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.

本文研究了行为偏好的性别差异如何影响越南的性别工资差距。我们进行了一项实地实验室实验，以衡量对风险和谈判的偏好，并管理一项补充调查，以收集有关工资和影响工资的可观察因素的数据。在我们的样本中，女性的收入低于男性，但不同性别的可观察特征的差异无法解释性别工资差距，即大部分性别差距无法解释。我们的实验结果表明，女性更规避风险，谈判倾向更低。这两个变量加起来占工资差距无法解释部分的 15.5%，并且与性别工资差距缩小 29% 相关。