Author : Cristiano Perugini
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 46,50 MB
Release : 2022
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ISBN :
This research focuses on the effects of incentive pay schemes (IPSs) on the within-firm gender wage gap, and explores whether the intensity of investments in intangibles at the industry level moderates such effects. To this aim, we use establishment-level data from the Structure of Earning Surveys (SES) for the years 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018 and the five largest European economies (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK). Data on intangible capital stocks (on 25 industries) are from the EU-KLEMS database. The analysis, which addresses potential endogeneity issues, indicates that a higher intensity of IPSs alleviates the adjusted gender pay gap. However, this inequality attenuating effect of IPSs materializes only in contexts where intangible capital intensity is low. The result is confirmed if, instead of the aggregate intangibles stock, we replicate the analysis in subsamples of firms belonging to industries with high/low intensity of various intangible capital components. Investments in training emerge as a notable exception, as IPSs also reduce the adjusted wage gap in the context of high investments in firm-specific human capital.