Raquel Mendes

Gender wage differentials and occupational distribution

The study analyzes the role of occupational distribution in explaining the male-female wage gap in the Portuguese economy. The objective is to investigate to what extent gender wage disparities can be explained by occupational segregation. Relying on data from the personnel records for the period 1986-2004, this study uses the Brown, Moon, and Zoloth (1989) wage differential decomposition method to conduct the empirical analysis. The main findings reveal that occupational gender segregation is not a major contributor to the male-female wage gap and that within occupational wage effects play a prominent role in determining the overall differential. Additionally, the results indicate that a substantial portion of wage differentials within occupations potentially stems from wage discrimination.

Glass Ceilings in Portugal?: An Analysis of the Gender Wage Gap Using a Quantile Regression Approach

Despite the evidence of female progress with regard to womens role in the labor market, gender inequality remains. Women are still less likely to be employed than men, occupational gender segregation continues, and females continue to earn less than males. The gender wage gap remains wide in several occupational sectors, among which is the information technology IT sector. This paper focuses the determinants of gender wage inequality. More precisely, it investigates for statistical evidence of a glass ceiling effect on womens wages. Based on the quantile regression framework, the empirical analysis extends the decomposition of the average gender wage gap to other parts of the earnings distribution. The main objective is to empirically test whether gender-based wage discrimination is greater among high paid employees, in line with glass ceiling hypothesis. Larger unexplained gaps at the top of the wage distribution indicate the existence of a glass ceiling effect in Portugal.

Residents’ perceptions of film-induced tourism: A Portuguese case study:

Film-induced tourism has various socio-cultural, economic and environmental impacts on local destinations. Considering that destination managers and tourism development authorities aim to plan for optimal tourism development, and at the same time wish to minimize the negative impacts of this development on the local communities, monitoring residents’ opinions of perceived impacts is a good way of incorporating their reaction into tourism planning and development. This study’s main objective is to explore residents’ perceptions of film-induced tourism and the impacts of filmmaking on the development of a destination. Specifically, the research examines residents’ perceptions of filmmaking impacts on two Portuguese municipalities (Arcos de Valdevez and Estremoz) given their features in two popular television soap operas. Data is collected by means of an Internet survey, in which residents’ perceptions of these impacts are solicited. Residents generally agree that the recording and exhibition of the television soap operas are important to the municipality, and contribute to the increased number of tourists. Given that residents consider that the positive impacts are more significant than the negative impacts, they would support the recording of other television series in their municipalities. Although perceptions of residents from Arcos de Valdevez and Estremoz were similar, some significant differences were found.

Tourism Impacts of a Portuguese World Heritage Historic Center: Resident’s Perceptions

This study aims to analyze local community perceptions of the importance of the World Heritage Site (WHS) classification of the historic center of Evora. The research also includes an analysis of local residents’ perceived tourism impacts on the municipality of Evora. The methodology consists of quantitative research based on a self-administered survey applied to convenience samples of local residents of Evora in the beginning of 2014. The main results indicate that local residents have a strongly positive perception of the WHS classification. In relation to the perceived tourism impacts, a principal component factor analysis delineated three positive and three negative tourism impacts. The comparison of the mean scores of these factors across residents that live near and far from the historic center reveals that the most valued and least valued factors are common to all groups of residents. Nevertheless, in terms of positive impacts, the residents that live near the historic center revealed higher means than the residents that live far from it, whereas in terms of negative impacts, the latter group revealed higher means than former group.

Gender, Wages, and Productivity: An Analysis of the Tourism Industry in Northern Portugal

Tourism represents a major economic activity in Portugal, with an enormous wealth and employment growth potential. A significant proportion of jobs in the industry tourism are occupied by women, given that this industry is characterized by a relatively higher percentage of female employees. Despite the evidence of female progress with regard to their role in the Portuguese labor market, women continue to earn less than their male counterparts. This is clearly the case of the tourism industry, where statistics reveal a persistent gender wage gap. The objective of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the determinants of gender wage inequality in the tourism industry in northern Portugal. Relying on firm-level wage equations and production functions, gender wage and productivity differentials are estimated and then compared. The comparison of these differentials allows inferring whether observed wage disparities are attributable to relatively lower female productivity, or instead disparities are due to gender wage discrimination. This approach is applied to tourism industry data gathered in the matched employer-employee data set Quadros de Pessoal (Employee Records). The main findings indicate that female employees in the tourism industry in northern Portugal are less productive than their male colleagues and that gender differences in wages are fully explained by gender differences in productivity.