IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/glodps/1398.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

COVID 19 and Wage Polarization: A task based approach

Author

Listed:
  • Schettino, Francesco
  • Scicchitano, Sergio
  • Suppa, Domenico

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to estimate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the wage polarization in Italy, combining individual characteristics with their task content in terms of physical proximity within the workplace. We use an innovative dataset which combines data from two sample surveys, the Italian Labor Force Survey and Italian Survey of Professions, which provides information on nature and content of the tasks. First, by employing a non-parametric method (the Relative Distribution) we detect a general increasing wage polarization in the sub-period 2020-2019, driven by lowest deciles, after a reduction in the previous one (2019-10). Different groups have been also isolated. Workers with low education, high proximity to customers job, such as the migrant, younger and female ones are the categories that more suffered the general downgrading of the Italian wages happened during the COVID-19 crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Schettino, Francesco & Scicchitano, Sergio & Suppa, Domenico, 2024. "COVID 19 and Wage Polarization: A task based approach," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1398, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:1398
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/283883/1/GLO-DP-1398.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew E. Clark & Conchita D’Ambrosio & Anthony Lepinteur, 2021. "The fall in income inequality during COVID-19 in four European countries," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(3), pages 489-507, September.
    2. Joan Esteban & Carlos Gradín & Debraj Ray, 2007. "An Extension of a Measure of Polarization, with an application to the income distribution of five OECD countries," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 5(1), pages 1-19, April.
    3. Ambra Poggi & Jacques Silber, 2010. "On Polarization And Mobility: A Look At Polarization In The Wage–Career Profile In Italy," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 56(1), pages 123-140, March.
    4. Hamish Low & Michaela Benzeval & Jon Burton & Thomas F. Crossley & Paul Fisher & Annette Jäckle & Brendan Read, 2020. "The Idiosyncratic Impact of an Aggregate Shock The Distributional Consequences of COVID-19," Economics Series Working Papers 911, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    5. Walter Bossert & William Schworm, 2008. "A Class of Two‐Group Polarization Measures," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 10(6), pages 1169-1187, December.
    6. Andrew E. Clark & Conchita D'Ambrosio & Anthony Lepinteur, 2020. "The Fall in Income Inequality during COVID-19 in Five European Countries," Working Papers 565, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    7. Eline Moens & Louis Lippens & Philippe Sterkens & Johannes Weytjens & Stijn Baert, 2022. "The COVID-19 crisis and telework: a research survey on experiences, expectations and hopes," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 23(4), pages 729-753, June.
    8. Avdiu, Besart & Nayyar, Gaurav, 2020. "When face-to-face interactions become an occupational hazard: Jobs in the time of COVID-19," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    9. Guido Matias Cortes & Eliza C. Forsythe, 2020. "Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic and the CARES Act on Earnings and Inequality," Upjohn Working Papers 20-332, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    10. Adams-Prassl, Abi & Boneva, Teodora & Golin, Marta & Rauh, Christopher, 2020. "Inequality in the impact of the coronavirus shock: Evidence from real time surveys," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    11. Michael C. Wolfson, 1997. "Divergent Inequalities: Theory And Empirical Results," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 43(4), pages 401-421, December.
    12. Wolfson, Michael C, 1994. "When Inequalities Diverge," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 353-358, May.
    13. Jenkins, Stephen P., 1995. "Did the middle class shrink during the 1980s? UK evidence from kernel density estimates," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 407-413, October.
    14. Wolfson, Michael, 1997. "Divergent Inequalities - Theory and Empirical Results (Revised Edition)," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 1997066e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    15. Borja Gambau & Juan C. Palomino & Juan G. Rodríguez & Raquel Sebastian, 2022. "COVID-19 restrictions in the US: wage vulnerability by education, race and gender," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(25), pages 2900-2915, May.
    16. Bloise, Francesco & Tancioni, Massimiliano, 2021. "Predicting the spread of COVID-19 in Italy using machine learning: Do socio-economic factors matter?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 310-329.
    17. Abdelkrim Araar, 2008. "On the Decomposition of Polarization Indices: Illustrations with Chinese and Nigerian Household Surveys," Cahiers de recherche 0806, CIRPEE.
    18. James Foster & Michael Wolfson, 2010. "Polarization and the decline of the middle class: Canada and the U.S," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(2), pages 247-273, June.
    19. Schettino, Francesco & Khan, Haider A., 2020. "Income polarization in the USA: What happened to the middle class in the last few decades?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 149-161.
    20. Jean-Yves Duclos & Joan Esteban & Debraj Ray, 2004. "Polarization: Concepts, Measurement, Estimation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(6), pages 1737-1772, November.
    21. Baiardi, Donatella & Morana, Claudio, 2018. "Financial development and income distribution inequality in the euro area," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 40-55.
    22. Oriol Aspachs & Ruben Durante & Alberto Graziano & Josep Mestres & José Garcia Montalvo & Marta Reynal-Querol, 2020. "Real-Time inequality and the welfare state in motion: Evidence from COVID-19 in Spain," Economics Working Papers 1741, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    23. Clementi, Fabio & Molini, Vasco & Schettino, Francesco, 2018. "All that Glitters is not Gold: Polarization Amid Poverty Reduction in Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 275-291.
    24. Nikolay Angelov & Daniel Waldenström, 2021. "Covid-19 and Income Inequality: Evidence from Monthly Population Registers," CESifo Working Paper Series 9178, CESifo.
    25. John Wildman, 2021. "COVID-19 and income inequality in OECD countries," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(3), pages 455-462, April.
    26. Domenico Depalo, 2021. "True COVID-19 mortality rates from administrative data," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(1), pages 253-274, January.
    27. Ferdi Botha & John P. New & Sonja C. New & David C. Ribar & Nicolás Salamanca, 2021. "Implications of COVID-19 labour market shocks for inequality in financial wellbeing," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 655-689, April.
    28. Juhn, Chinhui & Murphy, Kevin M & Pierce, Brooks, 1993. "Wage Inequality and the Rise in Returns to Skill," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(3), pages 410-442, June.
    29. Joan Esteban & Debraj Ray, 2008. "Polarization, Fractionalization and Conflict," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 45(2), pages 163-182, March.
    30. F. Clementi & A. L. Dabalen & V. Molini & F. Schettino, 2017. "When the Centre Cannot Hold: Patterns of Polarization in Nigeria," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(4), pages 608-632, December.
    31. Mauro Caselli & Andrea Fracasso & Sergio Scicchitano, 2022. "From the lockdown to the new normal: individual mobility and local labor market characteristics following the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 1517-1550, October.
    32. Zoya Nissanov, 2017. "Economic Growth and the Middle Class in an Economy in Transition," Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion, and Well-Being, Springer, number 978-3-319-51094-1, July.
    33. D'Errico, Marco & Macchiarelli, Corrado & Serafini, Roberta, 2015. "Differently unequal: Zooming-in on the distributional dimensions of the crisis in euro area countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 93-115.
    34. Esposito, Piero & Mendolia, Silvia & Scicchitano, Sergio & Tealdi, Cristina, 2024. "Working from Home and Job Satisfaction: The Role of Gender and Personality Traits," IZA Discussion Papers 16751, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    35. Fabio Milani, 2021. "COVID-19 outbreak, social response, and early economic effects: a global VAR analysis of cross-country interdependencies," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(1), pages 223-252, January.
    36. Riccardo Massari & Maria Pittau & Roberto Zelli, 2009. "A dwindling middle class? Italian evidence in the 2000s," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 7(4), pages 333-350, December.
    37. Fabio Clementi & Francesco Schettino, 2015. "Declining Inequality in Brazil in the 2000s: What is Hidden Behind?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(7), pages 929-952, October.
    38. Thomas Lemieux & Kevin Milligan & Tammy Schirle & Mikal Skuterud, 2020. "Initial Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Canadian Labour Market," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 46(S1), pages 55-65, July.
    39. Yun Qiu & Xi Chen & Wei Shi, 2020. "Impacts of social and economic factors on the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 1127-1172, October.
    40. Luca Bonacini & Giovanni Gallo & Sergio Scicchitano, 2021. "Working from home and income inequality: risks of a ‘new normal’ with COVID-19," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(1), pages 303-360, January.
    41. Carbonero, Francesco & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2021. "Labour and technology at the time of Covid-19. Can artificial intelligence mitigate the need for proximity?," GLO Discussion Paper Series 765, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    42. Giovanni Gallo & Michele Raitano, 2020. "SOS incomes: Simulated effects of COVID-19 and emergency benefits on individual and household income distribution in Italy," Working Papers 566, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    43. Satya R. Chakravarty & Amita Majumder, 2001. "Inequality, Polarisation and Welfare: Theory and Applications," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 1-13, March.
    44. Manuel Adelino & Antoinette Schoar & Felipe Severino, 2016. "Editor's Choice Loan Originations and Defaults in the Mortgage Crisis: The Role of the Middle Class," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(7), pages 1635-1670.
    45. Carmen Aina & Irene Brunetti & Chiara Mussida & Sergio Scicchitano, 2023. "Distributional effects of COVID-19," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(1), pages 221-256, March.
    46. Carlos Gradín, 2000. "Polarization By Sub‐Populations In Spain, 1973–91," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 46(4), pages 457-474, December.
    47. Avdiu,Besart & Nayyar,Gaurav, 2020. "When Face-to-Face Interactions Become an Occupational Hazard : Jobs in the Time of COVID-19," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9240, The World Bank.
    48. Chiara Assunta Ricci & Sergio Scicchitano, 2021. "Decomposing changes in income polarization by population group: what happened during the crisis?," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(1), pages 235-259, April.
    49. repec:bla:revinw:v:43:y:1997:i:4:p:401-21 is not listed on IDEAS
    50. Fernando Rios-Avila, 2020. "Recentered influence functions (RIFs) in Stata: RIF regression and RIF decomposition," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 20(1), pages 51-94, March.
    51. Satya R. Chakravarty & Conchita D'Ambrosio, 2010. "Polarization Orderings Of Income Distributions," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 56(1), pages 47-64, March.
    52. Gary S. Fields, 2003. "Accounting For Income Inequality And Its Change: A New Method, With Application To The Distribution Of Earnings In The United States," Research in Labor Economics, in: Worker Well-Being and Public Policy, pages 1-38, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Chiara Assunta Ricci & Sergio Scicchitano, 2021. "Decomposing changes in income polarization by population group: what happened during the crisis?," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(1), pages 235-259, April.
    2. Carmen Aina & Irene Brunetti & Chiara Mussida & Sergio Scicchitano, 2023. "Distributional effects of COVID-19," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(1), pages 221-256, March.
    3. Ricci, Chiara Assunta & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2021. "The role of Great Recession on income polarization by population groups," GLO Discussion Paper Series 766, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Ainaa, Carmen & Brunetti, Irene & Mussida, Chiara & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2021. "Who lost the most? Distributive effects of COVID-19 pandemic," GLO Discussion Paper Series 829, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    5. F. Clementi & A. L. Dabalen & V. Molini & F. Schettino, 2017. "When the Centre Cannot Hold: Patterns of Polarization in Nigeria," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(4), pages 608-632, December.
    6. Clementi,F. & Fabiani,M. & Molini,V., 2018. "The devil is in the details : growth, polarization, and poverty reduction in Africa in the past two decades," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8494, The World Bank.
    7. Schettino, Francesco & Khan, Haider A., 2020. "Income polarization in the USA: What happened to the middle class in the last few decades?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 149-161.
    8. Fabio Clementi & Francesco Schettino, 2013. "Income polarization in Brazil, 2001-2011: A distributional analysis using PNAD data," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(3), pages 1796-1815.
    9. Schettino, Francesco & Gabriele, Alberto & Khan, Haider A., 2021. "Polarization and the middle class in China: A non-parametric evaluation using CHNS and CHIP data," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 251-264.
    10. Fuad Aleskerov & Victoria Oleynik, 2016. "Multidimensional Polarization Index and its Application to an Analysis of the Russian State Duma," Papers 1608.01351, arXiv.org.
    11. Clementi, Fabio & Molini, Vasco & Schettino, Francesco, 2018. "All that Glitters is not Gold: Polarization Amid Poverty Reduction in Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 275-291.
    12. Satya Chakravarty & Bhargav Maharaj, 2012. "Ethnic polarization orderings and indices," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 7(1), pages 99-123, May.
    13. Marta Pascual & David Cantarero & Paloma Lanza, 2018. "Health polarization and inequalities across Europe: an empirical approach," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(8), pages 1039-1051, November.
    14. Zhang, Chen & Yu, Yangcheng & Li, Qinghai, 2023. "Top incomes and income polarisation in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    15. Tomasz Panek & Jan Zwierzchowski, 2020. "Median Relative Partial Income Polarization Indices: Investigating Economic Polarization in Poland During the Years 2005–2015," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 1025-1044, June.
    16. Ma Casilda Lasso de la Vega & Ana Urrutia & Henar Díez, 2010. "Unit Consistency And Bipolarization Of Income Distributions," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 56(1), pages 65-83, March.
    17. Juan Gabriel Rodríguez, 2015. "A Class of Social Welfare Functions That Depend on Mean Income and Income Polarization," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(3), pages 422-439, September.
    18. Fabio Clementi & Vasco Molini & Francesco Schettino & Haider A. Khan & Michele Fabiani, 2023. "Polarization and its discontents: Morocco before and after the Arab Spring," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 21(1), pages 105-129, March.
    19. Michal Brzezinski, 2013. "Income Polarization and Economic Growth," LIS Working papers 587, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    20. Mariateresa Ciommi & Chiara Gigliarano & Giovanni Maria Giorgi, 2019. "Bonferroni And De Vergottini Are Back: New Subgroup Decompositions And Bipolarization Measures," Working Papers 439, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Covid19; Income Polarization; Relative Distribution; Social Conflicts; Tasks;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions
    • H12 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Crisis Management
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

    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:zbw:glodps:1398. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/glabode.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.