The functioning of the labor market often has been stressed as a clear
determinant in explaining poverty trends in developed countries. In this paper,
we analyze the role of gender wage discrimination on household poverty rates
in several EU countries, linking two related phenomena that rarely are
analyzed together. In order to quantify the impact of discrimination on
poverty, we propose the construction of a counterfactual distribution of wages
where discrimination against women has been removed. Using this new wage
distribution, we compute total household income and compare poverty rates
in the absence of discrimination to those actually observed. Our results show
that, in general, it is true that discrimination against women plays a
determinant role in the current levels of poverty, even if we discover that
results for each country present a different pattern and intensity. Further, we
find that the effect of discrimination on poverty risk dramatically increases for
individuals in households who largely depend on working female earnings,
especially in the case of single mothers. |
