The increase of gender wage gap in Italy during the 2008-2012 economic crisis

Daniela Piazzalunga and Maria Di Tommaso ()

Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers from University of Turin

Abstract: The paper examines the gender wage gap in Italy during the 2008-2012 economic crisis, using cross-sectional EU-SILC data. The gender wage gap has increased from 4% (2008) to 8% (2012), but after 2010 the growth (and its unexplained component) was particularly pronounced in the upper part of the wage distribution, suggesting that two different patterns have been underway, depending on the period. In fact, in 2010-2011 a wage freeze in the public sector was introduced as an austerity measure, and the average public sector premium had a signi cant drop of 4%, even more pronounced for women. Using counterfactual analysis, we show that such wage freeze has been one of the major causes of the growth of the gender wage gap, disproportionately a ecting women, who are more likely to be employed in the public sector. The `policy effect' accounts for more than 100% of the increase between 2009 and 2011, while other changes, if anything, would have reduced the gender gap.

Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2015-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hme
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The increase of the gender wage gap in Italy during the 2008-2012 economic crisis (2019)
Journal Article: The increase of the gender wage gap in Italy during the 2008-2012 economic crisis (2019)
Working Paper: The Increase of the Gender Wage Gap in Italy during the 2008-2012 Economic Crisis (2016)
Working Paper: The increase of the gender wage gap in Italy during the 2008-2012 economic crisis (2015)
Working Paper: The increase of the gender wage gap in Italy during the 2008-2012 economic crisis (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uto:dipeco:201532

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