Gender Disparities in Top Earnings: Measurement and Facts for Denmark 1980-2013

Niels-Jakob Harbo Hansen; Karl Harmenberg; Erik Öberg; Hans H. Sievertsen

doi:10.1007/s10888-020-09476-1

Gender Disparities in Top Earnings: Measurement and Facts for Denmark 1980-2013

Niels-Jakob Harbo Hansen, Karl Harmenberg, Erik Öberg^*, Hans H. Sievertsen

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

Abstract

Extending the work of Atkinson et al. (2018), we decompose top-earnings gender disparities into a glass-ceiling coefficient and a top-earnings gender gap. The decomposition uses that both male and female top earnings are Pareto distributed. If interpreting top-earnings gender disparities as caused by a female-specific earnings tax, the top-earnings gender gap and glass-ceiling coefficient measure the tax level and tax progressivity, respectively. Using Danish data on earnings, we show that the top-earnings gender gap and the glass-ceiling coefficient evolve differently across time, the life cycle, and educational groups. In particular, while the topearnings gender gap has been decreasing in Denmark over the period 1980-2013, the glass-ceiling coefficient has been remarkably stable.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	347-362
Number of pages	16
Journal	Journal of Economic Inequality
Volume	19
Issue number	2
Early online date	11 Mar 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-020-09476-1
Publication status	Published - Jun 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We are very grateful for comments from the editor, anonymous referees, Arizo Karimi, Oskar Nordstr?m Skans and seminar participants at CBS, IIES, and UC Santa Barbara. All errors are our own. The views herein are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the IMF, its Executive Board, or its management. Funding from Lars Hierta?s Foundation and Handelsbanken?s Research Foundations is gratefully acknowledged.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).

Structured keywords

ECON CEPS Welfare
ECON Macroeconomics

Keywords

ECON Applied Economics

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title = "Gender Disparities in Top Earnings: Measurement and Facts for Denmark 1980-2013",

abstract = "Extending the work of Atkinson et al. (2018), we decompose top-earnings gender disparities into a glass-ceiling coefficient and a top-earnings gender gap. The decomposition uses that both male and female top earnings are Pareto distributed. If interpreting top-earnings gender disparities as caused by a female-specific earnings tax, the top-earnings gender gap and glass-ceiling coefficient measure the tax level and tax progressivity, respectively. Using Danish data on earnings, we show that the top-earnings gender gap and the glass-ceiling coefficient evolve differently across time, the life cycle, and educational groups. In particular, while the topearnings gender gap has been decreasing in Denmark over the period 1980-2013, the glass-ceiling coefficient has been remarkably stable.",

keywords = "ECON Applied Economics",

author = "Hansen, {Niels-Jakob Harbo} and Karl Harmenberg and Erik {\"O}berg and Sievertsen, {Hans H.}",

note = "Funding Information: We are very grateful for comments from the editor, anonymous referees, Arizo Karimi, Oskar Nordstr?m Skans and seminar participants at CBS, IIES, and UC Santa Barbara. All errors are our own. The views herein are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the IMF, its Executive Board, or its management. Funding from Lars Hierta?s Foundation and Handelsbanken?s Research Foundations is gratefully acknowledged. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, The Author(s).",

year = "2021",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1007/s10888-020-09476-1",

language = "English",

volume = "19",

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T2 - Measurement and Facts for Denmark 1980-2013

AU - Hansen, Niels-Jakob Harbo

AU - Harmenberg, Karl

AU - Öberg, Erik

AU - Sievertsen, Hans H.

N1 - Funding Information: We are very grateful for comments from the editor, anonymous referees, Arizo Karimi, Oskar Nordstr?m Skans and seminar participants at CBS, IIES, and UC Santa Barbara. All errors are our own. The views herein are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the IMF, its Executive Board, or its management. Funding from Lars Hierta?s Foundation and Handelsbanken?s Research Foundations is gratefully acknowledged. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).

PY - 2021/6

Y1 - 2021/6

N2 - Extending the work of Atkinson et al. (2018), we decompose top-earnings gender disparities into a glass-ceiling coefficient and a top-earnings gender gap. The decomposition uses that both male and female top earnings are Pareto distributed. If interpreting top-earnings gender disparities as caused by a female-specific earnings tax, the top-earnings gender gap and glass-ceiling coefficient measure the tax level and tax progressivity, respectively. Using Danish data on earnings, we show that the top-earnings gender gap and the glass-ceiling coefficient evolve differently across time, the life cycle, and educational groups. In particular, while the topearnings gender gap has been decreasing in Denmark over the period 1980-2013, the glass-ceiling coefficient has been remarkably stable.

AB - Extending the work of Atkinson et al. (2018), we decompose top-earnings gender disparities into a glass-ceiling coefficient and a top-earnings gender gap. The decomposition uses that both male and female top earnings are Pareto distributed. If interpreting top-earnings gender disparities as caused by a female-specific earnings tax, the top-earnings gender gap and glass-ceiling coefficient measure the tax level and tax progressivity, respectively. Using Danish data on earnings, we show that the top-earnings gender gap and the glass-ceiling coefficient evolve differently across time, the life cycle, and educational groups. In particular, while the topearnings gender gap has been decreasing in Denmark over the period 1980-2013, the glass-ceiling coefficient has been remarkably stable.

KW - ECON Applied Economics

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DO - 10.1007/s10888-020-09476-1

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JO - Journal of Economic Inequality

JF - Journal of Economic Inequality

SN - 1573-8701

IS - 2

ER -

Gender Disparities in Top Earnings: Measurement and Facts for Denmark 1980-2013

Abstract

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Keywords

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