The impact of Covid-19 lockdown on the gender gap in the Italian labour market

Abstract

We study the gendered impact of the nationwide lockdown (March–May 2020) due to the Covid-19 pandemic on the Italian labour market. Based on Labour Force Survey data on the first three quarters of 2020, we define a Triple Difference-in-Differences (DDD) strategy by exploiting the exact timing of the lockdown implementation. After controlling for several individual and job-related characteristics, we found that in non essential sectors (treated group) the lockdown enlarged pre-existent gender inequalities in the extensive margin of employment: the probability of job loss got 0.7 p.p. higher among female workers compared to their male counterparts, and this difference was mainly detected during the reopening period rather than in the strict lockdown phase. The probability to benefit from the wage guarantee fund (CIG), a subsidy traditionally granted by the government for partial or full–time hours reduction, was also higher for female compared to male treated workers (3.6 p.p.), both during the lockdown and in the reopening phase. This marks a great change with respect to the past, as the application of short-term work compensation schemes was traditionally restricted to male-dominated sectors of employment. On the other hand, no significant gender differences emerged among the treated group either in the intensive margin (working hours) or in terms of remote working, at least in the medium-term.