Wage Gender Disparity by Industry and Skills: Empirical Evidence in Italy

Abstract Achieving a gender pay gap of zero represents one of the main policy objectives pursued and encouraged by international institutions worldwide. Important related issues to consider include the dynamics of the economy, the structure of sectoral labour markets and the different types of skills of female and male workers. In the context of the Italian economy, we aim to theoretically identify the dynamics of unemployment rates and the gender pay gap by industry under different labour force dynamics and a positive economic growth rate. The theoretical simulations are carried out via a computable general equilibrium model that is based on the social accounting matrix and incorporates gender specifications for the Italian economy. The results show that the gender pay gap tends to decrease when GDP increases but widens when the female labour supply increases.