How do immigrants fare during the downturn? Evidence from matching comparable natives

BACKGROUND This paper provides empirical evidence regarding the supposed vulnerability of immigrants to the recent economic downturn. OBJECTIVE Our purpose is to understand whether immigrant workers are suffering more from the downturn and, if so, to disentangle whether this is related to being an immigrant or to specific characteristics that make immigrants different from natives. METHODS We use longitudinal data from the Italian Labour Force Survey to compare immigrant and native workers, matched for observable personal, household, and job characteristics by propensity score methods. RESULTS Immigrant workers face a higher probability of ending an ongoing employment spell because their characteristics are more likely associated with higher separation rates, while, when comparing similar workers, differences with natives disappear. In 2009 job separations increased for all male workers, but the impact was stronger for immigrants, mainly because of their characteristics. On the contrary, both groups of female workers showed a slightly lower probability of losing a job in 2009, so that observed differences remained the same before and after the downturn. CONCLUSIONS The impact of the downturn differs markedly by gender, with only male workers being affected. Among these, immigrants suffer more than natives, as their observable characteristics are more associated with losing a job. When comparing only comparable workers, immigrant status itself has no impact on separation rates. 1 University of Padua, Department of Statistical Sciences, Italy. E-mail: [email protected]. Paggiaro: How do immigrants fare during the downturn? Evidence from matching comparable natives 230 http://www.demographic-research.or

The Effect of Extending the Duration of Eligibility in an Italian Labour Market Programme for Dismissed Workers

Liste di mobilità (LM) is an Italian labour market programme targeted to dismissed workers. There is a ‘passive’ component granting monetary benefits to employees dismissed by firms larger than 15 employees, and an ‘active’ component providing an employment subsidy to any firm hiring workers from the LM. Eligibility duration varies with the worker’s age at dismissal. We exploit the variability of these provisions to evaluate the impact of extending the duration of eligibility on re-employment probabilities and wages over the 36 months subsequent to enrolment in the programme. The average treatment effect is identified via a Regression Discontinuity Design. A major negative impact emerges for workers aged 50 or more granted the monetary benefit.active labour market policies, regression discontinuity design

Evaluation of information retrieval systems using structural equation modeling

The interpretation of the experimental data collected by testing systems across input datasets and model parameters is of strategic importance for system design and implementation. In particular, finding relationships between variables and detecting the latent variables affecting retrieval performance can provide designers, engineers and experimenters with useful if not necessary information about how a system is performing. This paper discusses the use of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in providing an in-depth explanation of evaluation results and an explanation of failures and successes of a system; in particular, we focus on the case of evaluation of Information Retrieval systems

Per un pugno di euro. Storie di ordinaria disoccupazione

L’assicurazione contro la disoccupazione involontaria in molti paesi sviluppati costituisce uno dei cardini delle politiche di sostegno del reddito dei lavoratori. In Italia, invece, ha un ruolo piuttosto marginale. Inoltre, è da molti anni oggetto di critiche, segnatamente per il basso tasso di copertura della platea di riferimento. In questo lavoro mostriamo come le debolezze e le incongruenze del disegno dell’indennità di disoccupazione ordinaria – la principale misura contro la disoccupazione involontaria – siano ancora più gravi. Una ragguardevole frazione di lavoratori ammissibili a questa misura accede, invece, all’indennità di disoccupazione a requisiti ridotti, eludendo così la condizione di essere disponibili a lavorare. Circa la metà dell’utilizzo dell’indennità di disoccupazione ordinaria, poi, avviene per il lavoro stagionale, il lavoro precario nel pubblico impiego o come sostituto improprio della Cassa integrazione guadagni quando non sussistono le condizioni per accedervi. Ciò dà origine a uno squilibrio strutturale tra contributi pagati e prestazioni erogate, che solleva questioni di equità nonché di equilibrio finanziario per il fondo dell’INPS.Indennità di disoccupazione; Lavoro stagionale; Precariato nel pubblico impiego

Conceptualizing triathlon sport event travelers’ behavior

This paper analyzes the relationships between self-congruity, functional congruity, satisfaction, sport event involvement and behavioral intentions of triathlon sport travellers. The moderating effect of different training experiences is assessed in allowing these relations. 885 data were collected among triathletes participating to international triathlon competitions. A theoretical model has been developed and tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The majority of hypotheses are empirically confirmed. Regarding the moderation hypothesis, a multi-group SEM has been estimated (considering high-intensity and low-intensity sport training as moderators). Some differences between the two groups are highlighted, remarking the need to develop differential marketing strategies in active sport tourism

Conceptualizing triathlon sport event travelers’ behavior

This paper analyzes the relationships between self-congruity, functional congruity, satisfaction, sport event involvement and behavioral intentions of triathlon sport travellers. The moderating effect of different training experiences is assessed in allowing these relations. 885 data were collected among triathletes participating to international triathlon competitions. A theoretical model has been developed and tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The majority of hypotheses are empirically confirmed. Regarding the moderation hypothesis, a multi-group SEM has been estimated (considering high-intensity and low-intensity sport training as moderators). Some differences between the two groups are highlighted, remarking the need to develop differential marketing strategies in active sport tourism

Il questionario per i docenti: costruzione, implementazione, analisi. Progetto PRODID (Preparazione alla Professionalità Docente e Innovazione Didattica) - Rapporto dell'Unità di Ricerca n.3 - prima annualità [Technical Report Series, 1/2014]

The work aims to illustrate the design and the first results of a survey which involved 1849 university professors who were teaching courses at Bachelor's and Master's Degrees of University of Padova during the academic year 2012/13. The research is part of a project of improvement of the academic educational innovation and the quality of academic teaching. The data was directly obtained using a CAWI questionnaire which was distributed to the whole teaching staff, and it was linked to administrative data related to the educational offer and students’ evaluation of teaching in the same academic year. The results were summarized using some indicators which showed the diffusion of good practices of teaching, support needs, beliefs, interest and availability of the respondents. We identified sub-groups of potential participants for the qualitative phase of the research and subjects to involve in different and integrated activities directed to develop teachers’ professional competences

PRODID project

This dataset is obtained by merging three different datasets coming from the University of Padua (academic year: 2012-2013). The first one is the standard online survey carried out by the University to measure students' opinions on the didactic activities of bachelor degree courses. The second one is the administrative dataset that collects information on the teachers and the didactic activities. The third one is an innovative dataset, collected by means of a new online survey aiming at providing a picture of the teaching experiences developed in the university classrooms. Indeed, the University of Padua in 2013 promoted the PRODID (“Teacher professional development and academic educational innovation” – in italian “Preparazione alla professionalità docente e innovazione didattica”). The goal of this project is to highlight teachers' needs, beliefs and practices of teaching and learning

Un modello di mistura per l'analisi della disoccupazione di lunga durata

In recent years, specifically in western European countries, it has been observed a notable increase in the number of people showing long duration of job search spells, and this aspect seems to concern mostly some specific groups of the population. Significantly, it has become very common to report besides the unemployment rate the level of long-term unemployment as an important index on the situation of labour markets. In this work a class of mixture models is developed, in order to allow for the coexistence of different distributions of unemployment in the population. These models make possible an interpretation of long-term unemployment allowing for: (a) the estimation of the duration model referred only to individuals with some opportunity of transition to employment, thus eliminating the bias due to the joint estimation of the mixture of two different populations; (b) pointing out the distinctive features (as age, gender, education) related to the disadvantaged side of the population. An empirical application of mixture models on a longitudinal sample coming from the rotating sample structure of the Italian labour force survey is presented, also considering the correction to take into account problems related to length bias