Gender and the Labour Market: An International Perspective and the case of Italy

This paper provides an overview of the literature on international di¤erences in the gender wage gap. It then focuses on the Italian case and analyzes di¤erentials in gender wage and employment gaps across regions. The cross-regional variation reproduces the negative correlation between wage and employment gaps observed at the cross-country level. Using the methodology in Olivetti and Petrongolo (2008) the paper shows the importance of sample selection induced by non-employment in explaining the cross-regional variation. The results show that selection-adjusted wage gaps are higher than actual wage gaps in most cases. However, this difference is small in the northern Italian regions and becomes sizeable for central and southern regions. Selection correction can explain from 10% to most of the observed negative cross-regional correlation between wage and employment gaps across genders in Italy.