Using cross-sectional data from the Palestinian Labour Force Survey (PLFS), we incorporate the Oaxaca and Blinder decomposition method with the unconditional quantile decomposition approach in order to decompose the wage disparities between refugees and non-refugees. Unconditional Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition shows that 91% of the mean wage gap is explained by discrimination against refugees, and only 9% is attributed to the differences in productivity characteristics between non-refugee and refugee workers. The wage gap between the two groups (refugees and non-refugees) is not uniform throughout the wage distribution, and wage differentials (positive and significant wage gap) are much higher at the bottom and top than the middle of the wage distribution. The differences in wage between West Bank and Gaza Strip is also attributed to discrimination effect in either the bottom or top of the wage distribution. The return to schooling is higher for refugees, which means that the investment in education is very important tool for refugees to decrease the wage gap with non-refugees.

Conference Title

2. 62nd ISI World Statistics Congress 2019 (ISI WSC 2019

Conference Country

Malaysia

Conference Date

Aug. 18, 2019 - Aug. 23, 2019

Conference Sponsor

International Statistic Institute (ISI)

Additional Info

Conference Website