Determinants of the gender unemployment gap in Italy and the United Kingdom: A comparative investigation

The authors analyse the gender unemployment gap in Italy and the United Kingdom by investigating the determinants of labour market flows, on the basis of multinomial logit model estimates, and identifying the contribution of a single transition from each state – employment, unemployment, inactivity – to the gap. Using this methodology, labour markets in Italy and the United Kingdom are compared, based on both countries' labour force survey data for the period 2004–13. Decomposition of the gender unemployment gap, using a transition probability matrix approach, shows that while women are disadvantaged in Italy, the reverse is true in the United Kingdom.