This paper studies whether the allocation of municipal expenditure in Italy is influenced by female representation in Municipal Councils. Despite the existence of gender-specific preferences in society, we find no clear evidence that the amount of resources distributed among different spending...

A gender gap indicator is constructed for the Italian regions, with the aim of highlighting the geographical differences underlying Italy�s backwardness at European and international level. The indicator, which adapts the Gender Equality Index developed by Plantenga et al. (2009) for 25...

This paper uses ECB survey data to assess whether gender matters in the small firms� financial structure and access to credit. Firms owned or managed by women (female firms) use smaller amounts and less heterogeneous sources of external finance than their male counterparts. According to...

The constitutional reforms of 2001 and 2003 empowered the Italian regions to enact legislation aimed at removing barriers to effective gender equality. The laws they have adopted in this field are often fragmented � only in a few cases do they form a consistent, comprehensive framework...

During the financial crisis banks faced liquidity shocks, and lending slowed down. The reduction in credit availability was due to demand- and supply-side factors. The decrease in turnover and investment led to a contraction of financial needs; on the other hand, the tightening of credit supply...

The paper estimates the gender wage gap in Italy, taking into account two salient features of the economy: the low rate of women�s labour market participation and the high share of self-employment. It exploits the Bank of Italy�s survey on household income and wealth, which contains...

We study how employed and self-employed workers living as a couple differ in terms of allocation of their time. In particular, we focus on the division of domestic work between men and women. It emerges that the type of job strongly affects the allocation of time of men, whereas it is much less...

In this paper we estimate the short-run elasticity of substitution between male and female workers, using data on employment and wages from Italian provinces from 1993-2006. We adopt a production function approach similar to that of Card and Lemieux (2001a) and Acemoglu, Autor and Lyle (2004)....

This article offers a descriptive analysis of the relationship between cultural factors and female participation in the labour market. Using attitudinal variables from the World Value Survey, the correlation between female labour market participation and two aspects of culture (religion and...

The work describes the evolution of the Italian legislation on equal opportunities and compares the current legal framework with those in other European jurisdictions and the gender policies of the European Community. The aim is to identify the regulatory initiatives taken elsewhere that could...