OECD Economics Department Working Papers
Working papers from the Economics Department of the OECD that cover the full range of the Department’s work including the economic situation, policy analysis and projections; fiscal policy, public expenditure and taxation; and structural issues including ageing, growth and productivity, migration, environment, human capital, housing, trade and investment, labour markets, regulatory reform, competition, health, and other issues.
The views expressed in these papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of the governments of its member countries.
- ISSN : 18151973 (en ligne)
- https://doi.org/10.1787/18151973
Less Income Inequality and More Growth – Are they Compatible? Part 7. The Drivers of Labour Earnings Inequality – An Analysis Based on Conditional and Unconditional Quantile Regressions
Unconditional and conditional quantile regressions are used to explore the determinants of labour earnings at different parts of the distribution and, hence, the determinants of overall labour earnings inequality. The analysis combines several household surveys to provide comparable estimates for 32 countries. The empirical work suggests that, in general, a rise in the share of workers with an upper-secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary degree, a rise in trade union membership, a rise in the share of public employment and a rise in the share of workers on permanent contracts are associated with a narrowing of the earnings distribution. By contrast, a shift in the sector composition of the economy is not found to have a large impact on overall earnings inequality. As for tertiary education, the impact remains ambiguous as there are several offsetting forces.
Mots-clés: education, union membership, temporary work contract, public employment, quantile regression, income inequality, labour income
JEL:
J41: Labor and Demographic Economics / Particular Labor Markets / Labor Contracts;
J45: Labor and Demographic Economics / Particular Labor Markets / Public Sector Labor Markets;
I24: Health, Education, and Welfare / Education and Research Institutions / Education and Inequality;
J51: Labor and Demographic Economics / Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining / Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects;
C21: Mathematical and Quantitative Methods / Single Equation Models; Single Variables / Single Equation Models; Single Variables: Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models; Quantile Regressions;
D31: Microeconomics / Distribution / Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions