Catholic-Protestant Earnings Differentials in Northern Ireland 2011 NISRA BDR Programme

2011 年 NISRA BDR 计划北爱尔兰天主教与新教的收入差异

• 批准号: ES/X008150/1
• 负责人: Duncan McVicar
• 金额: $ 6.5万
• 依托单位: Queen's University Belfast
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FX008150%2F1
• 关键词: Catholic; Protestant; Earnings; Differentials; Northern

Labour market inequality between the Catholic and Protestant communities in Northern Ireland and the associated 'fair employment' debate have long been of concern to policy makers, researchers and the Northern Ireland public alike. For example, the Equalities Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) publishes an annual Fair Employment Monitoring Report, now in its 31st year, presenting up to date data on this issue. However, much of this debate, and ongoing monitoring, focusses on unemployment and employment differentials between the two communities, with little analysis of wage and/or earnings differentials between the two communities. For example, the Fair Employment Monitoring Reports contain no analysis of wage or earnings differentials. This reflects a historical and ongoing lack of suitable data with which to measure and seek to understand such wage/earnings differentials. The closest exception in the academic literature is probably the Borooah et al. (1995) study of income differentials using data from the Family Expenditure Survey, which found lower mean household income among the Catholic community than among the Protestant community, which was not explained by differences in productive characteristics. In terms of regular monitoring, the Northern Ireland Executive published estimates of median wage differentials each year based on the LFS, as part of its series of LFS Religion Reports, most recently for 2017 (https://www.executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/execoffice/lfs-religion-report-2017.pdf), but nowdiscontinued. The most recent estimate (for 2017) suggested no median wage differential. It is unclear, however, how much we can learn from this or previous LFS Religion Report estimates given their imprecision and volatility over time, reflecting the small sample size and also likely the measurement problems concerning the derived wage variable produced by the LFS. Nor do the LFS Religion Reports examine differences in relevant observable characteristics between Catholics and Protestants that may help to explain or even obscure wage differentials. The bottom line is that there remains very little credible evidence on this potentially crucial aspect of labour market inequality between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, both historically and currently.Despite this lack of existing evidence, however, it is difficult to rule out that such a wage gap may have existed as late as 2011, and might perhaps even persist more recently. The trends over time in the unemployment differential may be suggestive of this. Specifically, although there was a substantial narrowing of Catholic-Protestant unemploymentdifferentials in the decades running up to 2011, Rowland et al. (2021) show that an unemployment gap between the two communities still existed at that point, at least for men. Further, the study shows that this gap could be partly but not fully explained by differences in the observable characteristics of the two communities, including where people live.The proposed research will address this important gap in our understanding of inequality between the Catholic and Protestant communities in Northern Ireland by providing more precise and more detailed quantitative evidence than has previously been possible on the wage differential as of 2011 using newly available data (the Earnings and EmployeesStudy (EES) 2011). In addition to making an important academic contribution, by providing a historical benchmark from which to compare, this project will help to inform the ongoing monitoring efforts of, for example, ECNI. Such monitoring can be crucially important. The ECNI Chief Commissioner, Geraldine McGahey, is on record as saying: "Our experiences show that if something is not measured, it is unlikely to be changed" (https://www.equalityni.org/Footer-Links/News/Delivering-Equality/31st-Fair-Employment-Monitoring-Report-published).

北爱尔兰天主教和新教社区与相关的“公平就业”辩论之间的劳动力市场不平等长期以来一直关注政策制定者，研究人员和北爱尔兰的公共公共辩论。例如，北爱尔兰平等委员会（ECNI）发布了一份年度公平就业监控报告，该报告已于第31年，介绍了有关此问题的最新数据。但是，这场辩论的大部分以及正在进行的监测都集中在两个社区之间的失业和就业差异上，几乎没有对两个社区之间的工资和/或收入差异分析。例如，公平就业监控报告不包含对工资或收入差异的分析。这反映了历史和持续缺乏合适的数据来衡量和寻求理解这种工资/收入差异。学术文献中最接近的例外可能是Borooah等人。 （1995）使用家庭支出调查的数据研究收入差异，该调查发现天主教社区中的家庭收入的平均收入低于新教社区中的平均收入，而新教社区的生产特征差异并未解释。在定期监控方面，作为其系列LFS宗教报告的一部分，北爱尔兰高管每年根据LFS发布了中位工资差异的估计，最近是2017年（https：//wwwww.execececetuneoffice-ni.gov.gov.uk/sites/sites/sites/sites/defeault/default/files/files/publiles/publicecation/eexecoffiquice/execoffice/cubligion/lffrffirigii budpport2017 Nowdiscontined。最新的估计（2017年）表明中值工资差异。然而，尚不清楚我们可以从该或以前的LFS宗教报告估计的估计值中学到多少，鉴于它们随着时间的流逝不精确和波动性，反映了较小的样本量，并且很可能与LFS产生的衍生工资变量有关的测量问题。 LFS宗教报告也没有研究天主教徒和新教徒之间可观察到的特征的差异，这些特征可能有助于解释甚至掩盖工资差异。最重要的是，关于北爱尔兰的天主教徒和新教徒之间劳动力市场不平等的这一潜在至关重要的方面的可靠证据，无论是历史上还是目前。随着时间的流逝，失业差异的趋势可能暗示了这一点。具体而言，尽管在直到2011年的数十年中，天主教 - 原始人的失业率差异很大，但Rowland等人。 （2021）表明，至少对于男人，这两个社区之间仍然存在失业差距。此外，研究表明，这一差距可以部分但不能完全由两个社区的可观察特征（包括人们的住所）的可观察特征差异来解释。拟议的研究将解决我们对北爱尔兰天主教和新教社区之间不平等的不平等现象的这一重要差距2011）。除了提供重要的学术贡献外，通过提供历史基准进行比较，该项目还将有助于告知例如ECNI的持续监测工作。这样的监测至关重要。 The ECNI Chief Commissioner, Geraldine McGahey, is on record as saying: "Our experiences show that if something is not measured, it is unlikely to be changed" (https://www.equalityni.org/Footer-Links/News/Delivering-Equality/31st-Fair-Employment-Monitoring-Report-published).