Determinants of the wage gap in Ecuador: analysis under a minceriano model related to dummy aggregate variables

Introduction Work includes schooling and experience as explanatory variables of the level of salaries; It has been considered important to incorporate others in this research, these being: gender, area where the work activity takes place and having knowledge of another language. Objective of the present investigation is to analyze income inequality in the Ecuadorian labor market. Materials and methods The research takes data from the National Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment Survey of INEC estimating the Mincerian equation (1974) by adding dummy variables. Results the estimations allow to conclude that there is actually female and rural discrimination with respect to the salaries that the masculine gender has and in general of the workers who come from residential zones. Discussion. all the variables included in the model, experience is the one with the lowest incidence, anyway Conclusions establishes that the result is consistent with what the Ecuadorian legislation indicates, specifically the Internal Control Regulations.

This paper estimates the microeconomic determinants of job´s quality in Ecuador before and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Using data from the National Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment Survey (ENEMDU) from 2019 and 2021, a job quality variable was created. This variable considers characteristics such as labor income, job stability and labor benefits. The empirical methodology consisted on estimating a Generalized Ordered Response Logistic Model (GOLM). The results show a process of precariousness in the labor market in Ecuador, with younger workers, less-educated workers and ethnic minorities being the most affected. Public policy should design programs for youth employment insertion and the prevention and elimination of labor discrimination.

This paper estimates an index of the risk of labour displacement in the face of automation, using datafrom the National Employment and Occupation Survey (enoe) for the years 2005 and 2019. The resultsshow that the risk of displacement due to automation has increased in Mexico, and that women facea lower risk of labour displacement compared to men. It also shows that higher levels of human capitalare associated with a lower risk of displacement. Industrial and clerical workers are most at risk fromautomation, and workers in the north of the country face a higher risk than those in the south.Using the principal components analysis, this work estimates an index of risk of job displacementin the face of automation, with data from the National Occupation and Employment Survey (enoe) forthe years 2005 and 2019. The results show that job displacement risk has increased in Mexico, and thatwomen face less risk of job displacement when compared to men. They also indicate that higher levelsof human capital promote a lower risk of displacement. Industrial and office workers are those mostat risk from automation, and workers in the north of the country face a greatest risk when compared tothose in the south.

Indonesia has committed to embody gender equality in the labor market through gender mainstreaming programs in all sectors. Nevertheless, the reality indicates that gender inequality in the labor market still exists. This chapter aims to discuss various issues of gender inequality in the Indonesian labor market in the agriculture, manufacturing, and services sectors. The data used for the analysis is the 2016 national labor force survey. The survey covered 82,613 workers with 31,256 of them from the agricultural sector, 14,835 from the manufacturing sector and 36,522 from the services sector. The analysis shows the dominance of male labor in all the sectors with the lowest proportion of female workers occurs in the manufacturing sector (27.1%) followed by the agricultural sector (37.5%) and the services (46.5%). Based on the type of position, men are more dominant in strategic positions in all the three sectors. The highest wage disparity between women and men takes place in the agricultural sector followed by the manufacturing and the services.

Context: This study examines the relationship between fuel price variations and the socioeconomic conditions of households in the province of Manabí during 2024. The main objective was to analyze the potential correlation between the monthly behavior of key fuels (Diesel, Ecopais, Extra, and Super) and critical variables such as average labor income and employment structure. Methodology: A time-series analysis of real fuel prices and consumer price index (CPI) data was conducted. In addition, microdata from the National Employment, Unemployment, and Underemployment Survey (ENEMDU) were processed and refined, specifically filtered for the province of Manabí. Results: The findings reveal significant monthly fluctuations in fuel prices, with particular emphasis on Super gasoline. A progressive decline in average income was observed as prices increased, with Ecopais showing the strongest negative correlation with income (-0.49). Moreover, a negative correlation between income and underemployment was identified, as well as a positive relationship between income and adequate employment. Conclusions: Although the correlations are not highly intense, their consistency supports the claim that variations in fuel prices produce measurable effects on the household economy of Manabí. These results provide valuable evidence for the design of public policies aimed at mitigating the impact of energy price fluctuations on the population.

This article analyses the effects of a rise in the minimum wage on wages and employment in Mexico. The source of variation is the equalization in late 2012 of the minimum wage in two areas of the country. Using the National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE), econometric analyses are performed of cross-section and individual panel data. The results of the first indicate that, on average, the hourly wage in zone B rose by between 1.6% and 2.6% for workers overall and between 1.8% and 3.3% for wage workers. The panel analysis yields similar results. Although the cross-section analysis does not show an impact in terms of employment, the panel data indicate that the probability of being an informal (formal) worker falls (rises) among those affected by the wage rise policy.

From the empirical point of view, measures that promote work flexibility increase income inequalities and unemployment rates in the long-term, as well as promoting employment precariousness and the informality of the labor sector. The objective of the present work is to investigate the effect on wage inequality of eliminating work flexibility, which was undertaken in Ecuador in 2008. A two-way effect econometric model was applied with panel data. Data from the 21 provinces of Ecuador covering the period of 2007-2018 were obtained from the National Employment, Unemployment and Under-Employment Survey (ENEMDU) of the National Statistical and Census Institute (INEC). The results suggest that the elimination of work flexibility had a significant and negative effect on inequality; the policy was effective in reducing inequality. This result is significant for all the years subsequent to the introduction of these measures, although with variations according to regional and economic characteristics. Policies aimed at reducing inequality should focus on improving workers' bargaining power and on generating an environment that favors increasing levels of formality.

This paper examines the trends in residential segregation by income (post‐transfer, pretax income) in the thirty‐nine largest Canadian urban areas between 1991 and 1996. The study is motivated by the relative lack of attention paid to residential segregation by income in the Canadian context and by conceptual arguments linking compromised life chances and increased social tensions for the populations of highly segregated cities. We investigated several dimensions of segregation using five different measures (we focus on three of these here given the correlation structure of the measures) to examine changes in segregation between 1991 and 1996, a period characterised by economic recession, cutbacks in social programs and a widening of inequality in market incomes at the national scale. Overall, income segregation increased in most urban areas across all dimensions of segregation during the time period, with particularly high degrees of segregation observed in prairie cities (Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Regina). Of the three largest metropolitan areas (Vancouver, Toronto and Montréal), Montréal was the most consistently segregated. We also find that increases in spatial separation and spatial concentration by income occurred despite the fact that at the national scale, the tax and transfer system appeared to be adequately redressing a rise in inequality in labour and market incomes (as demonstrated by the lack of change in post‐transfer national income inequality measures during a period when inequality in market and labour incomes rose sharply). This implies that the lived experience of changes in income distribution are unlikely fully captured by aspatial, national‐scale measures and that intra‐urban measures with a spatial dimension are an important indicators of inequality in Canadian society.

Gender inequality in the labor market is a common occurrence across the developed or least developed countries. The objective of the study was to explore how the nature and extent of gender inequality in the labor market vary between a developed and a least developed country. In this regard, the Czech Republic as a developed and Bangladesh as a least developed country were selected purposively considering their socioeconomic status. A quantitative content analysis was done to compare the gender inequality in labor market using key databases including Labor Force Survey 2010 of Bangladesh, Labor Force Survey 2013 of Czech Republic, Eurostat 2014, ILO 2013, and World Bank 2012. The findings reveal that for the labor force participation, the number of Bangladeshi women (36 percent) is found less than half of men (82.5 percent) whereas, in Czech, the difference between men (68.1 percent) and women (59.5 percent) is much lower in this sector. While women in both countries failed to keep pace with men in employment, this gap is broader in Bangladesh. Moreover, in two countries, women’s appearance in higher level positions such as administrative, managerial and technical remain negligible and gender pay gap is found 21 percent for the Czech Republic and 25 percent for Bangladesh. In general, although gender inequality persists in the labor market of both countries, the ratio of inequalities is minor in the Czech labor market than that of Bangladesh. Attending of women in technical and vocational education and promoting gender blind mindset during recruitment can ensure gender equality in the labor market to a great extent. This study calls for integrating new dimensions of gender inequality such as underemployment, parenting and unemployment, and comparing more than two countries to have a holistic picture,which could stimulate dialogue of social research.

PurposeThis study aims at estimating the gender wage gap in Ecuador, and its evolution over the last decade and a half, exploring its heterogeneity through different working conditions (formal/informal, full employment/underemployment, short term/long term and tenure/no tenure) and workers personal characteristics (education level; age and children).Design/methodology/approachPropensity score matching (PSM) and coarsened exact matching (CEM) are used to examine the gender pay inequality of wage earners in Ecuador, using the National Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment Survey (ENEMDU) data set from 2007 to 2022.FindingsResults show a persistent gender pay gap, evidencing a significant heterogeneity through the different dimensions taken into account, in terms of working conditions and workers personal characteristics. The evolution of the pay gap during the years analyzed hardly shows any reduction of differences in earnings between men and women; on the contrary, women exposure to precarious and unregulated jobs seems to be increasing wage inequality.Practical implicationsThe results make the case for active policies oriented not only at containing the negative effects of the traditional division of labor within the family but also at improving labor law enforcement, mitigating informality and workers rapid turnover.Originality/valueThis study is one of the few that use matching techniques to study the gender wage gap and the first in Ecuador; the time span taken into account is larger than previous studies, allowing a medium-long run perspective across different economic phases.

This paper develops a theoretical framework to explain observed trends in the labor share, income inequality, and their nexus. Our model, incorporating capital-skill complementarity and capital-biased technological progress, accounts for the evolution of factor and personal income distributions in the U.S. along two dimensions of decomposition: by skill level (high-skilled and low-skilled) and income source (labor and capital income). Our findings reveal that between-skill inequality is the primary channel linking labor share dynamics to income inequality. Beyond the overall decline in labor share, rising between-skill inequality contributes to the divergence in labor income shares between high-skilled and low-skilled workers, while also driving labor income inequality to increase in parallel with aggregate inequality. The share of labor is therefore negatively correlated with income inequality. The model shows empirical consistency, indicating that our theory captures key structural forces driving the dynamics of the factor and personal income distributions.

This paper studies the contribution of both labor and non-labor income in the growth in income inequality in the United States and large European economies. The paper first shows that the capital to labor income ratio disproportionately increased among high-earnings individuals, further contributing to the growth in overall income inequality. That said, the magnitude of this effect is modest, and the predominant driver of the growth in income inequality in recent decades is the growth in labor earnings inequality. Far more important than the distinction between total income and labor income, is the way in which educational factors account for the growth in US labor and capital income inequality. Growing income gaps among different education groups as well as composition effects linked to a growing fraction of highly educated workers have been driving these effects, with a noticeable role of occupational and locational factors for women. Findings for large European economies indicate that inequality has been growing fast in Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, though not in France. Capital income and education don’t play as much as a role in these countries as in the United States.

This article aims to examine the existence of rule manipulation and moral hazard in the Brazilian Unemployment Insurance Program. For empirical analysis, the rule manipulation test by Cattaneo, Janson and Ma (2016) was used, as well as fuzzy and sharp regression discontinuity. The data was built using data from the National Employment and Unemployment Survey from January 2008 to June 2014 due to the greater homogeneity of the rules for benefit access. Based on the results, the program is an influence on the length of employment of Brazilian workers given the existence of rule manipulation, assessed by the length of stay in the last job. Furthermore, it was found that heads of families and their children were less likely to search for employment. This findings were corroborated when data from the program beneficiaries only was assessed, showing a lower job search probability, between -21.80 p.p. and -15.08 p.p. for the children, and between -39.40 p.p. and -28.50 p.p. for the heads of families. Thus, it is possible to confirm the existence of both rule manipulation the access of the program, as well as moral hazard, which points to the need to restructure the program, and above all, have less influence on the national labor market.

The aim of this paper is to identify the microeconomic determinants of underemployment and unemployment in Ecuador before and after COVID-19. A multinomial logit model was estimated on the accumulated data from the National Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment Survey (ENEMDU) for 2019 and 2022. The results show that the average worker has a 59% probability of being in an adequate job, 35% of being underemployed and 6% of being unemployed. These probabilities change significantly depending on the worker's education and experience. In addition, significant differences were evident by gender, ethnicity, role in the home, and marital status. These differences increased after COVID-19. Thus, underemployment and unemployment promote labor inequality in Ecuador. Based on the results, the public policy should be aimed at reducing economic and opportunity inequalities because vulnerable groups were identified in the labor market.

Using panel data from the National Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment Survey (ENEMDU) for Ecuador, we analyze the outcomes of life and job satisfaction whether moving from bad job to a good job-and vice versa-on life and job satisfaction. In contrast with bad jobs, good jobs are characterized by being employed in the formal sector, with social security registration, and earning at least the minimum wage. Using a conditional logit estimate, we found that workers who move from a bad to a good job increase job satisfaction by 9.5%, whereas when the transition is from a good to a bad job, job satisfaction decreases by 8.5%; in terms of gender, the effect is greater for men than women. Finally, we did not find any significant effect of job transitions on life satisfaction.