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What Can Monopsony Explain of the Gender Wage Differential in Italy?

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  • G. Sulis

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Abstract

This paper studies gender wage differentials in Italy using first-order predictions of monopsony-search models. It compares empirical predictions of these models against other competing ones of wage determination in non-competitive settings. The paper looks at the empirical relevance of the model in terms of third degree wage discrimination among men and women by estimating the labour supply elasticity to the individual firm. It also tests the monopsony model using a "natural" experiment. Italian administrative longitudinal data from INPS are used. Women have lower elasticity of labour supply yo the individual firm - employer size regressions indicate larger effects (and consequently lower elasticity) for women as predicted by the monopsony model. Using the theoretical dynamic monopsony-search model of Burdett and Mortensen (1998), wage elasticity of separations and recruits confirm this result. Using relative men/women employment effects resulting from institutional changes in wage indexation mechanism (Scala mobile), it is found that relative male employment responded differently in the two periods to the exogenous relative increase in the wage differential, as predicted by the monopsony model. Search frictions explain about 50% of the gender differential.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia in its series Working Paper CRENoS with number 200713.

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Date of creation: 2007
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Handle: RePEc:cns:cnscwp:200713

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Keywords: gender wage differentials; elasticity of labour supply; employer size-effect; monopsony; italy;

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References

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Cited by:
  1. M. Pitzalis & I. Sulis & M. Porcu, 2008. "Differences of Cultural Capital among Students in Transition to University. Some First Survey Evidences," Working Paper CRENoS 200805, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
  2. Vincenzo Scoppa, 2012. "Firm Size And Wages In Italy: Evidence From Exogenous Job Displacements," Working Papers 201201, Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Statistiche e Finanziarie (Ex Dipartimento di Economia e Statistica).
  3. I. Sulis & M. Porcu, 2008. "Assessing the Effectiveness of a Stochastic Regression Imputation Method for Ordered Categorical Data," Working Paper CRENoS 200804, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.

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