What lies behind the gender wage gap in Serbia?

Abstract

Large gender inequalities have persisted in the Serbian labour market. One of the key indicators of labour market inequality is the gender pay gap. This paper examines the gender pay gap in Serbia based on data from the Survey of Income and Living Conditions. Our findings show that on average women earn far less than men, a gap that has increased slightly over time. The paper offers an in-depth analysis of this gender pay gap in Serbia by decomposing the gender pay gap into an explained part related to difference in characteristics and an unexplained part related to differences in returns attributable to these characteristics. In addition, it provides an estimate of selection effects on the gender pay gap using an innovative methodology that corrects for sample selection bias.