Monopsonistic Discrimination and the Gender-Wage
Gap
Erling Barth, Harald Dale-Olsen
NBER Working Paper No. W7197 Issued in June
1999
---- Abstract -----
Models of worker flows have revitalized
the idea of monopsony in the labor market. We apply
such a model to gender differences. We argue that
monopsonistic discrimination may be a substantial
factor behind the overall gender wage gap, in
particular with respect to differences arising between
occupations and establishments. Using matched
employer-employee data from Norway, we investigate the
wage structure within and between establishments, and
present novel evidence that the
establishments' excess
turnover of employees is sensitive to the wage premium
of men, but not to the wage premium of women.
Furthermore, we show that male turnover is more
wage-elastic than female turnover.