GEP Seminar: Mimosa Distefano (LSE)

Title:  Hiring Subsidies and Female Employment, joint with Lorenzo Incoronato and Anna Raute.

Abstract:  We use comprehensive administrative employer-employee data covering the entire private sector in Italy and study a hiring subsidy targeted at women with extended labor market interruptions to examine firm short and long term hiring decisions following subsidy adoption and the career outcomes of the targeted group. Firms that use the subsidy change their hiring pattern to increase the hiring of women with lengthy labor market interruptions and mothers. These female workers hired under the subsidy are more likely to remain employed in the long term. We show that the hiring subsidy operates as a mechanism allowing firms to learn about the potential productivity of disadvantaged groups, such as women with extended labor market interruptions.