Gender Gaps and Gender Differences in Preferences and Attitudes: Evidence from Italy

Gender imbalances are still pervasive in many countries. Females earn significantly lower wages, have greater difficulties in getting a job and have lower promotion chances. They are also less likely to run for political office at all levels of government, from local to national. The traditional explanations for the existence of gender gaps are based on differences in productivity or on gender discrimination. A recent strand of the literature moves beyond these explanations by considering that females might have different psychological attitudes and different preferences with respect to males. I discuss this literature and the approaches used to try to provide evidence on gender differences in psychological attitudes. In doing so I will mainly rely on my own work (joint with co-authors) on the topic.