The Declining Use of Unskilled Labour in Italian Manufacturing: Is Trade to Blame? CEPS Working Document No. 178, December 2001

As in other industrialised countries, the manufacturing sector in Italy has recently experienced a substantial increase in the use of skilled relative to unskilled workers - skill upgrading. In this paper we estimate a model, based upon the notion of outsourcing, of the relative demand for skilled labour which allows identification of the roles of technological change and trade, the two main culprits, in skill upgrading. Compared to previous studies of Italy the model is applied to highly disaggregated industrial data and in addition the impact of trade is more precisely measured through the separate identification of import flows from low-wage labour abundant countries and those from OECD partners. Furthermore we also introduce a measure of trade variability. Our results show firstly that economic variables played little or no role in determining the relative demand for unskilled workers in the 1970s in Italy, reflecting the nature of Italian labour market institutions in the period. Subsequently, in the 1980s and 1990s, following some labour market reforms, we find that international competition, in terms of import penetration and the variability of trade prices, had a significant effect on the relative demand for blue-collar workers in Italy in skilled intensive sectors. In unskilled intensive sectors, such as textiles and clothing, where the impact of imports from low-wage countries might be expected to be more pronounced, we do not find a significant effect from imports but rather that the most important role has been played by technological change. The result is consistent with previous studies that indicate that Italian textile and clothing firms have remained internationally competitive by increasingly switching to high quality segments of the industry

Distribution of Caulerpa taxifolia var. distichophylla (Sonder) Verlaque, Huisman & Procaccini in the Mediterranean Sea

The Non-Indigenous Species (NIS) Caulerpa taxifolia var. distichophylla (Sonder) Verlaque, Huisman & Procaccini has been reported for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea along the coast of South Turkey. This NIS is actively expanding into the Eastern and Western Mediterranean Sea. In this paper, we present an overview of the current distribution of this alga in the Mediterranean Sea, based on relevant scientific publications, grey literature and personal observations. New records from the Sicilian coast (Italy) are also reported. Caulerpa taxifolia var. distichophylla was found over a wide range of environmental conditions (depth, light and substratum), suggesting a broad ecological plasticity of this alga which makes it a poten- tial threat for the Mediterranean benthic communities. In this respect, artificial structures, often linked to harbours and maritime traffic, seem to provide suitable habitats for this NIS. Since maritime traffic is intense in the Mediterranean Sea, further expansion of C. taxifolia var. distichophylla in this region is to be expected. For this reason, it is very important to build up an overview on the current distribution of the species and its possible pattern of colonisation in relation to environmental conditions, as well as in view of future climate change scenarios

Movements of People for Movements of Goods?

While it is well established to think of international tourism as a type of exports, namely ‘home’ exports, the potential of tourism flows as an engine for fostering trade among countries is a poorly studied topic. In this paper we show that this relationship can be studied at a very detailed level by exploiting the disaggregation of existing information on international trade and inbound tourism. We consider a sample of 25 countries belonging to the European Union, a region which has been interested by common shocks such as the establishment of the Euro as the new currency for many countries and the liberalization in the air transport market. We carry out a panel data analysis by means of which we assess whether international tourist arrivals by a given country activate additional exports towards the same country. We find not only that tourism can promote exports, but also that this effect displays important differences depending on whether or not consumption goods are considered. This finding is consistent with the idea that the experience of tourists in a given destination reduces the fixed costs of trade, thus facilitating access to the advantages of international trade for more peripheral economies

Border effects in the enlarged EU area

This paper looks at the issue of border effects in the enlarged European Union. We have considered accession countries of different size and other characteristics, i.e. Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia and Cyprus. We have measured the extent to which internal trade exceeds international trade in a set up where controls for other economic determinants of commerce have been considered. In order to avoid inflated border effects, information at the regional level both for CEECs and EU countries has been used to construct a weighted measure of distance both for between-countries and internal distances. Furthermore, in order to separate border effects from impediments to trade due to technical barriers we look at the extent of border effects for sectors grouped according to the approach adopted by the EU to remove technical barriers in the EU. All distance measures have been found negative and significant for all types of products. The border effect coefficients for the harmonic mean have been found consistently smaller, regardless the relevance of technical barriers. Furthermore distance has also been found to be a slightly smaller impediment when using the effective measure. Checking for the presence of technical barriers to trade, our results suggest that the border effects are the largest for old approach products, where we expect to have the most important technical barrier to trade due to complicated harmonization procedures. The ‘other approach’ category has the smallest border effects, while the ‘mixed approach’ products are in between the two previous categories. Our countries of interest would trade with themselves 221 times more in old approach products, while only 24 times more in other approach products

What will trade and global value chains look like in a post-pandemic world?

The economic disruption generated by Covid-19 has prompted many observers to ask whether globalisation has increased our vulnerability to economic shocks. Anna Maria Pinna and Luca Lodi examine what the future of trade and global value chains may look like once we emerge from the pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic arrived at a time when many citizens ... Continue

Politiche per le comunità rom tra riconoscimento e redistribuzione: uno studio a partire da alcune realtà locali del Nord Sardegna

The present work sheds light on the anthropological complexity of the roma communities living inside Italian borders, and on the welfare their host Country provides them. The analysis is built upon four case studies on local communities and, bearing in mind that each testimonial comes with its own subjective biases, all contributions are used as a framework where the theoretical debate between redistribution and recognition can be developed. Each case study revises the whole path followed by a specific roma group since their first steps in the place they reside into, highlighting all kinds of difficulties that impaired the entwining of beneficial networks with the host community: households, institutions, associations. Both spatial segregation in “campi nomadi” and the negation of citizenship appear to be cumbersome obstacles to integration. Regarding social and educational policies that aim to integrating roma people in their host communities it appears that, notwithstanding the financial efforts put in place by some institutions, these have been mostly ineffective. On a normative perspective, the results of the present work call for a thorough rethinking of both redistributive and pro-recognition policies that do not directly involve host and target communities.</br

La disponibilità a pagare per la copertura del rischio di non autosufficienza: analisi econometrica e valutazione di policy

In response to the increasing demand for elderly care, Italy has experienced an intense debate on what should be the most appropriate way to extend coverage for long-term care (LTC). This paper bridges a gap into existing literature by analysing household preferences for LTC coverage in light of an ad hoc survey. We present evidence on household stated willingness to pay (WTP) both for tax financed and private LTC insurance schemes. The distribution of WTP across different socio-economic groups provides insights on the political sustainability of the different institutional solutions. Moreover, estimates of the determinants of demand highlights the importance of income levels and opinion indicators in turning consumer preferences either to public or private schemes. We interpret the different patterns of WTP as evidence of the influence of the redistributive effects inherent to public insurance

A Protocol for microbiologically safe preparation, storage, and use of autologous serum eye-drops in low-income countries

Introduction: The study aimed to investigate whether the preparation, storage, and use of autologous serum in insulin syringes is microbiologically safe. Methodology: Blood samples (10 mL) were obtained from 10 volunteers. After centrifugation, the supernatant serum was removed and distributed in 5 sterile insulin syringes for each sample; syringes were numbered 0 to 4 and labelled with the subject’s details. Syringes were immediately transported to the microbiology laboratory and stored in a refrigerator at +4°C. The “0” labelled syringes were separated from the others and 100 μl of serum from each syringe was immediately seeded on chocolate and Sabouraud agar plates, which were incubated aerobically at 37°C for 96 hours to detect any bacterial and/or fungal contamination. In the next 4 days, the same procedure was repeated for the remaining syringes: on day 1, the “1” labelled syringes were analyzed; on day 2, the “2” labelled ones, and so on. In a second experiment, blood samples were obtained from 5 different volunteers. The same procedure as above was followed, but each syringe was used for repeated cultures at 2-hour intervals, for a total of 12 cultures/day. The needle was removed and replaced for each inoculation and the syringes were stored in the refrigerator after use. Results: Under these experimental conditions, none of the cultures showed microbial growth. Conclusions: Results suggest that, under the protocol described, preparation, storage and use of undiluted autologous serum in insulin syringes is inexpensive, fast, and microbiologically safe. This is of great importance for low-income countries.</br

Sintesi totale di amminoacidi a base ciclitolica: un approccio orientato alla diversità

Amminoacidi carbociclici con funzionalità multiple installate sulle varie posizioni anulari, come le strutture polioliche 1-8 di questo studio, rappresentano un insieme molecolare omogeneo e, allo stesso tempo, variato, in cui ciascuna entità può essere vista sotto diverse angolazioni