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Gender Pension Gap in EU Countries: A Between-Group Inequality Approach

Author

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  • Antonio Abatemarco

    (Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Salerno (I), Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132, 84084 Fisciano, Italy)

  • Elena Lagomarsino

    (Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Salerno (I), Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132, 84084 Fisciano, Italy)

  • Maria Russolillo

    (Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Salerno (I), Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132, 84084 Fisciano, Italy)

Abstract

Pension entitlements are influenced by individual career paths and labor market conditions, which often result in gender-based disparities. Women face several challenges during their working lives, such as late entry into the labor market, the gender pay gap, discontinuous working careers, and early retirement due to family caregiving, which lead to lower pension incomes. This paper investigates the gender pension gap in nine European Union countries from 2004 to 2020. Our study adopts a non-parametric estimation strategy that utilizes additively decomposable inequality measures to provide a more informative perspective on gender inequality. We aim to demonstrate that this approach surpasses the standard gender gap in pension index in capturing between-gender inequality in societies. Employing data from the SHARE database, we find that gender inequality in the studied countries is decreasing on average, with a convergence trend observed from 2011 onwards. This study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the gender pension gap phenomenon, which is crucial for developing effective policy responses in a welfare perspective.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Abatemarco & Elena Lagomarsino & Maria Russolillo, 2023. "Gender Pension Gap in EU Countries: A Between-Group Inequality Approach," Risks, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-15, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jrisks:v:11:y:2023:i:3:p:63-:d:1102469
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shorrocks, A F, 1980. "The Class of Additively Decomposable Inequality Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(3), pages 613-625, April.
    2. Esfandiar Maasoumi & Le Wang, 2019. "The Gender Gap between Earnings Distributions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(5), pages 2438-2504.
    3. Ata Can Bertay & Ljubica Dordevic & Can Sever, 2020. "Gender Inequality and Economic Growth: Evidence from Industry-Level Data," IMF Working Papers 2020/119, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Paul Redmond & Seamus Mcguinness, 2019. "The Gender Wage Gap in Europe: Job Preferences, Gender Convergence and Distributional Effects," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 81(3), pages 564-587, June.
    5. Antonio Abatemarco & Maria Russolillo, 2023. "The Dynamics of the Gender Gap at Retirement in Italy: Evidence from SHARE," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 9(2), pages 445-473, July.
    6. Antonio Abatemarco, 2010. "Measuring inequality of opportunity through between-group inequality components," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(4), pages 475-490, December.
    7. Therese Jefferson, 2009. "Women and Retirement Pensions: A Research Review," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 115-145.
    8. Foster, James E. & Shneyerov, Artyom A., 2000. "Path Independent Inequality Measures," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 199-222, April.
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