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This article studies the provenance and destination of individuals in mobility, by processing the data obtained by ISTAT (Italy’s National Statistical Institute). Disaggregation of the data by sex reveals intermittent labor‐force participation by the female component of the population. Disaggregation of the data by age group shows that this situation persists unchanged over time, given that substantial uniformity of behavior is observed between young women and the female population as a whole. Tournament theory provides grounds to argue that this behavior is Pareto‐inefficient, because it obstructs the optimal allocation of talent in society. The conclusion is drawn that economic policy measures are necessary in order to alter the gender division of labor in its current form.

The purpose of this paper is to verify whether higher education increases the likelihood of young Italian workers moving from non‐standard to standard wage contracts.

The authors exploit a data set on labour market flows, produced by the Italian National Statistical Office, by interviewing about 85,000 graduate and non‐graduate individuals aged 15‐29 in transition between five labour market states: standard wage employment; non‐standard wage employment; self‐employment; unemployment; inactivity. From these data, an average six‐year transition matrix was constructed whose coefficients can be interpreted as probabilities of moving from one state to another over time.

As the authors find evidence for the so‐called stepping stone hypothesis (that is, a higher probability of moving to a permanent job for individuals starting from a temporary job), the authors expect graduates to be more likely to pass from non‐standard to standard wage contracts than non‐graduates, because the signalling effect of education is enhanced by the stepping stone effect of non‐standard wage contracts. Nevertheless, the authors find that non‐standard wage contracts of graduates are more likely to be terminated as bad job/worker matches.

This paper adds to the empirical literature on the probability of young workers moving from non‐standard wage contracts to a permanent job. By separating graduates from non‐graduates, it was found that education reduces the likelihood of passing from non‐standard to standard wage contracts. The authors interpret this result as evidence of the changing labour market that makes it more difficult to infer the productivity of graduates as opposed to non‐graduates.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the gender impact of tertiary education on the probability of entering and remaining in self‐employment.

A data set on labour market flows produced by the Italian National Statistical Office is exploited by interviewing about 62,000 graduate and non‐graduate individuals in transition between five labour market states: dependent workers; self‐employed workers; unemployed persons; and non‐active persons. From these data, an average ten‐year transition matrix (1993‐2003) is constructed and the flows between labour market conditions by applying Markovian analysis are investigated.

The data show that education significantly increases the probability of entering self‐employment for both male and female graduates, but it also significantly increases the transition from self‐employment to dependent employment for female graduates, thereby increasing the percentage of female graduates in paid employment and reducing the percentage of women in entrepreneurial activities. It is argued that the disappointment provoked by the gender wage gap in paid employment may induce some female graduates with low‐entrepreneurial ability to set‐up on their own, but once in self‐employment they have lower survival rates than both men in self‐employment and women in paid employment. Thus, what is observed overall is that education widens the gender gap between self‐employed workers and employees for individuals persisting in the same working condition.

The data are enabled to shift the focus of the relationship between education and entrepreneurship from the probability of being self‐employed to the probability of entering and surviving in this condition.