Immigrant community integration in world cities

As a consequence of the accelerated globalization process, today major cities all over the world are characterized by an increasing multiculturalism. The integration of immigrant communities may be affected by social polarization and spatial segregation. How are these dynamics evolving over time? To what extent the different policies launched to tackle these problems are working? These are critical questions traditionally addressed by studies based on surveys and census data. Such sources are safe to avoid spurious biases, but the data collection becomes an intensive and rather expensive work. Here, we conduct a comprehensive study on immigrant integration in 53 world cities by introducing an innovative approach: an analysis of the spatio-temporal communication patterns of immigrant and local communities based on language detection in Twitter and on novel metrics of spatial integration. We quantify the "Power of Integration" of cities --their capacity to spatially integrate diverse cultures-- and characterize the relations between different cultures when acting as hosts or immigrants.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures + Appendi

Bio-Ecological Diversity vs. Socio-Economic Diversity: A Comparison of Existing Measures

This paper aims to enrich the standard toolbox for measuring diversity in economics. In so doing, we compare the indicators of diversity used by economists with those used by biologists and ecologists. Ecologists and biologists are concerned about biodiversity: the diversity of organisms that inhabit a given area. Concepts of species diversity such as alpha (diversity within community), beta (diversity across communities) and gamma (diversity due to differences among samples when they are combined into a single sample) have been developed (Whittaker, 1960). Biodiversity is more complex than just the species that are present, it includes species richness and species evenness. Those various aspects of diversity are measured by biodiversity indices such as Simpson’s Diversity Indices, Species Richness Index, Shannon Weaver Diversity Indices, Patil and Taillie Index, Modified Hill’s Ratio. In economics, diversity measures are multi-faceted ranging from inequality (Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient, quintile distribution), to polarisation (Esteban and Ray, 1994; Wolfon, 1994, D’Ambrosio (2001)) and heterogeneity (Alesina, Baqir and Hoxby, 2000). We propose an interdisciplinary comparison between indicators. We review their theoretical background and applications. We provide an assessment of their possible use according to their specific properties.Diversity, Growth, Knowledge

Designing Open and Distance Learning for Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: A toolkit for educators and planners

Everyone remembers a good teacher. Good teachers are the key to educational expansion and improvement. In many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, there is an urgent need to expand the number of primary and secondary teachers. In all African countries, there is an equally important need to improve the quality of teaching. To achieve this, it is clear that new approaches to teacher education are essential. Existing institutions of teacher education will continue to play an important role, but, alone, they will not meet the goals of Education for All (EFA) by 2015. It is fortunate that, just as the twin needs to improve the quantity and quality of teachers become imperative, so new forms of education and training are becoming available. The world is witnessing a revolution in information and communication technologies (ICTs), which can offer training and support of a type and at a cost hitherto impossible to consider, and thus, must be fully explored given the scale and urgency of demand. In doing so, however, it will be necessary to build on existing and well-tested strategies, including the best models of open and distance learning. This toolkit is the third in a series of recent publications by the Africa Region Human Development Department of the World Bank to share knowledge and experience on how distance education and ICTs can support education in Sub-Saharan Africa. It emphasizes the rigorous process by which new forms of distance-education programs for teacher education can be planned and implemented. The best models of established programs are considered along with the potential for incorporating, as the means become available, new modes of communication. Most forms of teacher education, particularly those concerned with qualification upgrading and ongoing professional development, will have to be based in schools. The authors demonstrate how school-based programs, appropriately resourced and supported, have the potential not only to raise significantly the number and quality of teachers, but also to improve classroom practice and school organization, generally. The guidance and advice, which is drawn from many years of experience in design and implementation, and embraces a range of case studies from across the region, will be of considerable value to those preparing new policies and programs of teacher education and to those seeking to improve existing programs

Bio-Ecological Diversity vs. Socio-Economic Diversity: A Comparison of Existing Measures

This paper aims to enrich the standard toolbox for measuring diversity in economics. In so doing, we compare the indicators of diversity used by economists with those used by biologists and ecologists. Ecologists and biologists are concerned about biodiversity: the diversity of organisms that inhabit a given area. Concepts of species diversity such as alpha (diversity within community), beta (diversity across communities) and gamma (diversity due to differences among samples when they are combined into a single sample) have been developed (Whittaker, 1960). Biodiversity is more complex than just the species that are present, it includes species richness and species evenness. Those various aspects of diversity are measured by biodiversity indices such as Simpson’s Diversity Indices, Species Richness Index, Shannon Weaver Diversity Indices, Patil and Taillie Index, Modified Hill’s Ratio. In economics, diversity measures are multi-faceted ranging from inequality (Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient, quintile distribution), to polarisation (Esteban and Ray, 1994; Wolfon, 1994, D’Ambrosio (2001)) and heterogeneity (Alesina, Baqir and Hoxby, 2000). We propose an interdisciplinary comparison between indicators. We review their theoretical background and applications. We provide an assessment of their possible use according to their specific properties.This paper aims to enrich the standard toolbox for measuring diversity in economics. In so doing, we compare the indicators of diversity used by economists with those used by biologists and ecologists. Ecologists and biologists are concerned about biodiversity: the diversity of organisms that inhabit a given area. Concepts of species diversity such as alpha (diversity within community), beta (diversity across communities) and gamma (diversity due to differences among samples when they are combined into a single sample) have been developed (Whittaker, 1960). Biodiversity is more complex than just the species that are present, it includes species richness and species evenness. Those various aspects of diversity are measured by biodiversity indices such as Simpson’s Diversity Indices, Species Richness Index, Shannon Weaver Diversity Indices, Patil and Taillie Index, Modified Hill’s Ratio. In economics, diversity measures are multi-faceted ranging from inequality (Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient, quintile distribution), to polarisation (Esteban and Ray, 1994; Wolfon, 1994, D’Ambrosio (2001)) and heterogeneity (Alesina, Baqir and Hoxby, 2000). We propose an interdisciplinary comparison between indicators. We review their theoretical background and applications. We provide an assessment of their possible use according to their specific properties.Non-Refereed Working Papers / of national relevance onl

Complexity and Its Relation to Variation

This paper is concerned with the relationship between complexity and variation. The main goal is to lay out the conceptual foundations and to develop and systematize reasonable hypotheses such as to set out concrete research questions for future investigations. I first compare how complexity and variation have synchronically been studied and what kinds of questions have been asked in those studies. Departing from earlier surveys of different definitions of complexity, here I classify the majority of complexity studies into two broad types based on two ways of defining this concept. The first type determines and measures linguistic complexity by counting numbers of items (e.g., linguistic forms or rules and interactions between forms). The second type makes use of transparency and the principle of One-Meaning–One-Form. In addition, linguistic complexity has been defined by means of concepts from information theory, namely in terms of description length or information content, but those studies are in the minority. Then I define linguistic variation as a situation when two or more linguistic forms have identical or largely identical meaning and it is possible to use either the one or the other variant. Variation can be free or linguistically or socially conditioned. I argue that there is an implicational relationship between complexity of the first type that is defined in terms of numbers of items and variation. Variation is a type of complexity because it implies the existence of more than one linguistic form per meaning. But not every type of complexity involves variation because complexity defined on the basis of transparency does not necessarily imply the existence of more than one form. In the following I discuss extralinguistic factors that (possibly) have an impact on socially conditioned variation and/or complexity and can lead to an increase or decrease of complexity and/or variation. I conclude with suggestions of how to further examine the relationship between complexity and variation

Microeconometrics applied to labour and migration

Defence date: 19 February 2024Examining Board: Prof. Andrea Mattozzi (University of Bologna ; European University Institute, supervisor); Prof. Andrea Ichino (European University Institute); Prof. Robert Gary-Bobo (Universite Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne); Prof. Fabiano Schivardi (LUISS)The thesis contains four independent essays that focus on economics of migration, education and labour. The first chapter joint with Anatole Cheysson focus on the effect of plurilingualism on brain drain. We study how foreign language proficiency affects brain drain by exploiting the heterogenous exposure of Albania to Italian television in the second half of the twentieth century. We document that Albanians’ exposure to the Italian TV signal was as good as random. We find that exposure to Italian TV led to a considerable increase in Italian proficiency rates and strongly increased the probability of migrating of highly skilled individuals while not affecting other skill groups. The second chapter, joint with Robert Gary-Bobo and Marion Gouss´e, studies the variation of the average treatment effect of education over time. To study the returns to degrees, we assume the existence of a finite number of latent types and estimate a finite-mixture model. We show that the expected real wages commanded by some higher-education degrees decreased in absolute terms in France, in the past two decades, and that this drop is not due to adverse selection. In the case of Master degrees, the student selection improved with time, in spite of the fact that the number of graduates increased substantially. The third chapter critically reviews the literature on the human capital of entrepreneurs exploiting insights derived from previous studies and stylized facts obtained from high-quality data in Denmark’s administrative register. The fourth chapter, co-authored with Leonardo Indraccolo and Jacek Piosik, studies the human capital determinants of entrepreneurship. Using Danish administrative data, we measure analytical and communication skills with high school grades in math and Danish language. We observe a positive complementarity between math and Danish language grades in predicting individuals’ self-selection into entrepreneurship. For the population of high performing math students, we exploit within-school, across-cohort variation in students’ exposure to peers whose father has a university degree in humanities to identify the effect of communication skills on the probability of becoming an entrepreneur. We find that the difference in entrepreneurship share between the most (90th percentile) and the least (10th percentile) exposed individual is 1.1 percentage points: 20% of the overall share of entrepreneurs in the economy.-- Abstract -- Acknowledgements -- 1. Plurilingualism and brain drain : unexpected consequences of access to foreign TV -- 2. Is there a devaluation of degrees? Unobserved heterogeneity in returns to education and early experience -- 3. The human capital of entrepreneurs : a critical review using high quality Danish administrative data -- 4. Teach the nerds to make a pitch : multidimensional skills and selection into entrepreneurship -- A. First appendix -- B. Second appendix -- C. Third appendi

Essays on the effects of information on economics

Defence date: 02 April 2024Examining Board: Prof. Giacomo Calzolari, (European University Institute, supervisor); Prof. Alessandro Tarozzi, (European University Institute, co-supervisor); Prof. Emmanuelle Auriol, (Toulouse School of Economics); Prof. Mattia Nardotto, (Université Libre de Bruxelles)Chapter 1 investigates the impact of foreign language proficiency on brain drain in Albania. It leverages the accidental exposure to Italian television signals in the country, which led to increased Italian proficiency. The study finds that this exposure significantly increased the migration of highly skilled individuals, while other skill groups were not affected. Chapter 2 explores the market for machine data (MD) generated by ICT and AI, highlighting issues such as fragmented datasets, externalities, and fuzzy property rights. It examines how data aggregators can contract with various data producers to share data and analytics, considering factors like producer heterogeneity, preference for anonymity, and market competition. Chapter 3 examines the relationship between price discrimination and tacit collusion in the U.S. airline industry using data from 2000 to 2019. The study reveals that the impact of price discrimination on collusion varies over time, influenced by the quality of information available. In periods of poor information quality, price discrimination inhibits collusion, but the effect reverses as information quality improves.-- 1. Plurilingualism and Brain Drain: Unexpected Consequences of Access to Foreign TV -- 2. Machine Data: market and analytics -- 3. Price Discrimination and Tacit Collusion: An Empirical Analysis of the U.S. Airline Industry -- A. First Appendix -- B. Second Appendi