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Premier multi-disciplinary autonomous public research organization

Measuring Sample Selection Corrected Gender Wage Gaps in India: 1993-94 to 2009-10

PANCHANAN DAS

 

Abstract

This paper examines gender discrimination in wages in India using the observed effect of productivity differences between women and men as viewed within the human capital theory. For the purpose, the study utilises micro-level information from the 50th and 66th rounds of the National Sample Survey (NSS). The data show that women participation rate in the job market is lower than that for men. As labour market participation is not likely to be random, wage equations have been estimated by applying Heckman’s selection model with two-step estimation techniques using pooled data of two independent samples taken from the two rounds. A substantial wage differential between men and women exists in the Indian labour market, both in rural and urban areas; but the difference has been declining during the post-reform period. The study observes substantial lower wage for women than for men at every educational standard and the wage gap increased significantly among women workers with higher level of education both in rural and urban areas during the period 1993-2010.

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