Decomposing the Gender Pay Gap among Doctorate Holders

This paper examines the gender pay gap among doctorate holders in Korea to understand the determinants of this gap and control of its variation. A particular focus of this study is to seek to infer the extent to which this pay gap is the consequence of gender-based disparate treatment. The main results indicate that there is a sizeable gender pay gap even among workers with doctorate degrees, that is, very highly educated workers. Moreover, this gender pay gap cannot be largely explained by gender differences in characteristics, indicating the existence of discrimination against female doctorate holders in the Korean labor market.