This paper examines the changes in wage inequality over the period 2009-2016 in Palestine's labor market. The wage inequality, assessed by the Gini coefficient, bottom and upper quintiles and middle inter-quintiles, is found to be in increasing trend over years. Using an inter-temporal decomposition approach, we decompose the changes in wage inequality into a composition effect explained by changes in demographic and labor market characteristics, and a wage structure effect attributable to unequal returns to those characteristics. We find evidence that the composition effect explained by changes in industry composition, region and refugee status dominates the wage structure effect in explaining the rise of wage inequality over the first two years. Instead, the results indicate that the wage structural effect of age and discrimination against female workers have a significant and positive contribution to the increase of the Gini coefficient and upper quintile over the remaining years of the period.

Conference Title

37th IARIW General Conference, Luxembourg.

Conference Country

Luxembourg

Conference Date

Aug. 22, 2022 - Aug. 26, 2022

Conference Sponsor

IARIW