Field of study differences and gender wage inequality in Belgium: A decomposition using Gelbach’s method

Details

Supervisors

Vandenberghe, Vincent

Faculty

Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales, politiques et de communication

Degree label

Master [60] en sciences économiques, orientation générale

Abstract

enThis thesis analyses the extent to which differences in field of study between men and women may contribute to gender wage inequality among higher education graduates in Belgium, both directly and indirectly through occupation, sector, and working time. The analysis uses the 2012 Vacature Salarisenquête dataset and focuses on a sample of 25,795 employed higher education graduates. Ordinary Least Squares regressions and Gelbach’s (2016) decomposition method are used to quantify the contribution of each factor to the gender wage gap. The results indicate that women earn approximately 21.09% less than men, conditional on age. Observable characteristics explain 68.78% of this gap. Field of study alone is associated with 16.81% of the total gap, while an additional 11.41% appears to be associated with the gap indirectly through occupation, sector, and working time. Overall, educational segregation is associated with approximately 28.23% of gender wage inequality, suggesting that a substantial share of wage disparities may originate before labour market entry through gendered educational choices.