Gender Wage Differentials in Italy: A Structural Estimation Approach

This paper studies gender wage differentials by providing a maximum likelihood structural estimation of the frictional parameters of an equilibrium search model with on-the-job search and firm heterogeneity. In a second step, I also consider the role of discrimination. Results indicate higher level of search frictions for women; this result is confirmed by various robustness checks and by different specification and estimation strategies. I also find that the resulting mapping from productivity to wages for men is highly non-linear, while for women it is almost linear. Search, productivity and discrimination play different roles in shaping the gender differential depending on the specification and estimation of the model.