Working Papers

The WNE Working Papers series has been published by the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw since 2008.

The WNE Working Papers series provides a fast, open channel for disseminating research conducted at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw. The papers hosted here are working versions (pre-prints) and may evolve as authors refine their analyses, incorporate feedback, or progress through formal peer-review. What you read is the current version released by the authors, timestamped and assigned DOI/ISSN identifiers to ensure precise citation and version tracking. Copyright remains with the authors, who may, at any time, upload a revised file or add a note directing readers to a later, peer-reviewed publication.

The Working Papers series accepts articles by research employees of the Faculty and publications from conferences organised at the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw. Articles should be original research papers which have not been previously published, on the subject of economics.

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Number of Results 18

WP(14/2020)320. Why wealth inequality differs between post-socialist countries?

Authors: Brzeziński Michał, Sałach Katarzyna
We provide the first attempt to understand how differences in households' socio-demographic and economic characteristics account for disparities in wealth inequality between five post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. We use 2013…

WP320. Why wealth inequality differs between post-socialist countries?

We provide the first attempt to understand how differences in households' socio-demographic and economic characteristics account for disparities in wealth inequality between five post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. We use 2013/2014 data from the second wave of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) and the reweighted Oaxaca-Blinder-like decompositions based on recentered influence function (RIF) regressions. Our results show that the differences in homeownership rates account for up to 42% of the difference in wealth inequality measured with the Gini index and for as much as 63-109% in case of the P50/P25 percentile ratio. Differences in homeownership rates are related to alternative designs of housing tax policies but could be also driven by other factors. We correct for the problem of the 'missing rich' in household surveys by calibrating the HFCS survey weights to top wealth shares adjusted using wealth data from national rich lists. Empirically, the correction procedure strengthens the importance of homeownership rates in accounting for cross-country wealth inequality differences, which suggests that our results are not sensitive to the significant underestimation of top wealth observations in the HFCS.


Brzeziński Michał, Sałach Katarzyna
wealth inequality decomposition recentered influence function (RIF) regressions survey weight calibration Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) post-socialist transition Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) housing homeownership missing rich

WP(1/2019)286. Do female managers help to lower within-firm gender pay gaps? Public institutions vs. private enterprises

Authors: Magda Iga, Cukrowska-Torzewska Ewa
We analyze the link between the presence of female managers and the size of the firm-level gender pay gap, looking separately at the private and public sector. Using a large linked employer-employee dataset for Poland and a non-parametric and paramet…

WP286. Do female managers help to lower within-firm gender pay gaps? Public institutions vs. private enterprises

We analyze the link between the presence of female managers and the size of the firm-level gender pay gap, looking separately at the private and public sector. Using a large linked employer-employee dataset for Poland and a non-parametric and parametric decompositions, we find that higher presence of female managers is associated with more pay advantage towards women in selected types of public sector units: the ones in which remunerations of women and men are already equal, and a large share of the workforce is tertiary-educated. The effects are, however, relatively small in size. In private establishments, lower gender wage inequality is associated with higher shares of female workers, but not female managers.


Magda Iga, Cukrowska-Torzewska Ewa
gender wage gap wage inequalities public sector female managers Ñopo decomposition Oaxaca- Blinder decomposition

WP(16/2018)275. What accounts for the rise of low self-rated health during the recent economic crisis in Europe?

Authors: Brzeziński Michał
This study examines how different economic mechanisms affected low self-rated health (SRH) in Europe over the recent crisis period (2008−2011). We use balanced panel data for covering 26 European countries and 43 456 participants coming from th…

WP275. What accounts for the rise of low self-rated health during the recent economic crisis in Europe?

This study examines how different economic mechanisms affected low self-rated health (SRH) in Europe over the recent crisis period (2008−2011). We use balanced panel data for covering 26 European countries and 43 456 participants coming from the longitudinal 2011 European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) database. Over-time increases in low SRH incidence are decomposed into the contributions of changes in the distribution of covariates and changes in returns to the covariates. Results show that low SRH incidence increased in Europe during the crisis by almost 2 percentage points (3.7 percentage points in case of the Baltic countries). Decomposition analysis shows that: 1) decreasing household incomes and changing income distribution had no impact on low SRH incidence, 2) rise of material deprivation accounts for 12% of the overall growth in low SRH rates (27% for the Baltic countries), 3) decreasing levels of full-time and part-time employment as well as transitions to unemployment, economic inactivity, disability, or retirement account jointly for about 21% of the rise in low SRH in Europe (73% for Baltic countries).


DOI: https://doi.org.10.26405/WP/WNE/2018/275/016
Brzeziński Michał
self-rated health economic crisis decomposition Oaxaca-Blinder unemployment material deprivation

WP(28/2017)257. Income inequality and the Great Recession in Central and Eastern Europe

Authors: Brzeziński Michał
This paper uses the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data to study the changes in income inequality in Central and Eastern Europe during the Great Recession (2008-2012) and its determinants. Inequality changes are d…

WP257. Income inequality and the Great Recession in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper uses the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data to study the changes in income inequality in Central and Eastern Europe during the Great Recession (2008-2012) and its determinants. Inequality changes are decomposed using an Oaxaca-Blinder-like decomposition analysis based on the Recentered Influence Function (RIF) methodology, which allows to split the overall change in inequality into endowment effects associated with changes in the distribution of inequality covariates and coefficient effects, which are related to the changing returns to these covariates. Our results show that the Gini for disposable incomes has increased over 2008-2012 in a statistically significant way for Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary and Slovenia. For most of the countries with significant inequality increases, falling full-time employment rate played the biggest role in explaining changes in inequality. It accounted for about 50-60% of the Gini change for disposable incomes and for about 60-80% of the Gini change for market incomes. The fall in full-time employment rate had a smaller inequality-increasing effect for disposable incomes in Hungary (about 15% of the Gini increase). Increased part-time employment during the recession had either no impact on inequality or was rather inequality-decreasing. We did not find evidence that changes in the incidence of temporary jobs had any impact on income inequality.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.26405/WP/WNE/2017/257/028
Brzeziński Michał
income inequality decomposition RIF regression Great Recession Central and Eastern Europe

WP(27/2017)256. Diagnosing unhappiness dynamics: Evidence from Poland and Russia

Authors: Brzeziński Michał
This paper studies the determinants of changes in unhappiness rate (low happiness, poverty of happiness, misery) over time. We focus on two post-socialist countries, Poland and Russia, which experienced radical social and economic transformations sin…

WP256. Diagnosing unhappiness dynamics: Evidence from Poland and Russia

This paper studies the determinants of changes in unhappiness rate (low happiness, poverty of happiness, misery) over time. We focus on two post-socialist countries, Poland and Russia, which experienced radical social and economic transformations since the collapse of communism. Using data from the Polish Social Diagnosis project for 1991-2015 and data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey for 1994-2014, we investigate the microeconomic determinants of spectacular declines in unhappiness rates observed in the studied periods in Poland (a 56% fall in unhappiness) and Russia (a drop in the range from 46 to 75% depending on the unhappiness threshold chosen). Using a nonlinear decomposition methodology, we split the overall decreases in unhappiness rates into characteristics effects (related to the changing distribution of unhappiness-affecting factors) and coefficients effects (due to changing returns to the unhappiness-affecting factors). Our results show that unhappiness reductions in both countries were mostly driven by coefficient effects, while characteristics played a smaller, but a non-negligible role. In both countries, income growth accounted for about 15% of the total unhappiness reduction. In Russia, this effect was doubled by growing return to income as unhappiness-protecting factor, while in Poland income has been losing protecting power and in overall income had an unhappiness-increasing effect. For Russia, another strong unhappiness-protecting factor was return to employment. In case of Poland, good self-rated health and having children explains additional 15-20% of the unhappiness reduction.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.26405/WP/WNE/2017/256/027
Brzeziński Michał
Happiness unhappiness life satisfaction decomposition determinants Poland Russia

WP(13/2016)204. Evolution of the public-sector wage premium in Poland

Authors: Grotkowska Gabriela, Wincenciak Leszek, Gajderowicz Tomasz
The aim of this paper is to estimate the adjusted sectoral wage gap in Poland in the period 1999–2012. We use a set of individual data from the survey on the structure of earnings by occupations (SEO) carried out by Central Statistical Office i…

WP204. Evolution of the public-sector wage premium in Poland

The aim of this paper is to estimate the adjusted sectoral wage gap in Poland in the period 1999–2012. We use a set of individual data from the survey on the structure of earnings by occupations (SEO) carried out by Central Statistical Office in Poland (CSO) every two years for entities with more than nine employees. We apply quantile regression and the Ñopo decomposition method to address several methodological problems of wage differential analysis. We show that, after controlling for structural differences in employment, there is no clear trend in the evolution of the adjusted public-sector wage premium in Poland in recent years. The parametric approach indicates a positive and growing premium, with significant variations across different parts of wage distribution. The non-parametric approach yields different results, indicating a negative premium with no clear trend in the period 1999–2012, with a declining public-sector wage penalty in recent years.


Grotkowska Gabriela, Wincenciak Leszek, Gajderowicz Tomasz
wage differentials public sector wages quantile regression Ñopo decomposition Poland

WP(29/2015)177. Differences in the Estimates of Gender Wage Gap Over The Life Cycle

Authors: Tyrowicz Joanna, van der Velde Lucas Augusto, van Staveren Irene
Given theoretical premises, there is some ground to expect the gender wage gap adjusted for individual characteristics to be age specific. We rely on a long panel of data from the German Socio-Economic Panel covering the 1984-2008 period. We employ t…

WP177. Differences in the Estimates of Gender Wage Gap Over The Life Cycle

Given theoretical premises, there is some ground to expect the gender wage gap adjusted for individual characteristics to be age specific. We rely on a long panel of data from the German Socio-Economic Panel covering the 1984-2008 period. We employ the DiNardo et al. (1996) technique to disentangle cohort and age effects. Our results indicate that the gender wage gap increases over the lifetime, but decreases with time. This finding runs contrary to the hypothesis that it is during the reproductive age that women's wages relative to men's wages suffer most. We suggest explanations for this pattern.


Tyrowicz Joanna, van der Velde Lucas Augusto, van Staveren Irene
gender wage gap age decomposition non-parametric estimates

WP(31/2014)148. Why are women paid less than men? An investigation into gender wage gap in Poland

Authors: Majchrowska Aleksandra, Strawiński Paweł, Konopczak Karolina, Skierska Agnieszka
Despite decades of anti-discriminatory legislation, wage discrimination against women is believed to be a major source of social inequality in the developed economies. In the present study we investigate the issue of gender wage gap in Poland. The an…

WP148. Why are women paid less than men? An investigation into gender wage gap in Poland

Despite decades of anti-discriminatory legislation, wage discrimination against women is believed to be a major source of social inequality in the developed economies. In the present study we investigate the issue of gender wage gap in Poland. The analysis is carried out both with regard to the labour market as a whole and in different occupational groups. We control for potential occupational segregation by including only groups with nearly balanced males-to-females ratio (0.4-0.6). The raw wage data suggest that in the case of most occupations women in Poland earn less than men. What is more, when controlling for individual and job characteristics relevant from the perspective of the labour market, the gender pay gap increases. Lower wages received by females cannot be, therefore, justified by lower productivity potential. On the contrary, despite better qualifications than in the case of men, women earn on average less, which points to the existence of gender discrimination in the Polish labour market.


Majchrowska Aleksandra, Strawiński Paweł, Konopczak Karolina, Skierska Agnieszka
wage inequality Mincer wage equation Oaxaca-Blinder Decomposition gender wage gap Poland

WP(16/2014)133. Are children driving the gender wage gap? Comparative evidence from Poland and Hungary

Authors: Cukrowska-Torzewska Ewa, Lovasz Anna
The paper examines how much children and responsibilities related with them contribute towards the divergence of men?s and women?s wages, and consequently, to the formation of the gender wage gap. To derive the relative contribution of gender specifi…

WP133. Are children driving the gender wage gap? Comparative evidence from Poland and Hungary

The paper examines how much children and responsibilities related with them contribute towards the divergence of men?s and women?s wages, and consequently, to the formation of the gender wage gap. To derive the relative contribution of gender specific wage inequalities caused by the parenthood to the overall gender wage gap, we provide a modification of standard Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method. Contrary to our expectations, the findings show that most of the gender wage inequality is due to the positive wage gap between men who do and do not have children and not due to the wage penalty incurred by mothers.


Cukrowska-Torzewska Ewa, Lovasz Anna
Gender Wage Gap Family Gap Motherhood Penalty Wage Gap Decomposition

WP(11/2014)128. Gender Wage Gap in Poland ? Can It Be Explained by Differences in Observable Characteristics?

Authors: Goraus-Tańska Karolina, Tyrowicz Joanna
The raw gender wage gap over the period 1995-2012 amounts to app. 9% of hourly wage and is fairly stable. However, the raw gap does not account for differences in endowments between genders. In fact, the adjusted wage gap amounts to as much as 20% on…

WP128. Gender Wage Gap in Poland ? Can It Be Explained by Differences in Observable Characteristics?

The raw gender wage gap over the period 1995-2012 amounts to app. 9% of hourly wage and is fairly stable. However, the raw gap does not account for differences in endowments between genders. In fact, the adjusted wage gap amounts to as much as 20% on average over the analyzed period and shows some cyclical properties. The estimates of adjusted gender wage gap do not seem to exhibit any long-term trends, which suggest that in general neither demographic changes nor the progressing transition underlie the phenomenon of unequal pay for the same work among men and women.


Goraus-Tańska Karolina, Tyrowicz Joanna
Wage gap discrimination decomposition Oaxaca-Blinder N?po non-parametric estimation
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