GENDER UNIQUE HUMAN CAPITAL AND LABOUR MARKET RETURNS.

The purpose of a research* is to better understand the possible reasons behind gender wage disparities, focusing on the unique features of male and female human capital and their labour market returns. The research relies on application of the PIAAC (The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies) database allowing to measure individual cognitive abilities in literacy, numeracy and problem solving. Several methodological approaches including also non-parametric matching based decomposition are applied towards identifying a role of human capital in wage disparities. The results showed that skills are valued at a labour market often more than formal education, hence men's better numeracy and problem solving abilities help them to attain higher wage, despite lower formal education. Effective policy aiming to support development and efficient use of existing human potential, should consider reasoning of females' "brain drain", e.g. on-job training, welfare system, norms and several non-cognitive factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]