IS TRADE AGAINST OR IN FAVOR OF WOMEN? EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM MANUFACTURING SECTOR IN TURKEY

Abstract

This paper studies the effect of trade openness on relative wage earnings of female workers in Turkey’s manufacturing sector. We compute the export intensity of a sector by dividing the export value to production value as our measure of trade openness. Using Structure of Earnings Survey data for 2010 and 2014, we estimate the impact of export intensity on the gender wage gap. Our results indicate that a onepercentage point increase in the export intensity of a sector leads to a 0.17 percent higher gender wage gap. We further investigate the trade-gender wage gap link by grouping the sectors into four quartiles according to their export intensities. Our estimations for each quartile reinforce our finding of a negative impact of trade on the male-female wage inequality. Lastly, we analyze how the wage gap between men and women change according to skill levels. In line with the previous findings in the literature, we estimate a higher wage discrimination against high-skill women.