Technology, Skills and Retirement

In our work we study the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills and their utilization in the retirement decision. We provide empirical evidence based on Italian panel data in favour of the hypothesis that - ceteris paribus - better educated male employees with ICT know-how retire later. Such effect is stronger the longer the time horizon considered, and its magnitude is remarkably larger than the one observed in US and Germany in previous studies. We also document that ICT do not play a crucial role in the retirement decision of women. Our results are robust to the estimation strategy adopted.retirement, skill-biased technological change

Alternative weighting structures for multidimensional poverty assessment

A multidimensional poverty assessment requires a weighting scheme to aggregate the well-being dimensions considered. We use Alkire and Foster’s J. Public Econ. 95, 476–487 (2011a) framework to discuss the channels through which a change of the weighting structure affects the outcomes of the analysis in terms of overall poverty assessment, its dimensional and subgroup decomposability and policy evaluation. We exploit the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to evaluate how alternative weighting structures affect the measurement of poverty for the population of over-50s in ten European countries. Further, we show that in our empirical exercise the results based on hedonic weights estimated on the basis of life satisfaction self-assessments are robust to the presence of heterogeneous response styles across respondents

Family dissolution and labour supply decisions over the life cycle

Life-history data can clarify the consequences of household split and divorce on the probability of working. Indeed, employment choices are affected by the occurrence of family dissolution episodes. The effect is stronger for women. The magnitude of this effect increases with the presence of children

Divorce and well-being. Disentangling the role of stress and socio economic status

We investigate the happiness variations associated with divorce by drawing data from a retrospective panel dataset based on the third wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and covering 14 European countries. This dataset proposes as a powerful tool to control for reporting style heterogeneity in happiness self-evaluations. Indeed, in addition to individual fixed-effects, we control for full migration trajectories in order to remove bias in well-being evaluations produced by cross-country heterogeneity in the cultural norms and societal values individuals have been exposed during their life-cycle. Happiness is found to increase in the period after divorce for both men and women. We show that this pattern goes through a decrease in stress and financial hardship

Remote Working and Mental Health during the First Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic

We use longitudinal data from the SHARE survey to estimate the causal effect of remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health of senior Europeans. We face endogeneity concerns both for the probability of being employed during the pandemic and for the choice of different work arrangements conditional on employment. Our research design overcomes these issues by exploiting variation in the technical feasibility of remote working across occupations and in the legal restrictions to in-presence work across sectors. We estimate heterogeneous effects of remote working on mental health: we find negative effects for respondents with children at home and for those living in countries with low restrictions or low excess death rates due to the pandemic. On the other hand, the effect is positive for men and for respondents with no co-residing children

Cross-Country Differentials in Work Disability Reporting Among Older Europeans

Descriptive evidence shows that there is large cross-country variation in self-reported work disability rates of the elderly in Europe. In this paper we analyse whether these differences are genuine or they just reflect heterogeneity in reporting styles. To shed light on the determinants of work-disability differentials across countries, we combine a wide set of individuals’ socioeconomic and health status characteristics with macro-economic indicators describing the institutional background of the country of residence

Food security and trade policies: evidence from the milk sector case study

- Purpose. Milk is one of the most produced, consumed and protected agricultural commodities worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to assess how trade-opening policies can foster food security in the Chinese milk sector. - Design/methodology/approach. The empirical evidence proposed in our paper is based on time series data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China (2019) and FAOSTAT (2020). Differences in income elasticity between urban and rural areas are estimated by OLS regressions. The data also provide empirical evidence to assess to what extent and to which countries China is resorting to meet its growing demand. - Findings. Per-capita milk consumption of Chinese is rising. The authors’ estimates show that milk income elasticity is higher in rural areas. China is also progressively increasing its dependence on imports. Producers who benefit the most are those from countries implementing trade-opening policies. - Research limitations/implications. Other methods could be applied, by way of example, the gravitational model. - Practical implications. Trade agreements and the removal of barriers could be effective responses to protectionist pressures and to food security concerns. - Social implications. The case examined is of particular interest as it intervenes on food security and safety. - Originality/value. The paper adds value and evidence to the effects of trade on food security in a country with limited and exploited natural resources addressing a health emergency and environmental concerns