Does tax transparency influence wage setting? Evidence on gender gaps

This paper examines how an often-overlooked source of pay transparency-the public disclosure of tax information-affects gender wage gaps. We exploit a 2001 change in Norway that made individual tax returns searchable online. Using matched employer-employee data and a differencein-differences design, we find that within-firm gender wage gaps fell by 2.2 percentage points (8.7 percent), driven by rising female wages. Effects are strongest in private-sector firms, industries with initially larger gaps, and municipalities that previously lacked easy access to printed tax lists. Wage gains are concentrated among job-changing women, suggesting that broad-based transparency mainly operates through improved information for job search.