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Discriminate me - if you can! The Disappearance of the Gender Pay Gap among Public-Contest Selected Employees

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  • Töpfer, Marina
  • Castagnetti, Carolina
  • Rosti, Luisa

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effect of public-contest recruitment on earnings by gender using Italian labor market microdata. By decomposing the gender pay gap and accounting for double selection into employment and method of recruitment, we find that the gender pay gap vanishes, and even reverses among the young, when emplyoees are selected through a public contest. Since in such a case: a) selected employees (both women and men) possess higher productive characteristics than unselected ones; and b) the component referred to as 'discrimination' (either with or without selection) is no longer the main driver of the gap, our results suggest that public contests are merit-based and gender-fair screening devices. On the contrary, in general the Italian labor market appears gender biased, with a full-sample gender pay gap of 4%.

Suggested Citation

  • Töpfer, Marina & Castagnetti, Carolina & Rosti, Luisa, 2016. "Discriminate me - if you can! The Disappearance of the Gender Pay Gap among Public-Contest Selected Employees," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145905, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145905
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    3. Bonacini, Luca & Gallo, Giovanni & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2021. "Will it be a shecession? The unintended influence of working from home on the gender wage gap related to the COVID-19 pandemic," GLO Discussion Paper Series 771, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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