While the effect of education and experience on labour market outcomes has been widely studied, the literature that analyses the influence of human capital competencies (talents, skills, and capabilities) is still relatively scarce. Using cross-sectional data from the REFLEX Project, we investigate the effect of personal competencies (both cognitive and non-cognitive) on two labour market outcomes among European university graduates: occupational status and earnings. Our estimates suggest that individuals endowed with a higher level of competencies are more likely to occupy managerial and professional positions and, to a lesser extent, technician jobs. Additionally, they also receive higher wages, but the relation is only significant for men. When we distinguish competencies according to their cognitive or non-cognitive nature, we find that only the latter are significant in explaining occupational status. In contrast, cognitive competencies are more related with wages. As regards the role of specific competencies, our findings suggest that leadership is the most relevant competence for the occupational status of males, especially in managerial positions. In contrast, initiative and enterprise abilities seem to be the most relevant skills for women in such positions. Intelligence produces the highest rewards in terms of earnings among the male subsample, while none of the competencies exerts a significant impact on females' wages.

Ensayos sobre POLÍTICA ECONÓMICA Abordando la desigualdad de género. Empleo en tecnologías de la información y la comunicación y diferencias salariales por género en España

El acceso a la versión del editor puede requerir la suscripción del recurso Access to the published version may require subscription ICT employment, over-education and gender in Spain. Introduction and objectivesWomen are the leading protagonists of recent developments in the labour market in the most industrialised countries. As their presence in the labour market increases, guidelines for family and social organisation change, and they progressively assimilate the patterns and labour choices of men. This socio-demographical behaviour can be clearly observed in Spain (Garrido, 1993; González and Requena, 2006) and are demonstrated by the main labour rates. While the female activity rate in 1987 was 31.8 per cent, by the second quarter of 2007, it had increased to 49 per cent. In other words, the number of Spanish women taking part in the labour market has increased by almost 54 per cent in the last twenty years. Similarly, the Spanish female employment rate has almost doubled, increasing from 23 per cent in 1987 to 43.8 per cent in 2007. However, women cannot be considered as a homogeneous group, especially in a country like Spain, where economic and social changes related to gender have been changing at an increasing rate. Within the domestic context, there are deep differences in female labour behaviour. Using data from 2007, married women show remarkably different labour rates to those with other marital status: less frequent participation in the labour market (2.2 points), lower unemployment rates (2.6 points) and lower occupation rates (0.8 points). Furthermore, Spanish married women are slightly less educated than other women. While 44.9 per cent of unmarried 2 women have an educational level that is equal to or higher than compulsory education, only 38.

The expansion of services and the dissemination of information and communication technologies (ICTs) are identified as important factors for improving employment opportunities for women, reducing labour differences by gender. The objective of the study is to determine to what extent services, and especially those most closely linked with knowledge and ICTs such as knowledge-intensive services (KIS), are changing some of the basics of labour gender differences. To do this, first we measure and characterize employment related to the service sector and KIS, comparing the existing gender wage-gap in these activities with the one observed in the overall economy. Then we carry out an analysis of decomposition over these gaps (in term of total distribution of wages and by quantiles). Our results indicate that, although KIS improve the wage situation of women, they are unable substantially to reduce gender wage inequality in the Spanish labour market, perhaps because the same gendered structures of the workplace are replicated in the KIS activities.

Important transformations are taking place in the nature, characteristics and organisation of work. Part-time employment, temporary recruitment, self-employment, increasing participation of women and shifts in required skills are some dominant characteristics of changes observed in the advanced European countries. The aim of the article is to verify the hypothesis that the process of employment tertiarisation explains, to a significant extent, the shift to a more flexible labour market and the emergence of a new work model in Spain. The departing point and following sections seek to determine, first, the links between tertiarisation and changes in labour demand; second, sectoral differences in labour characteristics; and third, whether labour market dynamism and flexibility observed in Spain is related to tertiarisation. The main findings at the national level are also tested at the regional level to show some exciting differences.