Ronald L. Oaxaca (born c. 1943) is the McClelland Professor of

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

. His areas of research include labor economics, applied

econometrics Econometrics is the application of statistical methods to economic data in order to give empirical content to economic relationships. M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics," '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, p. 8 p. 8 ...

and applied microeconomics. Oaxaca graduated from

California State University, Fresno California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bache ...

in 1965, and went on to earn a Ph.D. from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1971.

Background

Oaxaca conducts research on panel data analysis of faculty salary determination. He has been engaged in research on statistical discrimination,

consistent estimator In statistics, a consistent estimator or asymptotically consistent estimator is an estimator—a rule for computing estimates of a parameter ''θ''0—having the property that as the number of data points used increases indefinitely, the result ...

s of linear probability models, the effects of ability and family background on optimal schooling levels, a labor supply model of dual job holding, the production of engineering degrees in American universities, the effects of technological change on gender wage differentials, and comparative trends in gender wage differentials between Denmark and the U.S. Oaxaca is perhaps best known for his

Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition The Kitagawa–Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition is a statistical method that explains the difference in the means of a dependent variable between two groups by decomposing the gap into that part that is due to differences in the mean values of the ind ...

procedure which attempts to identify the presence of labour market discrimination against particular groups. In this technique, which was introduced in his doctoral thesis at

and eventually published in 1973, separate statistical models of labour market outcomes (typically wage rates) are estimated for two different groups of workers. The modelling procedure allows the researcher to hypothesize what the wage of the discriminated-against group would be if discrimination were absent from the labour market. In 2005 ''Hispanic Business'' magazine identified Ronald Oaxaca as one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the United States. The Oaxaca decomposition is used worldwide to sort out claims of discrimination in salaries and wages. The Oaxaca decomposition has been cited in hundreds of published research papers and in countless discrimination lawsuits.

References

External links

Website at the University of Arizona
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oaxaca, Ronald Labor economists Economists from California California State University, Fresno alumni University of Arizona faculty Princeton University alumni 1940s births Living people Microeconomists Economists from Arizona 21st-century American economists