Ageism . . . like any other form of workplace discrimination . . . has serious social, moral and economic consequences for society.

Yet there is an element of boywho-cried-wolf here. Not a week goes by without some Irish quango issuing a press release condemning employers for failing to "combat discrimination".

Last week it was the turn of the EU Commission to add some highsounding notes to the choir.

Launching a new action plan on the gender pay gap, EU Commissioner Vladimir Spidla labelled the estimated 15% pay difference (in Ireland 9%) between women and men as "absurd".

To his credit, Spidla did mention some non-discriminatory reasons for such pay discrepancy: much greater input of time and effort by women in household work and differences in career commitments.

However, the EU action plan completely missed several points.

First, research worldwide shows that higher marginal tax rates reduce female participation in the labour force, contributing to gender-linked pay discrepancies. In fact, income tax structures are far more important in driving the differences between male and female earnings than state-subsidised creches and paternity leave laws.

Second, household work can be highly productive, and minimising it by state diktat does not necessarily benefit society.

Third, generous family welfare systems often come at the expense of skewing higher birth rates in the direction of those who depend on subsidies to raise children.

Despite all the activism in combating various forms of alleged workforce discrimination, very little internationally reputable research has been done on these issues here.

For various reasons . . . deserving a separate article . . . most of it comes from outside Ireland.

In a February 2007 paper titled 'Earnings Inequality in Europe', published by IZA Institute in Germany, a group of European researchers studied the causes of changes in earnings inequality in Europe over time. The authors argue that "considerable cross-country differences are observed across the EU regarding both the level and the structure of earnings inequality. In most countries. . . education and, to a lesser extent, age are found to be most closely associated with inequality."

Furthermore, "the main factor behind the observed changes in earnings inequality was changes in inequality 'within groups'; the effect of changes in group mean earnings was negligible".

The latter statement means that most wage inequality can be explained by differences between individuals, not between groups de"ned by gender, education, age or profession.

According to all indices analysed in the paper, Ireland's total inequality in net hourly earnings ranges between 0.116 and 0.266 and ranks seventh in a sample . . . just below Spain and ahead of Finland. The highest measure was recorded in Portugal (0.171 to 0.326) and the lowest is Denmark ( 0.049 to 0.161).

In measures of inequality due to education, age and sex, Ireland is ranked eighth-lowest. In other words, Ireland performs above average in terms of the pay gap due to age and gender variation. Overall, education differences account for 15.3% of hourly wage inequality in Ireland, age for 10.6%, and sex for only 5.2% . . . a far cry from the EU estimate of 9% suggested by Spidla.

What about the income inequality across social classes?

A recent paper from the University of Goteborg (Sweden), using data from OECD countries for the period 1975-2004, shows that in Ireland, class inequality, measured by top one centile of earners' gross real income share, was lower than in New Zealand, Canada and Australia, Finland and Sweden. Between 1975 and 2004, income inequality in Ireland increased at the "fth-slowest rate in the OECD . . . slower than in egalitarian Sweden.

Finally, a study from the University of Linz released last week confirmed that, between 1982 and 2005, across the world, economies with greater openness to trade and competition . . . the so-called freer economies . . . had significantly lower levels of gender wage differentials.

Overall, these studies suggest that the problem of gender-based discrimination and ageism in Ireland may be far less important than our numerous quangos would like us to believe.

This should not be taken as a departing point for scrapping all programmes for ensuring fair access to workplace opportunities for women and older workers. Instead, it should be treated as a cautious warning to those who are eager to move from legislating equality of opportunity to enforcing equality of an outcome.

Spidla would do much more for gender equality by focusing on bringing more freedom to Europe's markets than by setting lofty action plans full of state subsidies and taxand-spend policies.

SUBURBAN ALIENATION?

FOLLOWING last week's article on the differences between suburban and city residents, I came across an interesting new study by the researchers from the University of California and Dublin City University.

The study, titled 'Social Interaction and Urban Sprawl', addresses whether low-density living reduces social interactions.

The authors find that "whether the focus is friendship-oriented social interaction or measures of group involvement, the empirical results show a negative effect of density on interaction. The paper's findings therefore imply that socialinteraction effects cannot be credibly included in the panoply of criticisms directed toward urban sprawl. In fact, the results suggest an opposite line of argument."

This, of course, is a point best illustrated by a sunny weekend day in Dundrum shopping centre's main plaza, with thousands of families gathered under the canopies of cafes and restaurants.

Dr Constantin Gurdgiev is an economist and editor of Business & Financemagazine