The role of risk and negotiation in explaining the gender wage gap

This paper examines how gender differences in behavioural preferences affect the gender wage gap in Vietnam. We conduct a lab-in-the-field experiment to measure preferences for risk and negotiation and administer a complementary survey to collect data on wages and observable factors that affect wages. In our sample, women earn less than men but differences in observable characteristics across gender cannot explain the gender wage gap, i.e. most of the gender gap is unexplained. Our experimental results show that women are more risk-averse and have a lower propensity to negotiate. The two variables together account for 15.5% of the unexplained component of the wage gap and are jointly associated with a 29% reduction in the gender wage gap.