The study analyses gender inequality in hiring wages when starting a new job by using INPS data (1990-2015), which allow us to follow the working life of the individuals who were employed at some point by a firm sampled by the Bank of Italy's Survey of Industrial and Service Firms. The research develops an empirical model that makes it possible to estimate the impact on gender inequality of the employment state from before the worker was hired and the characteristics of both the 'destination' firm hiring the worker and the employee.
The estimated gender differential in firm hiring wages is 35 per cent. Only 0.7 per cent of the variance in the hiring wages of individuals who change occupation is explained by origin effects, while destination effects account for about 24 per cent and individual effects for 29 per cent. The contribution of each of these effects is similar for women and men. Overall, 10 per cent of the variance in hiring wages reflects gender differentials.
Published in 2023 in: Journal of Econometrics,v. 233, 2, pp. 340-374.
