Changes in the Italian wage distribution: the role of routine and social tasks

Barbieri, Teresa (2021): Changes in the Italian wage distribution: the role of routine and social tasks.

Abstract

A broad economic literature has analyzed changes in the wage structure using a taskbased framework. This paper complements this literature by providing evidence on the relationship between the task content of occupation (routine and social tasks) and wage inequality among Italian employees using unconditional quantile regressions (UQRs). This article also quantifies the contribution of changes in occupational task prices and other factors to changes in the distribution of wages over the 2009-2019 period using the RIF decomposition approach. Results show that behind the almost flat trend of wage inequality observed for the last decade operate divergent forces that counterbalance each other. In particular, changes in the reward for social tasks operate in an inequalityenhancing direction. However, changes in the wage structure linked to other factors, such as education and sector of economic activity, go in the opposite direction and offset the contribution of social task-intensive occupations.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: wage distribution, occupational tasks, unconditional quantile regression, RIF decomposition
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor > J21 - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor > J24 - Human Capital ; Skills ; Occupational Choice ; Labor Productivity; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs > J31 - Wage Level and Structure ; Wage Differentials

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