202 - ERF W 4 P s - Understanding Changes in Wage Inequality in Egypt:

Hatem

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that investigates the changes in some wage inequality statistics such as the Gini coefficient and inter-quintile differences in Egypt over the period 2006-21 using an intertemporal decomposition approach to better identify the factors driving the observed changes in both the wage structure and composition effects. [...] While the first one, the widely-used Gini coefficient, offers an overview of the changes in wage distribution, the inter-quintiles provide a more detailed understanding of variations in wage inequality throughout the distribution. [...] An inconsistency in real wage changes across the distribution is illustrated in this panel, showing a decrease of less than 0.15 log points in the wage level at the bottom of the distribution and an increase of 0.05 log points and 0.25 log points, respectively, at the middle and at the top. [...] The aggregate decomposition reveals that changes in the returns to characteristics (unexplained part) have had a considerable impact on wages for most of the distribution, resulting in the consistent pattern of wage disparities across the bottom and top of the wage distribution between 2007-09 and 2010-11. [...] Notably, in the pre-Arab Spring period, the trend in wage inequality reveals a decrease at the bottom, an increase in the middle, and a substantial increase at the top of the distribution.