Female earnings and gender differentials in Great Britain 1977-1994

This paper employs an extremely large but comparatively under-researched dataset, the New Earnings Survey, to construct a model of female earnings in Great Britain from 1977 to 1994. This study is the first to utilise the dataset's panel nature. Unusually, the coefficients are allowed to vary flexibly over time, which allows us to study the changing structure of the labour market. We also take account of unobserved heterogeneity and occupational endogeneity. Our results show significant changes in the structure of both male and female earnings over time, particularly in the public sector, across regions and amongst those covered by collective bargains