Labour Courts and Firing Costs in Italy: The Labour Market Gender Effects of Trial Delays

Gender equality is a relevant issue in the labour market regulation debate. Our analysis contributes to the gender effects of institutions by looking at the interaction among institutions empowered with the settling and the enforcement of rules, namely the interplay between labour courts’ delays and employment protection legislation (EPL). By exploiting the strong territorial heterogeneity in the duration of labour trials across Italian regions we investigate how and to what extent the duration of labour trials impacts differently male and female employment opportunities. We show that in regions with a more rigid labour market (in our analysis the rigidity arises from the inefficiency of the judiciary system) gender disparities are larger both in terms of employability and type of contracts (temporary and part-time jobs). The effect is typically stronger for women aged between 25 and 40 who are generally those in their top reproductive and care giving years