Obesity and economic performance of young workers in Italy

In this paper we explore recent ISFOL-PLUS 2006-2008-2010 data available for Italy about height and weight of young workers with the purpose of analysing the relationship between measures of obesity and measures of economic performance. Among the latter, we introduce job satisfaction, both overall and for nine specific aspects, which has not been previously considered in the literature on the effects of obesity. Interestingly enough, we find that BMI does not discriminate young workers with respect to their job earnings, but it does affect negatively young workers' job satisfaction with important gender effects

Il difficile passaggio verso il lavoro dei giovani che lasciano la scuola: quali possibili politiche?

Youth leaving school and searching for a job suffer of work experience gap. This is very similar to the skill mismatch that occurs after a shock of demand or supply of competencies: to adequate the supply of competences to the new needs, it is necessary to modify the education and training system which takes time and money. Young people face a similar problem during their school to work transition. In fact, despite ever increasing educational attainment, they lack the other two components of human capital: generic and job-specific work experience. In order to fill this experience gap, they carry out a searching strategy by which they move among different labour market statuses in search for the best job-worker match. However, the process of transition is a complex phenomenon with strong elements of rigidity, concerning the institutions (school, training and university systems and labour agencies) and the norms and contracts regulating the labour market, uncertainty and errors of judgment. Accordingly, the search strategy takes time and is costly. Lower quality Institutions and not flexible labour markets augment the risk that youth make a mistake in their searching investment, or send wrong signals to the firms, and consequently fall permanently into a chain of high and long term unemployment, low pay, temporary or part-time work or inactivity. A comparative analysis shows that the youth condition is not the same all over the OECD countries. To help young people smooth school-to-work transitions, every country has provided a mix of policy instruments reaching different outcomes. We can sum up these instruments into two groups: policies that, considering the need of firms to minimize the labour costs, aim at introducing different degrees and types of labour market flexibility, and policies that, considering the need of new entrants to adequate their human capital , adopt programs of training and labour market active policies or reforms of their education and training system. Broadly speaking, countries with flexible labour market and relatively less expenditures in training and active policies get both low and very high levels of youth unemployment. Nevertheless, Centre-North European countries get a relatively low unemployment rate with more welfare guarantees to youth and high expenditure in training and active policies. However, there is a general consensus both in criticizing the second type of policies, since these are too expensive for the public finances, and in preferring the liberalization of the labour market. This paper is meant to analyze the case of the young graduates and the probability to be overqualified or underskilled. It gives evidence that policies to cut down the labour costs and salaries are of little scope merely aiming at an immediate saving, on the other hand, they are damaging in the long term. Conversely, investments in human capital are very important to augment the productivity growth and reduce regional differences. University and school of low quality as well as lack of instruments aiming at strengthening the link between the education system and the work experience, make permanent the qualification and skill mismatch and hinder wages from restoring the equilibrium of the labour market. In the long term, the wage gap for overqualified and underskilled has consequences on productivity growth. Considerations are made also for the Mezzogiorno case

L’overeducation in Italia: le determinanti e gli effetti salariali nei dati AlmaLaurea

Utilizzando la popolazione dei laureati nel 2005 del Vecchio Ordinamento presenti nella banca dati AlmaLaurea, il saggio analizza le determinanti e gli effetti salariali dell’overeducation e dell’overskilling. Nei dati a disposizione, la prima si verifica quando il titolo di studio non è stato necessario per acquisire il posto di lavoro, mentre la seconda quando le competenze acquisite nel percorso di studio non sono utili allo svolgimento del proprio lavoro. L’overeducation e l’overskilling persistono a 5 anni dalla laurea con percentuali rispettivamente dell’11,4% e dell’8%. Le lauree più frequentemente associate al fenomeno sono quelle umanistiche più Geologia e Biologia. La qualità della preparazione universitaria, misurata dal voto, dalla durata degli studi e dalla formazione post-lauream, incide molto sulla probabilità di overeducation/overskilling, suggerendo che nel caso italiano l’overeducation dipende non solo dalla bassa domanda di laureati, ma anche da una formazione poco orientata allo sviluppo di competenze spendibili nel mondo del lavoro. La penalità salariale non condizionale oscilla fra il 20 e il 25% nel caso dell’overeducation e fra il 16 e il 21% nel caso dell’overskilling. Una volta che si controlla per le caratteristiche osservate dei laureati, la penalità salariale scende al 12% per l’overeducation e al 7% circa per l’overskilling. La stima Heckit con correzione per la selezione del campione comporta un aumento di poco più dell’1% della penalità suggerendo che, come ipotizzato dal job competition model e dal job assignment model, i laureati disoccupati sono di qualità inferiore rispetto agli occupati e quindi avrebbero una maggiore probabilità di overeduca-tion/overskilling se occupati

Introduction.

This book brings together up-to-date findings on the regional dimensions of European labour markets. It provides a conceptual and empirical study of the interactions between the European economy and its regions, paying particular attention to the issue of the transition of Central and Eastern European countries to a market economy. The topics analysed include: the structure of the shocks affecting employment (regional, industrial, national), the relationships between labour market efficiency and the regional distribution of unemployment, wage flexibility in EU member countries or in their regions, the role of active labour market policies in affecting the regional distribution of employment and unemployment

The European Labour Market. Regional Dimensions

This book brings together up-to-date findings on the regional dimensions of European labour markets. It provides a conceptual and empirical study of the interactions between the European economy and its regions, paying particular attention to the issue of the transition of Central and Eastern European countries to a market economy. The topics analysed include: the structure of the shocks affecting employment (regional, industrial, national), the relationships between labour market efficiency and the regional distribution of unemployment, wage flexibility in EU member countries or in their regions, the role of active labour market policies in affecting the regional distribution of employment and unemployment

"Le cause del (l’in-)successo lavorativo dei giovani"

This paper suggests that the insufficient work experience of young people as compared to adults is the major cause of the hardship the former experience in the labour market both in terms of employment and wages. Economists are bewildered as to the determinants of and as to the ways to cure the youth experience gap. Most of them believe that the market should solve youth hardship by offering them: a) a lower than average entry wage able to mirror their lower productivity level; b) increasing labour market flexibility so as to allow them to move more easily from one job the next until they have found the best one for them; c) and, in particular, temporary work, considered as the only way to allow them to acquire the work experience they actually need. Other observers, instead, criticize entry flexibility and temporary work. The former works only if accompanied by additional instruments, otherwise it favours only those people who already have a greater level of motivation and skill. Temporary work allows accumulating only generic, not job specific work experience. The solution is a policy mix whereas labour market flexibility is accompanied by a more efficient and even education and training system and on the duality principle. This is shown in the second part of the paper by building a classification of EU regimes by type of school-to-work transition institutions

Talking about the Pigou Paradox: Socio-Educational Background and Educational Outcomes of AlmaLaurea

Italy has an immobile social structure. At the heart of this immobility is the educational system, with its high direct, but especially indirect cost, due to the extremely long time necessary to get a degree and to complete the subsequent school-to-work transition. Such cost prevents the educational system from reallocating the best opportunities to all talented young people and from altering the "typical" market mechanism of intergenerational transfer of human capital and social status. About ten years after the Bologna declaration and the "3+2" reform of the university system, AlmaLaurea data relative to 2008 shows a framework not much different from that of 2000. This is apparent by looking at the socio-educational background of university graduates. Parents' educational level seems to be the main determinant of the probability to get a university degree and to get it with the highest possible grade. As previous studies have also shown, the effect of the socio-educational background on children success at the university is not direct, but through the high school track. In fact, although any secondary high school gives access to the university, nonetheless lyceums provide students with far higher quality of education than technical and professional schools

The role of the education systems and the labour market institutions in enhancing youth employment: a cross-country analysis

Youth are a vulnerable category of workers, since they are in a delicate phase of their working life, the first entry in the labour market. Young graduates and early school leavers are involved in the school–to–work transition process, whose duration considerably varies across countries. In this paper we explore the impact of labour-market and educational institutions on youth labour-market performance across OECD countries for the 1985-2013 period. We build from different sources (mainly the IECD and the UNESCO) a data-set including series about labour-market institutions, youth population, schooling and the vocational education and training participation rates. We estimate a dynamic panel model, building upon Bassanini and Duval (2006), and articulating the analysis upon various age groups (15-24, 20-24). Union density, the minimum wage and the level of economic activity stand out as important determinants of youth employability (educational attainment and expenditure on public education mattering to a lesser extent). VET participation also matter, although only in countries where the dual apprenticeship system is important