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Distribution Regression with Sample Selection, with an Application to Wage Decompositions in the UK

Victor Chernozhukov, Iván Fernández-Val, Siyi Luo

arXiv 28 Nov 2018 · Econometrics · publishedJournal of Political Economy (2025) · 9 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:1811.11603 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

We develop a distribution regression model under endogenous sample selection. This model is a semi-parametric generalization of the Heckman selection model. It accommodates much richer effects of the covariates on outcome distribution and patterns of heterogeneity in the selection process, and allows for drastic departures from the Gaussian error structure, while maintaining the same level tractability as the classical model. The model applies to continuous, discrete and mixed outcomes. We provide identification, estimation, and inference methods, and apply them to obtain wage decomposition for the UK. Here we decompose the difference between the male and female wage distributions into composition, wage structure, selection structure, and selection sorting effects. After controlling for endogenous employment selection, we still find substantial gender wage gap -- ranging from 21% to 40% throughout the (latent) offered wage distribution that is not explained by composition. We also uncover positive sorting for single men and negative sorting for married women that accounts for a substantive fraction of the gender wage gap at the top of the distribution.

Citation extraction

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Most heavily cited references

The works this paper leans on most, across its whole bibliography — not restricted to papers in our corpus. Ranked by composite intensity, which combines how often a work is mentioned, how many sections mention it, and how much of that falls in the main text rather than the appendix.

ReferenceIntensityMentionsSectionsMain text
1Heckman (1974) Shadow Prices, Market Wages, and Labor Supply0.87452100%
2Balke and Pearl (1994) Counterfactual probabilities: Computational methods, bounds and applications0.8434375%
3Mulligan and Rubinstein (2008) Selection, Investment, and Women's Relative Wages Over Time0.84333100%
4Arellano and Bonhomme (2017) Quantile Selection Models With an Application to Understanding Changes in Wage Inequality0.73732100%
5Manski (1994) The selection problem0.73732100%
6Blundell, Gosling, Ichimura, and Meghir (2007) Changes in the Distribution of Male and Female Wages Accounting for Employment Composition Using Bounds0.69361100%
7Blundell, Reed, and Stoker (2003) Interpreting Aggregate Wage Growth: The Role of Labor Market Participation0.64441100%
8Foresi and Peracchi (1995) The Conditional Distribution of Excess Returns: An Empirical Analysis0.64422100%
9Heckman and Vytlacil (2001) Instrumental variables, selection models, and tight bounds on the average treatment effect0.64422100%
10Manski (2003) Partial identification of probability distributions0.64422100%

Showing the top 10 of 85 scored citations.

Cited by, within the corpus

arXiv econ.EM papers that cite this one, ranked by how heavily they lean on it.

Citing paperIntensityMentionsSections
1Estimating Causal Effects of Discrete and Continuous Treatments with Binary Instruments1.00095
2Bivariate distribution regression; theory, estimation and an application to intergenerational mobility0.90985
3Decomposition of Differences in Distribution under Sample Selection and the Gender Wage Gap0.73732
4Distribution Regression in Duration Analysis: an Application to Unemployment Spells0.40511
5Semiparametric Distribution Regression with Instruments and Monotonicity0.40511
6Multiply-Robust Causal Change Attribution0.40511