The gender wage gap in Bulgaria: A semiparametric estimation of discrimination

Bulgaria's transition to a market economy has coincided with a large increase in wage inequality. This increase may be due to managers rewarding more productive Workers or it may be the result of rewarding noneconomic characteristics such as sex. Data from the 1995 Bulgaria Integrated Household Survey reject the hypothesis of no sex discrimination. Using separate wage regression estimates for men and women, an Oaxaca decomposition indicates that men's wages are 24% higher than women's wages and 86 to 105% of this differential is due to differences in how men and women are rewarded for the same characteristics.