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Using a unique data set from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), we estimate the gender starting-salary gap for college graduates from 2000 to 2010. Simulation techniques are used to estimate how the salary gap would change if women had selected the same majors or job types as men. We find that about 90% of the starting-salary gap is explainable by gender differences in majors and types of job offers – a higher percentage than found in most other studies. Duncan indexes of dissimilarity also indicate that the gender distributions of job offers by college major and type of first jobs have not become more similar over the past 10 years. Although differences in college major and types of first jobs explain most of the gender gap in starting salaries of college graduates, small but unexplained gender pay differences reveal themselves in the NACE statistics.

Today logistics is an ever-growing multi-billion-dollar business, and logistics operations have been increasingly outsourced to specialised players. The intended aim of this paper is to offer a multi-method approach for estimating the size of the national logistics outsourcing market by building upon financial-reporting data of logistics service providers (LSPs).

The proposed approach is structured into four steps, clustered around two main stages: framework setting and data collection, and processing. A combination of methods is offered, including a review of academic literature and secondary sources, focus groups, interviews and data extractions from national databases.

The proposed approach is meant to be replicable in different countries, thus allowing for comparison amongst markets. With reference to a specific country and year, the following outputs are provided: market size in terms of the number of players and generated turnover – total and split by LSPs type – and market concentration measures. A practical application of the proposed approach to a specific context, i.e. Italy is finally offered.

The study focusses on the logistics outsourcing market and considers financial-reporting data from LSPs, avoiding the need for introducing assumptions about the value of logistics operations for shippers. The proposed approach can contribute to strengthening the accuracy of LSPs' market analyses, and supporting the development of national policies by local governments. The adoption of multiple methods brings rigour and reliability to the study. Finally, high flexibility is ensured, as the method may be adaptable over time to cope with future changes in the logistics landscape.