women are less likely to be in top positions within firms, and gender quotas can be of help in this respect. in 2021 the bank of italy did its part. we used our regulatory powers to introduce a gender quota for the top management of all italian banks, following the italian law on gender balance for listed companies. let me add another bit of self - promotion. the research department of the bank has been particularly active in studying gender gaps. last year we presented and published the results of a major project looking at various aspects of women ’ s experience in the italian labour market. 9 one of our key findings, to be presented in this workshop, is that gender gaps are already large at the point of entry into the labour market. 10 educational choices, already in high school, are key to explaining much of these gaps. women tend to avoid stem subjects, which – also because of the digital revolution – tend to be more remunerative. let me tell you an anecdote about this. since 2008, the bank of italy has been funding an annual prize for high school students who excel in mathematics and information technology. students ’ participation in the contest is voluntary, and the selection process is entirely conducted by the schools. over 17 years, the prize has been awarded to 340 students. g. peri and c. sparber, “ task specialization, immigration, and wages ”, american economic journal : applied economics, 2009 ; g. basso and g. peri, “ internal mobility : the greater responsiveness of foreign - born to economic conditions ”, journal of economic perspectives, 2020 ; g. barone and s. mocetti, “ with a little help from abroad : the effect of low - skilled immigration on the female labour supply ”, labour economics, 2011. p. mahajan, n. morales, k. shih, a. brinatti and m. chen, “ the impact of immigration on firms and workers : insights from the h - 1b lottery ”, iza dp no. 16917. f. carta, m. de philippis, l. rizzica and e. viviano, “ women, labour markets and economic growth ”, bank of italy workshops and conferences, 26, 2023. g. bovini, m. de philippis and l. rizzica, “ the origins of gender wage gaps : the role of school to work transition ”, bank of italy working paper series, forthcoming. the

restricted unclassified liquidity : one word, three meanings. speech delivered to kanganews new zealand debt capital market summit 2023 by karen silk, reserve bank assistant governor 13 september 2023 ref # 20582948 v2. 8 unclassified “ day after day, day after day, we stuck, nor breath nor motion ; as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean. water, water, every where, and all the boards did shrink ; water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink. ” - the rime of the ancient mariner introduction e nga nga mana, e ngaa reo. e ngaa karanga maha o te wa. tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa, good morning. it ’ s wonderful to see so many familiar faces at this event, which has become a staple of the new zealand capital markets calendar. i am grateful to kanganews for their continued efforts to support debt capital markets in new zealand and to all the sponsors who help to make this event possible. i am also grateful for the opportunity to speak to you today, for the second time at this event in as many years. let me begin within a familiar disclaimer. as most of you will be aware, i am a member of the reserve bank ’ s monetary policy committee. in my remarks today i will briefly touch on an aspect of monetary policy transmission. however, this speech is not an mpc communication and contains no guidance on the future path of monetary policy. the latest views of the mpc can be found in our recently published monetary policy statement. my topic today – liquidity. it references what might be one of the most used words in the financial markets lexicon. but it is a word with many meanings. in the most quoted lines of samuel taylor coleridge ’ s rime of the ancient mariner, the sailor recounts being becalmed in the doldrums, his ship surrounded by water, but none of it of the drinking kind. consider a 21st century reimagining of this tale, within the context of financial markets. instead of a seafarer, it features a fixed income trader. our protagonist might bemoan that markets are awash in liquidity but that they are not able to execute a trade. most of this audience will understand this ( admittedly not very subtle ) metaphor, but people not involved in financial markets