Gypsies are historically and presently in a disadvantaged position in all countries where
they reside. Using the censuses of 1977, 1992 and 2002, I provide an empirical decomposition
across time of the inequality Gypsies suffer in Romania, home to a large and growing
Gypsy community. Gypsies are found to have worse housing conditions, persistently lower
educational attainment, less employment, and higher unemployment. A logit regression
reveals that despite controlling for parental education and other characteristics young Gypsies,
in particular Gypsy girls, have a lower probability of attending school, indicating that
the next generation will suffer from low educational attainment, as well. In the labor market,
similarly, Gypsies are found to be less likely to be employed, where again females
suffer an even greater burden than male Gypsies. Using a Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition I
show that a large part of the differences in employment cannot be explained by observable
characteristics.