Returns to Education and Gender Wage Gap Across Quantiles in Italy

Various quantile regression approaches are implemented to analyze the characteristics of Italian data on earnings in the tails. A changing coefficients pattern across quantiles shows increasing returns to education along the wage distribution. A quantile decomposition approach shows that higher education grants higher return at all quantiles, thus implying additional, non-linear returns to higher education throughout the entire pattern of the earning distribution. Wage gender gap displays a decreasing pattern across quantiles, and it does not disappear at the higher quantiles. The southern workers penalty decreases across quantiles as well for highly educated workers.