IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/inq/inqwps/ecineq2015-381.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

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

Author

Listed:
  • Daniela Piazzalunga

    (University of Turin, Italy)

  • Maria Laura Di Tommaso

    (University of Turin, Italy)

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 increased from 4\% in 2008 to 8\% in 2012, while for most European countries the gap decreased over the same period. After 2010 the growth of the Italian gender wage gap (and its unexplained component) was particularly high in the upper part of the wage distribution. In 2010-2011 a wage freeze in the public sector was introduced as an austerity measure, and the average public sector premium dropped from 15\% to 11\%. Using counterfactual analyses, we show that the wage freeze has been one of the major causes of the growth of the gender wage gap, disproportionately affecting women, who are more likely to be employed in the public sector. This `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.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniela Piazzalunga & Maria Laura Di Tommaso, 2015. "The increase of the gender wage gap in Italy during the 2008-2012 economic crisis," Working Papers 381, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    • Handle: RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2015-381
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ecineq.org/milano/WP/ECINEQ2015-381.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chiara Mussida & Matteo Picchio, 2014. "The gender wage gap by education in Italy," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 12(1), pages 117-147, March.
    2. Victor Chernozhukov & Iván Fernández‐Val & Blaise Melly, 2013. "Inference on Counterfactual Distributions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 81(6), pages 2205-2268, November.
    3. Daniela Piazzalunga, 2018. "The Gender Wage Gap Among College Graduates in Italy," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 4(1), pages 33-90, March.
    4. Christofides, Louis N. & Polycarpou, Alexandros & Vrachimis, Konstantinos, 2013. "Gender wage gaps, ‘sticky floors’ and ‘glass ceilings’ in Europe," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 86-102.
    5. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2017. "The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(3), pages 789-865, September.
    6. Oaxaca, Ronald, 1973. "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 14(3), pages 693-709, October.
    7. Emanuela Ghignoni & Alina Verashchagina, 2014. "Can the Crisis be an Opportunity for Women?," AIEL Series in Labour Economics, in: Dario Sciulli & Miguel Ángel Malo (ed.), Disadvantaged Workers, edition 1, chapter 12, pages 257-276, AIEL - Associazione Italiana Economisti del Lavoro.
    8. Daniela Del Boca & Silvia Pasqua & Chiara Pronzato, 2009. "Motherhood and market work decisions in institutional context: a European perspective," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 61(suppl_1), pages 147-171, April.
    9. Domenico Depalo & Raffaela Giordano & Evangelia Papapetrou, 2015. "Public–private wage differentials in euro-area countries: evidence from quantile decomposition analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 985-1015, November.
    10. Wiji Arulampalam & Alison L. Booth & Mark L. Bryan, 2007. "Is There a Glass Ceiling over Europe? Exploring the Gender Pay Gap across the Wage Distribution," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 60(2), pages 163-186, January.
    11. Eva Sierminska & Yelena Takhtamanova, 2011. "Job Flows, Demographics, and the Great Recession," Research in Labor Economics, in: Who Loses in the Downturn? Economic Crisis, Employment and Income Distribution, pages 115-154, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    12. repec:adr:anecst:y:2003:i:71-72:p:10 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Chiara Mussida & Matteo Picchio, 2014. "The trend over time of the gender wage gap in Italy," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 1081-1110, May.
    14. David Neumark, 1988. "Employers' Discriminatory Behavior and the Estimation of Wage Discrimination," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 23(3), pages 279-295.
    15. Daniela Piazzalunga, 2013. "Is there a Double-Negative Effect? Gender and Ethnic Wage Differentials," CHILD Working Papers Series 11, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    16. Ben Jann, 2008. "The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition for linear regression models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 8(4), pages 453-479, December.
    17. Julia Bredtmann & Sebastian Otten & Christian Rulff, 2014. "Husband’s Unemployment and Wife’s Labor Supply – The Added Worker Effect across Europe," Economics Working Papers 2014-13, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    18. Francesco Figari & Carlo V. Fiorio, 2015. "Fiscal Consolidation Policies in the Context of Italy's Two Recessions," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 36, pages 499-526, December.
    19. Anthony Shorrocks, 2013. "Decomposition procedures for distributional analysis: a unified framework based on the Shapley value," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(1), pages 99-126, March.
    20. Elder, Todd E. & Goddeeris, John H. & Haider, Steven J., 2010. "Unexplained gaps and Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 284-290, January.
    21. Koenker, Roger W & Bassett, Gilbert, Jr, 1978. "Regression Quantiles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 33-50, January.
    22. AfDB AfDB, . "Annual Report 2012," Annual Report, African Development Bank, number 461.
    23. Del Bono, Emilia & Vuri, Daniela, 2011. "Job mobility and the gender wage gap in Italy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 130-142, January.
    24. Daniela Piazzalunga, 2015. "Is There a Double-Negative Effect? Gender and Ethnic Wage Differentials in Italy," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 29(3), pages 243-269, September.
    25. Heckman, James J, 1974. "Shadow Prices, Market Wages, and Labor Supply," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 42(4), pages 679-694, July.
    26. Fortin, Nicole & Lemieux, Thomas & Firpo, Sergio, 2011. "Decomposition Methods in Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 1, pages 1-102, Elsevier.
    27. Tindara Addabbo & Donata Favaro, 2011. "Gender wage differentials by education in Italy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(29), pages 4589-4605.
    28. Shoshana Neuman & Ronald L. Oaxaca, 2003. "Gender vs Ethnic Wage Differentials Among Professionals: Evidence from Israel," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 71-72, pages 245-265.
    29. Nicodemo, Catia, 2009. "Gender Pay Gap and Quantile Regression in European Families," IZA Discussion Papers 3978, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    30. Claudia Olivetti & Barbara Petrongolo, 2008. "Unequal Pay or Unequal Employment? A Cross-Country Analysis of Gender Gaps," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(4), pages 621-654, October.
    31. Figari, Francesco & Fiorio, Carlo, 2015. "Fiscal consolidation policies in the context of Italy’s two recessions," EUROMOD Working Papers EM7/15, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    32. Alan S. Blinder, 1973. "Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 8(4), pages 436-455.
    33. Rebekka Christopoulou & Vassilis Monastiriotis, 2016. "Public-private wage duality during the Greek crisis," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 68(1), pages 174-196.
    34. Di Tommaso, Maria Laura, 1999. "A Trivariate Model of Participation, Fertility and Wages: The Italian Case," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 23(5), pages 623-640, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Daniela Piazzalunga, 2018. "The Gender Wage Gap Among College Graduates in Italy," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 4(1), pages 33-90, March.
    2. Giulia Bettin & Isabella Giorgetti & Stefano Staffolani, 2024. "The impact of Covid-19 lockdown on the gender gap in the Italian labour market," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 1-33, March.
    3. Töpfer, Marina, 2017. "Detailed RIF decomposition with selection: The gender pay gap in Italy," Hohenheim Discussion Papers in Business, Economics and Social Sciences 26-2017, University of Hohenheim, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences.
    4. Töpfer, Marina, 2018. "The age pay gap and labor market heterogeneity: A new empirical approach using data for Italy," Discussion Papers 105, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    5. Paolo Brunori & Marisa Luisa Maitino & Letizia Ravagli & Nicola Sciclone, 2021. "Distant and different? Lockdown and inequalities in Italy," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2021(2), pages 39-54.
    6. Bonaccolto-Töpfer, Marina & Castagnetti, Carolina & Prümer, Stephanie, 2022. "Understanding the public-private sector wage gap in Germany: New evidence from a Fixed Effects quantile Approach∗," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    7. Demetrio Guzzardi & Elisa Palagi & Andrea Roventini & Alessandro Santoro, 2022. "Reconstructing Income Inequality in Italy: New Evidence and Tax Policy Implications from Distributional National Accounts," SciencePo Working papers Main halshs-03693201, HAL.
    8. Emanuela Ghignoni & Marilena Giannetti & Vincenzo Salvucci, 2022. "The double "discrimination" of foreign women: A matching comparisons approach," Working Papers in Public Economics 225, University of Rome La Sapienza, Department of Economics and Law.
    9. Töpfer, Marina, 2017. "Detailed RIF Decomposition with Selection - The Gender Pay Gap in Italy," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168422, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    10. Francesca Carta, 2019. "Female labour supply in Italy: the role of parental leave and child care policies," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 539, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    11. Aguilar Arredondo, Mona Zelinda & Rodríguez Pérez, Reyna Elizabeth, 2021. "The effect of the economic crisis on the labour market for women in Mexico, 1987–2016," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), April.
    12. Alfano Vincenzo & Cicatiello Lorenzo & Gaeta Giuseppe Lucio & Pinto Mauro, 2021. "The Gender Wage Gap among Ph.D. Holders: Evidence from Italy," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 21(3), pages 1107-1148, July.
    13. Castagnetti, Carolina & Rosti, Luisa & Töpfer, Marina, 2017. "The convergence of the gender pay gap: An alternative estimation approach," Hohenheim Discussion Papers in Business, Economics and Social Sciences 14-2017, University of Hohenheim, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences.
    14. Taiwo Aderemi & Ibrahim Alley, 2019. "Gender pay gap in the workplace: the case of public and private sectors in Nigeria," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 21(2), pages 370-391, December.
    15. Ramskogler, Paul & Riedl, Aleksandra & Schoiswohl, Florian, 2020. "Swinging female labor demand – How the public sector influences gender wage gaps in Europe," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 302, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    16. Chiara Mussida & Maria Laura Parisi, 2021. "Social exclusion and financial distress: evidence from Italy and Spain," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(3), pages 995-1024, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sonja C. Kassenboehmer & Mathias G. Sinning, 2014. "Distributional Changes in the Gender Wage Gap," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(2), pages 335-361, April.
    2. Avinno Faruk, 2021. "Analysing the glass ceiling and sticky floor effects in Bangladesh: evidence, extent and elements," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(9), pages 1-23, September.
    3. Alfano Vincenzo & Cicatiello Lorenzo & Gaeta Giuseppe Lucio & Pinto Mauro, 2021. "The Gender Wage Gap among Ph.D. Holders: Evidence from Italy," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 21(3), pages 1107-1148, July.
    4. Ramskogler, Paul & Riedl, Aleksandra & Schoiswohl, Florian, 2020. "Swinging female labor demand – How the public sector influences gender wage gaps in Europe," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 302, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    5. Emanuela Ghignoni & Marilena Giannetti & Vincenzo Salvucci, 2022. "The double "discrimination" of foreign women: A matching comparisons approach," Working Papers in Public Economics 225, University of Rome La Sapienza, Department of Economics and Law.
    6. Fortin, Nicole & Lemieux, Thomas & Firpo, Sergio, 2011. "Decomposition Methods in Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 1, pages 1-102, Elsevier.
    7. Seneviratne, Prathi, 2020. "Gender wage inequality during Sri Lanka’s post-reform growth: A distributional analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    8. Daniela Piazzalunga, 2018. "The Gender Wage Gap Among College Graduates in Italy," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 4(1), pages 33-90, March.
    9. Sloczynski, Tymon, 2015. "Average Wage Gaps and Oaxaca–Blinder Decompositions," IZA Discussion Papers 9036, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Sergio Destefanis & Fernanda Mazzotta & Lavinia Parisi, 2024. "Goldin’s Last Chapter on the Gender Pay Gap: An Exploratory Analysis Using Italian Data," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(2), pages 549-572, April.
    11. Collischon & Matthias, 2018. "Can Personality Traits Explain Glass Ceilings?," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 965, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    12. Sloczynski, Tymon, 2013. "Population Average Gender Effects," IZA Discussion Papers 7315, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Collischon Matthias, 2019. "Is There a Glass Ceiling over Germany?," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 20(4), pages 329-359, December.
    14. Domenico Depalo & Raffaela Giordano & Evangelia Papapetrou, 2015. "Public–private wage differentials in euro-area countries: evidence from quantile decomposition analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 985-1015, November.
    15. Arceo-Gómez, Eva O. & Campos-Vázquez, Raymundo M., 2014. "Evolución de la brecha salarial de género en México," El Trimestre Económico, Fondo de Cultura Económica, vol. 0(323), pages .619-653, julio-sep.
    16. Kaya Ezgi, 2021. "Gender wage gap across the distribution: What is the role of within- and between-firm effects?," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-49, January.
    17. Giulia Mancini, 2018. "Women's Labor Force Participation in Italy, 1861-2011," Rivista di storia economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 3-68.
    18. Richey, Jeremiah & Rosburg, Alicia, 2016. "Understanding intergenerational economic mobility by decomposing joint distributions," MPRA Paper 72665, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Vu, Tien Manh & Yamada, Hiroyuki, 2017. "Decomposing Gender Equality along the Wage Distribution in Vietnam during the Period 2002–14," AGI Working Paper Series 2017-04, Asian Growth Research Institute.
    20. Philippe Van Kerm & Seunghee Yu & Chung Choe, 2016. "Decomposing quantile wage gaps: a conditional likelihood approach," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 65(4), pages 507-527, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender wage gap; Great Recession; public sector premium; decomposition; counterfactual analysis.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2015-381. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Maria Ana Lugo (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ecineea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.