Descomponiendo la Desigualdad Salarial en la República Dominicana: Análisis Empírico para el Periodo 2000-2011

In this paper I analyze the dynamics of wage inequality in the Dominican Republic for the period 2000-2011. The analysis focuses on the evolution of wage inequality and the causal factors behind this phenomena. Using quantile regressions and data from the National Survey of Labour Force, several findings can be enumerated. First, a significant decline in real hourly wage is observed during the period 2000-2011 due to the macroeconomic effects of the banking crisis of 2003. Second, a reduction in overall inequality is verified, induced by a contraction of wages at the top end of the distribution, greater than that experienced in the lower percentiles. Finally, the decomposition in inequality between groups and within groups, suggests that over 70 percent of the total wage dispersion is explained by the latter. However, most of the fall in inequality is due the reduction of inequality between groups, guided by a reduction in the returns to education in the higher percentiles and a reduction in the wage gap between women and men in the lower end of the distribution .