The Trend over Time of the GenderWage Gap in Italy

We analyse gender wage inequalities in Italy in the mid-1990s and in the mid-2000s. In this period important labour market developments occurred: institutional changes have loosened the use of flexible and atypical contracts; the female employment rates and educational levels have substantially increased. We identify the time trends of different components of the gender wage gap by estimating wage distributions in the presence of covariates and sample selection and by counterfactual microsimulations. We find that women swam against the tide: whilst the trend in female qualifications slightly reduced the gender wage gap, the gender relative trends in the wage structure significantly increased it.gender wage gap;counterfactual distributions;decompositions;hazard function;labour market reforms

Scarring Effects of Remaining Unemployed for Long-Term Unemployed School-Leavers

This study investigates whether and to what extent further unemployment experience for youths who are already long-term unemployed imposes a penalty on subsequent labor market outcomes. We propose a flexible method for analyzing the effect on wages aside of transitions from unemployment and employment within a multivariate duration model that controls for selection on observables and unobservables. We find that prolonging unemployment drastically decreases the chances of finding employment, but hardly affects the quality of subsequent employment. The analysis suggests that negative duration dependence in the job finding rate is induced by negative signaling and not by human capital depreciation.scarring effect of unemployment duration;employment quality;wage in multivariate duration model;selectivity

Are Short-Lived Jobs Stepping Stones to Long-Lasting Jobs?

This paper assesses whether short-lived jobs (lasting one quarter or less and involuntarily ending in unemployment) are stepping stones to long-lasting jobs (enduring one year or more) for Belgian long-term unemployed school-leavers. We proceed in two steps. First, we estimate labour market trajectories in a multi-spell duration model that incorporates lagged duration and lagged occurrence dependence. Second, in a simulation we find that (fe)male school-leavers accepting a short-lived job are, within two years, 13.4 (9.5) percentage points more likely to find a long-lasting job than in the counterfactual in which they reject short-lived jobs.event history model;transition data;state dependence;short-lived jobs;stepping stone effect;long-lasting jobs

Gender Wage Gap: A Semi-Parametric Approach With Sample Selection Correction

Sizeable gender differences in employment rates are observed in many countries. Sample selection into the workforce might therefore be a relevant issue when estimating gender wage gaps. This paper proposes a new semi-parametric estimator of densities in the presence of covariates which incorporates sample selection. We describe a simulation algorithm to implement counterfactual comparisons of densities. The proposed methodology is used to investigate the gender wage gap in Italy. It is found that when sample selection is taken into account gender wage gap widens, especially at the bottom of the wage distribution. Explanations are offered for this empirical finding.gender wage gap;hazard function;sample selection;glass ceiling;sticky floor

Market Imperfections and Firm-Sponsored Training

Recent human capital theories predict that labor market frictions and product market competition influence firm-sponsored training. Using matched worker-firm data from Dutch manufacturing, our paper empirically assesses the validity of these predictions. We find that a decrease in labor market frictions significantly reduces firms’ training expenditures. Instead, product market competition does not have an effect on firm-sponsored training. We conclude that increasing competition through international integration and globalization does not pose a threat to investments in on-the-job training. An increase in labor market flexibility may reduce incentives of firms to invest in training, but the magnitude of this effect is small.firm-sponsored training;labor market frictions;product market competition;matched worker-firm data

Retaining through Training; Even for OlderWorkers

This paper investigates whether on-the-job training has an effect on the employability of workers. Using data from the Netherlands we disentangle the true effect of training incidence from the spurious one determined by unobserved individual heterogeneity. We also take into account that there might be feedback from shocks in the employment status to future propensity of receiving firm-provided training. We find that firm-provided training significantly increases future employment prospects. This finding is robust to a number of robustness checks. It also holds for older workers, suggesting that firm-provided training may be an important instrument to retain older workers at work.training;employment;human capital;older workers

Gender Wage Gap:A Semi-Parametric Approach With Sample Selection Correction

Sizeable gender differences in employment rates are observed in many countries. Sample selection into the workforce might therefore be a relevant issue when estimating gender wage gaps. This paper proposes a new semi-parametric estimator of densities in the presence of covariates which incorporates sample selection. We describe a simulation algorithm to implement counterfactual comparisons of densities. The proposed methodology is used to investigate the gender wage gap in Italy. It is found that when sample selection is taken into account gender wage gap widens, especially at the bottom of the wage distribution. Explanations are offered for this empirical finding