Thomas Le Barbanchon, Associate Professor at Bocconi University's Department of Economics, has focussed his research on a little-known aspect of gender pay gap. Commuting time may explain part of this gap, as women are less willing to commute. This is because the hidden cost of commuting is higher on average for a woman than for a man, by a quantifiable amount. And since women look for jobs closer to home, they are bound to miss some opportunities compared with men. This damages women, but also firms who have a narrower selection base for the jobs they offer.
In the second part of the talk, Thomas outlines what policies can be implemented to correct this distortion, and finally he makes interesting remarks on whether the pandemic provided an opportunity to improve the situation, by increasing the possibilities to work from home, or not.