DP15338 Occupational Licensing and the Gender Wage Gap

Author(s):	Maria Koumenta, Mario Pagliero, Davud Rostam-Afschar
Publication Date:	October 2020
Keyword(s):	Gender Gap, Occupational Licensing, wages
JEL(s):	J16, J31, J44, J71
Programme Areas:	Labour Economics
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=15338

We use a unique survey of the EU labor force to investigate the relationship between occupational licensing and the gender wage gap. We find that the gender wage gap is canceled for licensed self-employed workers. However, this closure of the gender wage gap is not mirrored by significant changes in the gender gap in hours worked. Our results are robust using decomposition methods, quantile regressions, different datasets, and selection correction.