CATHOLIC‐PROTESTANT INCOME DIFFERENCES IN NORTHERN IRELAND

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyse income differences betweeen Catholic and Protestant families in Northern Ireland (NI) using Family Expenditure Survey micro‐data. The paper's first conclusion is that there is much greater inequality within the Catholic and Protestant communities than there is between them. It's second conclusion, based upon econometric analysis of data for full‐time employees, is that the lower mean income of Catholics, relative to Protestants, could be entirely explained in terms of different rates of reward attached to a given set of labour market characteristics.