Educational attainment and the gender wage gap: evidence from the 1986 and1991 Canadian censuses

The paper takes advantage of the detailed information on educational attain ment and field of study provided in the Canadian Census to examine gender d ifferences in educational attainment and the effect of these differences on the gender earnings gap for full-time, full-year workers in Canada. Gender differences in field of study of post-secondary graduates are found to be an important contributor to the gap. This is an important finding given the lack of such data in most studies of the gender gap. Gender differences in educational attainment account for virtually none of the gender gap in ear nings in 1985 and 1990 - a result also found in earlier studies using less detailed attainment data. However, projections suggest that although gender differences in attainment explain little of the gap in these years, the co ntinuing improvement in women's educational attainment relative to men has helped shrink the gap in the past and will likely continue to do so. (C) 20 01 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.