Nepotism vs specific skills : the effect of professional liberalization on returns to parental back grounds of italian lawyers
Abstract
We study the mechanisms of intergenerational inequality among Italian lawyers over the period 1994-
2014 using a longitudinal dataset that combines administrative and survey data. We first estimate a 17.5%
earnings premium for a law family background within the group of lawyers, so conditional on entering the
profession. We then exploit the 2003-2006 liberalization process, which asymmetrically affected the two
main transmission mechanisms: skill transfer and nepotism. We find that liberalization squeezed the law
background return by at least 3/5, thus revealing a high incidence of nepotism. The bulk of the reduction
occurred for the youngest lawyers and the top earners.
KEY
Origin : Publisher files allowed on an open archive