9 Decomposing Gender and Ethnic Earnings Gaps in Seven Cities in West Africa

Women and certain ethnic groups oft en face unequal treatment in labor mar-kets, in both developed and developing countries. Many studies examine ethnic and gender wage gaps in developed countries (Altonji and Blank 1999; Blau and Kahn 2000). In contrast, only 3 percent of the studies on the gender wage gap draw on African data (Weichselbaumer and Winter-Ebmer 2005). As a result, little is known about inequalities in labor market outcomes in Africa. Enhancing the literature on the gender and ethnic gap in the poorest coun-tries is important for several reasons. First, there are manifest shortcomings of studies on African countries, particularly because of the thinness of the data (Bennell 1996). Second, gender and ethnic inequalities are likely to be greater where markets do not function effi ciently and the state lacks the resources to introduce corrective policies. Th ird, understanding the roots of gender and ethnic inequalities and narrowing these gaps could help policy makers design poverty-reduction policies. Under the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) initiative, which con