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之间的劳动力市场不平等以及相关的“公平就业”辩论长期以来一直受到政策制定者、研究人员和北爱尔兰公众的关注。例如，北爱尔兰平等委员会 (ECNI) 发布了年度公平就业监测报告，该报告现已进入第 31 个年头，提供了有关这一问题的最新数据。然而，大部分辩论和持续监测都集中在两个社区之间的失业和就业差异，而很少分析两个社区之间的工资和/或收入差异。例如，公平就业监测报告不包含对工资或收入差异的分析。这反映出历史上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 等人的研究。 （1995）利用家庭支出调查的数据对收入差异进行了研究，发现天主教社区的平均家庭收入低于新教社区，这不能用生产特征的差异来解释。在定期监测方面，北爱尔兰行政部门每年根据 LFS 发布对工资中位数差异的估计，作为其 LFS 宗教报告系列的一部分，最近一次是 2017 年 (https://www.executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/execoffice/lfs-religion-report-2017.pdf)，但 现在停产了。最近的估计（2017 年）表明工资中位数没有差异。然而，鉴于 LFS 宗教报告的不精确性和随时间的波动性，我们可以从这份或之前的 LFS 宗教报告估计中学到多少信息，这反映了样本量较小，也可能反映了 LFS 产生的派生工资变量的测量问题。 LFS宗教报告也没有研究天主教徒和新教徒之间相关可观察特征的差异，这些差异可能有助于解释甚至掩盖工资差异。最重要的是，无论是历史上还是现在，关于北爱尔兰天主教徒和新教徒之间劳动力市场不平等这一潜在关键方面的可信证据都很少。然而，尽管缺乏现有证据，但很难排除这种工资差距可能迟至 2011 年就已经存在，甚至可能在最近持续存在。失业率差异随时间变化的趋势可能表明了这一点。具体而言，尽管截至 2011 年的几十年里天主教徒与新教徒的失业率差距大幅缩小，但 Rowland 等人。 （2021）表明，两个社区之间的失业率差距在那时仍然存在，至少对于男性来说是这样。此外，研究表明，这一差距可以部分但不完全地由两个社区的可观察特征的差异（包括人们居住的地方）来解释。拟议的研究将通过提供比以前使用新可用数据（收入和雇员研究（EES））截至 2011 年工资差异更精确和更详细的定量证据，来解决我们对北爱尔兰天主教和新教社区之间不平等的理解中的这一重要差距。 2011）。除了做出重要的学术贡献外，通过提供历史基准进行比较，该项目还将有助于为 ECNI 等正在进行的监测工作提供信息。这种监控至关重要。 ECNI 首席专员杰拉尔丁·麦加希 (Geraldine McGahey) 公开表示：“我们的经验表明，如果不衡量某些事情，就不太可能改变”(https://www.equalityni.org/Footer-Links/News/Delivering-Equality/31st-Fair-Employment-Monitoring-Report-published)。