DOES THE LEVEL OF OCCUPATIONAL AGGREGATION AFFECT ESTIMATES OF THE GENDER WAGE GAP

The traditional decomposition of the gender wage gap distinguishes bet ween a component attributable to gender differences in productivity-re lated characteristics and a residual component that is often taken as a measure of discrimination. This study of data from the 1989 Canadian Labour Market Activity Survey shows that when occupation is treated a s a productivity-related characteristic, the proportion of the gender wage gap labeled explained increases with the number of occupational c lassifications distinguished. However, on the basis of evidence that o ccupational differences reflect the presence of barriers faced by wome n attempting to enter male-dominated occupations, the authors conclude that occupation should not be treated as a productivity-related chara cteristic; and in a decomposition of the gender wage gap that treats o ccupation as endogenously determined, they find that the level of occu pational aggregation has little effect on the size of the ''explained' ' component of the gap.