Luisa Rosti

Age and gender differences in Italian workers’ mobility

This article studies the provenance and destination of individuals in mobility, by processing the data obtained by ISTAT (Italy’s National Statistical Institute). Disaggregation of the data by sex reveals intermittent labor‐force participation by the female component of the population. Disaggregation of the data by age group shows that this situation persists unchanged over time, given that substantial uniformity of behavior is observed between young women and the female population as a whole. Tournament theory provides grounds to argue that this behavior is Pareto‐inefficient, because it obstructs the optimal allocation of talent in society. The conclusion is drawn that economic policy measures are necessary in order to alter the gender division of labor in its current form.

Unfair Tournaments Gender Stereotyping and Wage Discrimination among Italian Graduates

This paper addresses the gender pay gap among Italian university graduates on entry to the labor market, and stresses the potential for gender stereotypes to impact subjective assessment of individual productivity. We build upon previous research about gender and wage inequality, introducing tournament theory as a framework for the gender pay gap analysis. We hypothesize that the effects of gender make occupational tournaments less fair in some arenas compared with others. As a consequence, men workers have higher probabilities of winning the wage competition, but this process is uneven. Our data show that in contexts where stereotypes are most likely to occur, tournaments appear to be less fair and the unexplained component of the gender pay gap is higher.This paper addresses the gender pay gap among Italian university graduates on entry to the labour market and stresses the importance of gender stereotypes on subjective assessment of individual productivity. Our data show that in contexts where the stereotype is most likely to occur, the unexplained component of the gender pay gap is higher. Moreover, we find evidence that being excellent at school does not ensures that a woman will be rewarded as an equivalently performing man, but serves to counteract the gender bias in on-the-job evaluations

Higher education in non-standard wage contracts

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to verify whether higher education increases the likelihood of young Italian workers moving from non‐standard to standard wage contracts.Design/methodology/approach – The authors exploit a data set on labour market flows, produced by the Italian National Statistical Office, by interviewing about 85,000 graduate and non‐graduate individuals aged 15‐29 in transition between five labour market states: standard wage employment; non‐standard wage employment; self‐employment; unemployment; inactivity. From these data, an average six‐year transition matrix was constructed whose coefficients can be interpreted as probabilities of moving from one state to another over time.Findings – As the authors find evidence for the so‐called stepping stone hypothesis (that is, a higher probability of moving to a permanent job for individuals starting from a temporary job), the authors expect graduates to be more likely to pass from non‐standard to standard wage contracts than non‐graduat...