survey by Household Sample (PNAD). The central hypothesis of this study is that there is a mass of workers being better paid in the service sector vis-à-vis the industrial sector, which goes against the well known consensus that the industry\'s earnings are greater than the service sector because of added value . The research also seeks to contribute to the literature on the service sector, considered scarce due to the heterogeneity of this sector. At first, the focus was the wage gap between sectors through the decomposition proposed by Oaxaca (1973) and Blinder (1973). Afterwards, it was used the RIF (Recentered Influence Function) regression method of Firpo et al. (2007) in order to obtain the approximate income proportion. A preliminary analysis of the distribution of the mass of wages between these two sectors revealed that the service sector lies on a little more to the right on the distribution curve, indicating that this sector has a significant number of workers receiving higher wages than those in the industry. It was also observed that in the average wage decomposition the wage gap remained favorable to the service sector workers in the three years analyzed. However, this differential was higher in 2004. It was observed in the wage decomposition, where the wage gap is maintained favorable to the workers of the service sector in the three sectors analyzed. In addition, this differential is more pronounced in the most recent year. In those years, the effect of contributing to the increase of the difference, however, the magnitude is the effect of decreasing. Decomposition by quantiles indicated that the income differential between sectors remained favorable to the services sector only for the 75th and 90th quantiles. The gap observed in these quantiles were decreasing in the analyzed decade. The negative sign of this effect in the quantiles that the services sector pay better indicated that the individuals employed in this sector have more productive characteristics related to the labor market compared to the industry sector. The sign of the structure effect signaled that the returns of the characteristics of the workers of the industry sector were smaller than the return earned by the other sector. In the other quantiles of income, the industry sector was the one responsible for better remunerating the workers. Only the 25th quantil indicated a growth of the hiatus in this period. For both sectors, branches of high technology are better for all quantiles.

Esta dissertação analisa os impactos de fatores socioeconômicos e psicossociais sobre a prevalência da depressão no Brasil através de modelos probit e da decomposição de Oaxaca-Blinder aplicados às bases de dados dos suplementos de saúde da Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD Saúde) e da Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde 2013 (PNS 2013). Neste trabalho, foram usados dois critérios básicos de identificação de indivíduos deprimidos: os que referiram ter recebido o diagnóstico de depressão de algum profissional de saúde e os que obtiveram um escore superior a 4 no teste PHQ-9 (cujas perguntas constam na PNS 2013). Foram obtidos resultados estatisticamente significativos, evidenciando a maior probabilidade da depressão entre mulheres e a relação inversa do transtorno com as variáveis renda domiciliar, desemprego, escolaridade e idade. Fatores como doenças físicas, doenças mentais e deficiências demonstraram uma relação direta com a depressão, embora as quantificações de suas magnitudes tenham sido sensíveis à especificação dos modelos. Também mostraram uma relação direta com o transtorno depressivo variáveis associadas a traumas e estresse emocional (como ter perdido um filho, ter sofrido algum tipo de violência, ter um filho com problemas de saúde, etc.). Outras variáveis como raça e região geográfica apresentaram resultados ambivalentes, também sensíveis às diferentes especificações de modelo. Ainda, variáveis referentes ao mercado de trabalho como o tipo de vínculo empregatício e setor de atividade apresentaram resultados inconclusivos. Por fim, outra conclusão importante foi que o critério de identificação dos indivíduos com depressão é determinante nos resultados.
This dissertation analyses the impacts of socioeconomic and psychosocial factors over the prevalence of depression in Brazil through probit models and the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition applied to the data in Brazilian National Household Survey Health Supplement (PNAD Saúde) and the National Health Survey (PNS 2013). In this dissertation, two basic criteria were used to identify individuals with depression: those who declared to have received a depression diagnosis from a health professional and those who scored more than 4 in the PHQ-9 depression test (whose questions are included in PNS 2013). Statistically significant results were found, showing a higher probability of depression among women and an inverse relationship between the disorder and household income, unemployment, education and age. Factors such as chronic physical diseases, mental illnesses and deficiencies have showed a direct relationship with depression, although the quantification of such effects had a rather high sensitivity to model specification. Also, variables associated with emotional stress (such as having lost a child, being victim of some sort of violence, having a child with health problems) showed a direct relationship with depressive disorder. Other variables such as race and geographic region showed ambivalent results also very sensitive to different model specifications. Furthermore, labor market variables like type of work contract and activity sector show inconclusive results. Finally, another important finding is that the criteria for identifying individuals with depression were determinant for the results and conclusions.

The existence of significant differences in the civic knowledge, civic attitudes and civic skills of young people from different socio-economic (SES) backgrounds represent civic competence gaps that affect their ability to act as personally responsible, participatory and justice-oriented citizens in their society (Carretero et al, 2016; MEN, 2004; Westheimer & Kahne, 2004). Identifying civic competence gaps, their magnitude, and the factors that account for them should be a priority for researchers, policy-makers and educators in Latin America because they can threaten the strength, stability and legitimacy of democracies in the region (Levinson, 2010). I use data from three nationally representative samples of 8th grade students who participated in the 2009 International Civic and Citizenship Study (ICCS) to identify civic competence gaps between youth from high and low SES backgrounds in Chile, Colombia and Mexico, using eight measures related to civic competence. I document large gaps in students’ civic knowledge in the three countries, and small gaps in their internal sense of political efficacy, intention to participate in future electoral processes and legal and illegal protests, as well as in their attitudes toward corruption, authoritarianism and disobeying the law. I do not find gaps in their attitudes toward civil disobedience. I then use the Oaxaca-Blinder method (Oaxaca, 1973; Blinder, 1973) to identify how 1) differences in access to school resources, positive school climates and interactive civic learning opportunities, and 2) differences in the civic knowledge gains that students from different SES backgrounds obtain from equal school resources, school climates and civic learning opportunities, account for the civic knowledge gaps in these countries. Findings suggest that the largest portion of the civic knowledge gap in Chile is due to differences in civic knowledge gains, but in Colombia and Mexico the largest portions are due to differences in access. In all three countries high SES students have significantly more access than low SES students to the school resources, school climate and civic learning opportunities that are associated with higher civic knowledge, and in every case, the school SES accounts for the largest portion of the explained civic knowledge gaps. Given equal characteristics, low SES students in Colombia and Mexico –but not in Chile- obtain more civic knowledge gains than high SES students from school resources, school climate and civic learning opportunities.

This thesis focuses on gender based differences in occupational allocation in Central-European countries, i.e. in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. The main goal is to find out how much of the gender differences is related to women being equipped with higher/lower human capital in comparison to men. This thesis uses data from 2010 Life in Transition Survey provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Focus will be placed on white/blue collar occupations split. For the empirical analysis an extension of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition for binary dependent variable model provided by Fairlie (2005) will be used.

This paper analyzes how the explained and unexplained part of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition has changed due to a shift in attitudes towards immigrants in Germany. We use the migration crisis in 2015 as an exogenous source of variation in attitudes towards immigrants. As many studies analyze labor market discrimination, there are very few studies examining discrimination in the German labor market by conducting a natural experiment. In contrast to previous empirics, this paper sets out to explain and decompose the differences between immigrants and natives using a rather unique method. This paper is based on data from the European Social Survey (ESS) conducted in 2014 and 2016 and is analyzed using measures of public attitudes, the linear probability model, and the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition. The results indicate that there are rather great differences in employment probabilities, human capital and family constellations between immigrants and natives. Measuring public attitudes, it is evident that there has been a general decline in positive attitudes towards immigrants post the migration crisis in 2015. Analyzing the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, it is evident that the unexplained (discriminatory) part of the decomposition has decreased which is referred to as a decrease in discrimination in the labor market. Even though that a general decline in positive attitudes towards immigrants is present, an increase in the unexplained part of the decomposition is not observed. As no correlation between public attitudes and the unexplained part of the decomposition is apparent, it is most likely that employers base their employment decision on the extent of information provided. This indicating that discrimination in the labor market most likely is due to statistical discrimination and not due to the preferences of the employer.

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A presente Tese à formada pela junÃÃo de trÃs estudos na Ãrea de microeconometria relacionada ao mercado de trabalho brasileiro, buscando levantar questÃes que buscam explicar os diferenciais salariais entre diferentes grupos presentes neste mercado. Em cada capÃtulo foi empregado trÃs diferentes metodologias de estimaÃÃo com o uso de diferentes bases de dados. No primeiro capÃtulo, AnÃlise dos Diferenciais de SalÃrios no Mercado de Trabalho Brasileiro a partir da OrientaÃÃo Sexual, procurou-se medir o diferencial de salÃrios a partir da orientaÃÃo sexual no mercado de trabalho brasileiro, fazendo uso da nova metodologia de identificaÃÃo de arranjos familiares apresentada no Censo de 2010 (IBGE). ApÃs estimar as equaÃÃes de salÃrios com correÃÃo do viÃs de seleÃÃo amostral proposto por Heckman (1979) os resultados apontaram na direÃÃo de ausÃncia de discriminaÃÃo contra as minorias de gays e lÃsbicas no mercado de trabalho nacional. O segundo capÃtulo, DecomposiÃÃo Contrafactual de Oaxaca-Blinder dos Diferenciais de SalÃrios por GÃnero e RaÃa no Mercado de Trabalho Privado Brasileiro com CorreÃÃo de ViÃs de SeleÃÃo Amostral: Uma AnÃlise para Setores EconÃmicos e Tipos de OcupaÃÃes, fez uso da base de dados da PNAD do IBGE (2013), quando se buscou analisar as principais causas da desigualdade salarial por gÃnero e raÃa no mercado de trabalho privado brasileiro detalhando por setores de atividade econÃmica e por tipos de ocupaÃÃo. Para se alcanÃar tal objetivo foi utilizado a metodologia de decomposiÃÃo salarial na mÃdia proposta por Oaxaca-Blinder (1973), apÃs a estimaÃÃo das equaÃÃes de salÃrios quando tambÃm foram feitas as correÃÃes da seletividade amostral. Os principais resultados apontaram para a importÃncia das variÃveis de capital humano para explicaÃÃo de grande parte do diferencial de salÃrios entre homens brancos e os demais grupos investigados via diferenÃas de dotaÃÃes, em especial, a variÃvel escolaridade que ajuda a reduzir o diferencial de salÃrios entre os homens brancos e as mulheres brancas e negras. Chama atenÃÃo a participaÃÃo em alguns tipos de ocupaÃÃes quando as mulheres brancas e negras ganham, em mÃdia, mais que os homens brancos. Por fim, a elevada participaÃÃo e representatividade do termo de intercepto, na explicaÃÃo do diferencial de salÃrios por gÃnero e raÃa, tanto no mercado de trabalho total, como na maioria dos setores econÃmicos e tipos de ocupaÃÃes investigadas explica a maior parte deste fenÃmeno, quando o homem branco ganha mais, simplesmente porque à homem e branco. O terceiro e Ãltimo capÃtulo, MudanÃas Estruturais nos Retornos Educacionais e nos Diferenciais Raciais de SalÃrios por GÃnero no Brasil para Diferentes Grupos de Idade: Uma Abordagem de RegressÃo QuantÃlica com CorreÃÃo do ViÃs de SeleÃÃo Amostral, fez 7 uso das PNADS de 2003 e 2013 e de tÃcnicas de regressÃo quantÃlica com correÃÃo de viÃs de seleÃÃo proposto por Buchinsky (1998b) para analisar mudanÃas nos retornos da educaÃÃo e nos diferenciais raciais de salÃrios por gÃnero e por grupos de idade no mercado de trabalho brasileiro entre os anos dois anos. Diferentes valores para os retornos da escolaridade e para os diferenciais raciais foram observados principalmente nos quantis mais elevados da distribuiÃÃo de salÃrios para quase todas as faixas de idade. Os retornos salariais das mulheres ficaram acima dos retornos salariais dos homens para todos os quantis estimados, em todos os grupos de idade, nos dois anos analisados. Por fim, nota-se uma reduÃÃo nÃtida nos retornos salariais para ambos os sexos e a melhora no padrÃo de discriminaÃÃo no mercado de trabalho brasileiro entre anos de 2003 e 2013.
This thesis is formed by the junction of three studies in Microeconometrics area related to the Brazilian labor market, seeking to raise questions that try to explain the pay gap between different groups present in this market. In each chapter was used three different methods of estimation with the use of different databases. In the first chapter, Analysis of Wage Differentials in the Brazilian labor market from the Sexual Orientation, sought to measure the wage differential from sexual orientation in the Brazilian labor market, using the new methodology of identification of family arrangements presented in Census 2010 (IBGE). After estimating the wage equations with correction of sample selection bias proposed by Heckman (1979) the results pointed in the direction of non-discrimination against minorities of gays and lesbians in the national labor market. The second chapter, Counterfactual decomposition of Oaxaca - Blinder Wage Differentials by Gender and Race in the Brazilian Private Job Market with Bias Correction Sample Selection: An Analysis for Economic Sectors and Types of Occupations, made use of the National Household Survey database IBGE (2013), when it sought to analyze the root causes of wage inequality by gender and race in the Brazilian private labor market detailing by sectors of economic activity and types of occupation. To achieve this goal we used the wage decomposition methodology on average proposed by Oaxaca - Blinder (1973), after the estimation of wage equations when the corrections were also made of the sample selectivity. The main results pointed to the importance of human capital variables to explain much of the wage gap between white men and other groups investigated via differences appropriations, in particular the variable schooling that helps reduce the wage differential between white men and white and black women. Noteworthy is the participation in some types of occupations when white and black women earn on average more than white men. Finally, the high participation and representativeness of the intercept term, the wage differential explanation by gender and race, both in the overall labor market, as in most economic sectors and types of occupations investigated explains most of this phenomenon when the white man earns more , simply because he is man and white. The third and final chapter, Structural Changes in Education Returns and Differential Wage Race for Gender in Brazil for Different Groups of Age: An Approach of quantile regression with bias correction of Sample Selection, made use of the National Household Survey 2003 and 2013 and quantile regression techniques with selection bias correction proposed by Buchinsky (1998b) to analyze changes in the returns to education and racial differentials by gender wage and age groups in the Brazilian labor market between 9 the two years. Different values for the returns of schooling and racial differences were mainly observed in the highest quantile of the distribution of wages for almost all age groups. The wage returns of women were above the wage returns of men for all estimated quantile in all age groups in the two years analyzed. Finally, it is worth mentioning the reduction in wage returns to both sexes and the improvement in the standard of discrimination in the national labor market between the years 2003 and 2013.

This study considers how household composition influences the leisure time of men and women in South Africa, using the South African 2010 Time Use Survey. Studying leisure time is important since the allocation of time outside the market provides insights into market behaviour and physical and mental health. Household composition and leisure consumption are highly gendered, with women typically living in larger households and consuming less leisure than men. Regression analysis shows that leisure time allocations are highly dependent on who lives in the household and Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition analysis finds that gender differences in mean leisure time can be attributed to household members, affecting the leisure time of male and female respondents differently. Overall, the results are consistent with traditional gender roles within the household and highlight the lack of intra-household bargaining power for women, providing evidence of gender inequality. Lower leisure consumption for women may have negative implications for their productivity in terms of paid and unpaid work, and for their well-being.

Microsimulation models are often used to consider counterfactual situations and answering ‘what if’ questions. However, these methods typically decompose all changes that occur at a given time, but do not separately isolate the impact of individual components. Simulation-based methods have been developed that can be used to simulate counterfactual incomes if one or more component is changed. This chapter moves beyond Oaxaca–Blinder work, which decomposes differences in individual wages, to decompose the full household-income distribution and its components. Counterfactual income-generating processes (wages, employment, etc.) are simulated to assess the impact of alternative situations, such as the degree of inequality, using income-generating processes from another time period (or country). This chapter utilizes, as a case study, Ireland, a developed country that experienced one of the highest sustained growth periods in recent decades. The chapter describes the estimation of simulation using an income-generation model, and then describes the Shapley-value decomposition. We use the microsimulation framework to understand changes in inequality, as the distribution of purchasing power associated with disposable income changed non-uniformly in terms of demography, labour market, market income, and public policy using an Oaxaca–Blinder–Bourguignon decomposition.

OBJECTIVES The prevalence of childhood obesity is significantly higher among racial and/or ethnic minority children in the United States. It is unclear to what extent well-established obesity risk factors in infancy and preschool explain these disparities. Our objective was to decompose racial and/or ethnic disparities in children’s weight status according to contributing socioeconomic and behavioral risk factors. METHODS We used nationally representative data from ~10 700 children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth Cohort who were followed from age 9 months through kindergarten entry. We assessed the contribution of socioeconomic factors and maternal, infancy, and early childhood obesity risk factors to racial and/or ethnic disparities in children’s BMI z scores by using Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analyses. RESULTS The prevalence of risk factors varied significantly by race and/or ethnicity. African American children had the highest prevalence of risk factors, whereas Asian children had the lowest prevalence. The major contributor to the BMI z score gap was the rate of infant weight gain during the first 9 months of life, which was a strong predictor of BMI z score at kindergarten entry. The rate of infant weight gain accounted for between 14.9% and 70.5% of explained disparities between white children and their racial and/or ethnic minority peers. Gaps in socioeconomic status were another important contributor that explained disparities, especially those between white and Hispanic children. Early childhood risk factors, such as fruit and vegetable consumption and television viewing, played less important roles in explaining racial and/or ethnic differences in children’s BMI z scores. CONCLUSIONS Differences in rapid infant weight gain contribute substantially to racial and/or ethnic disparities in obesity during early childhood. Interventions implemented early in life to target this risk factor could help curb widening racial and/or ethnic disparities in early childhood obesity.

This chapter uses data from the urban household CHIP surveys for the years 1995, 2002, 2007, and 2013 to provide consistent estimates of the gender wage gap in urban China and it investigate those factors that have contributed to this gap. The gender wage gap widened substantially and progressively from 1995 to 2007, but from 2007 to 2013 the gender wage gap narrowed. In 2013 the gender wage gap was between 19 and 25 percent. Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions reveal that the contributions of the differences in the characteristics of women and men to the wage gap declined over time; by 2013 the gap was largely unexplained. Key factors underlying the gender wage gap in recent years include individual characteristics, such as age, education, marriage, and children, as well as employment sector and occupation.