• [Insee Working Paper]

Abstract: We use a newly built and quasi-exhaustive matched employer-employee database to study firms' contribution to wage inequalities in France. Our analysis covering the period from 2002 to 2019 reveals a significant increase in between-firm inequalities, driven by a growing tendency of high-wage workers to cluster together in high-premium firms. These phenomena are directly associated with changes in firms' demographics and workforce composition. Over the same period, bottom earnings percentiles increased more than the rest of the distribution, in line with the rise in the legal minimum wage. As a result, within-firm inequalities decreased, almost offsetting the rising between-firm inequalities.

[New Draft!] 

Abstract: The gender gap in firm wage premiums is well documented, but evidence on its evolution over time and its contribution to declining gender wage gaps remains mixed. Using comprehensive employer-employee data from France, we find that 20\% of the reduction in the gender hourly wage gap between 2002 and 2019 can be attributed to a decline in gender differences arising from the sorting of men and women across firms. Our analysis reveals that this decline is not driven by women gaining access to higher-paying firms within industries, nor by increased female representation in higher-paying industries. Instead, it stems from a narrowing of industry premiums over time. We substantiate these findings through analyses of job mobility patterns and age-period-cohort effects, finding no evidence that, conditional on worker skills, women have become more likely to move to higher-paying firms or industries or that newer cohorts of women are better represented in better-paying firms or industries.

[Old CEPR Discussion Paper] 

• Access to Italian Social Security data through VisitINPS Scholars Program

In recent years, several European countries have modified policies concerning temporary employment contracts, oscillating between liberalizations and restraints in a bid to balance employment flexibility and job stability. We study the effects of a 2018 reform that tightened fixed-term contracts legislation on wage dynamics. Our analysis, grounded in extensive administrative data tracking within-firm, within-individual transitions from fixed-term to permanent contracts in Italy, unveils a significant decline in the wage premium accompanying contract conversions post-reform.

Firms create temporary jobs for different reasons: screening candidates for permanent positions; accommodating seasonal and short-term swings in activity; increasing workforce flexibility. We use data on the universe of fixed-term employment relationships in Italy between 2013 and 2017 to identify and characterize the firms engaging in these different strategies. Screening is not a primary driver of temporary employment: only one in five temporary jobs gets converted to permanent, and firms indirectly signal their propensity to convert by consistently offering contracts with similar duration. Seasonality in activity involves a limited (below 20%) but well-identifiable share of jobs and firms. On the contrary, buffer-stock use of fixed-term contracts dictated by flexibility needs is harder to characterize: while some firms resort to temporary employment because their revenues are highly volatile, others simply discharge part of their normal business risk onto workers. This can induce excessive worker turnover. These results have important policy implications for the design and regulation of fixed-term employment contracts. 

Abstract coming soon!