Entry barriers in Italian retail trade

The 1998 reform of the Italian retail trade sector delegated to the regional governments the regulation of entry of large retail shops. We use the local variation in regulation to determine the effects of entry barriers on firm performance for a representative sample of medium and large retail outlets. Using a diff-in-diff approach, we find that entry barriers are associated with substantially higher profit margins and substantially lower productivity of incumbent firms. We also find that liberalizing entry has a positive effect on investment in ICT, which the recent literature has shown to be the main driver of the remarkable sectoral productivity growth in the US. Finally, in the most liberal regions yearly inflation in the CPI component “food and beverages” was approximately half a percentage point lower than in the other regions: higher productivity coupled with lower margins resulted in lower consumer prices.entry barriers, productivity growth, technology adoption, retail trade

An Empirical Micro Matching Model with an Application to Italy and Spain

A large literature investigates the role of frictions in explaining labour market dynamics. Their presence is often summarized by an aggregate matching function relating the number of job matches to total unemployment and total vacancies. Most empirical specifications, however, are only reduced forms with no micro-foundation. Further, for many countries, empirical research on the matching function cannot be carried out because data on vacancies are simply not available. This paper looks at a job match as a transition from non-employment to employment. This transition is decomposed into two parts, one determined by the matching technology and one by individual search intensity. We show how the micro-founded model of Pissarides (1979) can be identified using only microdata on labour market transitions. This enables us to obtain a measure of market tightness even without information on the demand side of the market. The method is then applied to estimating the Italian and Spanish matching functions using data from the quarterly labour force surveys.Matching function, market tightness, labour market transitions, search intensity

UnÂ’analisi critica delle definizioni di disoccupazione e partecipazione in Italia

One of the most widely cited labour market indicators, the unemployment rate, is based on a conventional definition of unemployment. In Italy, following the ILO recommendations, the “unemployed” category comprises all persons who state to look for a job, to be immediately available for work and to have undertaken specific search steps within the month before the interview. Because of this last requirement, about one third of Italian job seekers are not classified as unemployed; these individuals are generally named “potential labour force”. A test on the transition probabilities estimated using the Italian Labour Force Survey suggests that in the Southern part of Italy the unemployed and the potential labour force categories are not behaviourally distinct labour market groups. The standardised ILO definition of unemployment is then too rigid for a relevant part of the Italian labour market.disoccupazione, classificazioni ILO, probabilità di transizione.

Entry regulations and labor market outcomes: evidence from the Italian retail trade sector

The paper analyzes the relationship between barriers to entry and employment in the Italian retail trade sector. In Italy the opening of large outlets is regulated at the regional level. By using differences-in-differences estimators I study the effects of the rules implemented in Abruzzo and Marche, two otherwise close and similar Italian regions, that adopted very different policies: the first set tight restrictions on the opening of large stores; the second did not impose substantial entry barriers. The results show that entry barriers have a negative and sizeable impact on employment growth. Some evidence is also found that fiercer competition encourages the development of more efficient small retail trade shops. These findings are robust to a number of checks.entry barriers, employment growth, differences-in-differences estimator

Does the ILO Definition Capture All Unemployment?

The labour market status of many non-working persons is at the boundary between unemployment and inactivity. Like the unemployed, they seek and are available for work; unlike them, their last search action was not recent enough to meet the ILO definition of unemployment. In this paper we examine by non-parametric tests how the transition probabilities of these out-of-the-labour-force job seekers differ from those of the unemployed as well as the other non-participants. First, using data from the European Community Household Panel, we show that in most EU countries these job seekers constitute a distinct labour market state. Second, we rely on information only available in the Italian Labour Force Survey to derive a measure of search intensity which we use to break down the out-of-the-labour-force job seekers. On the basis of their transition probabilities, the most active are indistinguishable from the unemployed.unemployment, ILO classifications, transition probabilities

Hidden Consequences of a First-Born Boy for Mothers

We show that in the US, the UK, Italy and Sweden women whose first child is a boy are less likely to work in a typical week and work fewer hours than women with first-born girls. The puzzle is why women in these countries react in this way to the sex of their first child, which is chosen randomly by nature. We consider two explanations. As Dahl and Moretti (2008) we show that first-born boys positively affect the probability that a marriage survives, but differently from them and from the literature on developing countries, we show that after a first-born boy the probability that women have more children increases. In these advanced economies the negative impact on fertility deriving from the fact that fewer pregnancies are needed to get a boy is more than compensated by the positive effect on fertility deriving from the greater stability of marriages, which is neglected by studies that focus on married women only.preference for sons, female labour supply, mothers’ behaviour

Italian households and labour market: structural characteristics and effects of the crisis

This analysis aims at studying joblessness and the effect of the economic crisis at the household rather than the individual level. With respect to the main European countries, in Italy the jobless household rate is lower because of the larger household size (the more adults present the lower the risk of joblessness) and the greater propensity to link household formation to employment status. The effects of the economic crisis on the labour market have led to an increase in the jobless household rate. However this increase has been lower than expected, thus suggesting that Italian households have partly absorbed the negative shocks in the labour market. Within households, the job losses mostly related to young people still living with their parents, reflecting an employment protection system that is segmented on a generational basis.jobless household, distribution of work

The crisis and employment in Italy

The fall in employment and the increase in unemployment rates in Italy in 2009 were fairly modest, given the sharp drop in GDP and compared with the recession of the early 1990s. This work shows that these data should be interpreted with caution, however. Firstly, employment trends as measured by Italian labour force survey may understate the decline in total employment if, as seems plausible, a lag exists between the entry of immigrants into the country and their registration. Secondly, the rise in the unemployment rate has been curbed by extensive recourse to temporary income support schemes to reduce working hours (such as the Cassa integrazione guadagni or Wage Supplementation Fund) in the northern regions, and by the sharp drop in participation in the South (the discouragement effect). The results of the Bank of Italy’s Survey of Industrial and Service Firms conducted in September 2009 show that the largest employment cuts occurred in the firms most exposed to international markets. Based on estimated labour input elasticity and on the available GDP forecast for 2010-11, we calculate that Italian employment is likely to remain well below its pre-crisis level in the coming quarters.crisis, employment,unemployment

Credit shocks and the European Labour market

Más de cinco años después del inicio de la crisis de la deuda soberana en Europa, su impacto sobre las variables del mercado laboral no está claro. El objetivo de este documento es contribuir a llenar este vacío. Utilizamos datos cualitativos a escala de empresa para 24 países europeos, recopilados en la Wage Dynamics Network (WDN) del SEBC. Primero, construimos un conjunto de índices que miden las dificultades para acceder al mercado crediticio en los 24 países para el período 2010-2013. En segundo lugar, describimos la relación entre las dificultades crediticias y los ajustes en las variables laborales tanto en el margen extensivo como intensivo del empleo, así como en los salarios. Encontramos una correlación fuerte y significativa entre las dificultades crediticias y los ajustes a lo largo del margen extensivo y del margen intensivo. En cuanto a los salarios, en presencia de dificultades del mercado de crédito, las empresas reducen el componente variable de los salariosMore than five years after the start of the Sovereign debt crisis in Europe, its impact on labour market outcomes is not clear. This paper aims to fill this gap. We use qualitative firm-level data for 24 European countries, collected within the Wage Dynamics Network (WDN) of the ESCB. We first derive a set of indices measuring difficulties in accessing the credit market for the period 2010-13. Second, we provide a description of the relationship between credit difficulties and changes in labour input both along the extensive and the intensive margins as well as on wages. We find strong and significant correlation between credit difficulties and adjustments along both the extensive and the intensive margin. In the presence of credit market diffi culties, firms cut wages by reducing the variable part of wages. This evidence suggests that credit shocks can affect not only the real economy, but also nominal variable

Labour market adjustment in Europe during the crisis : microeconomic evidence from the Wage Dynamics Network survey

En el contexto de un ajuste continuado de los mercados de trabajo de la UE en respuesta a la gran recesión y la crisis de la deuda soberana, el Sistema Europeo de Bancos Centrales (SEBC) llevó a cabo la tercera ola de la encuesta de la Wage Dynamics Network (WDN) entre 2014 y 2015, como continuación de las dos olas previas realizadas en 2007 y 2009. Esta encuesta recopiló información sobre las prácticas de fijación de salarios a nivel de empresa para 25.000 empresas en 25 países europeos con el objetivo de evaluar cómo las empresas europeas ajustaron los salarios y el empleo en respuesta a las diversas perturbaciones económicas y reformas laborales que tuvieron lugar en la Unión Europea (UE) entre 2010 y 2013. Este documento resume los principales resultados de esta tercera ola de la encuesta de la WDN identificando algunos patrones en los ajustes realizados por las empresas y el impacto de las reformas del mercado de trabajo. El objetivo es esbozar las principales lecciones aprendidas de la encuesta tanto en relación con la respuesta agregada de los mercados de trabajo de la UE a la crisis como sobre la heterogeneidad entre los distintos países europeosAgainst the backdrop of continuing adjustment in EU labour markets in response to the Great Recession and the sovereign debt crisis, the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) conducted the third wave of the Wage Dynamics Network (WDN) survey in 2014-15 as a follow-up to the two previous WDN waves carried out in 2007 and 2009. The WDN survey collected information on wage-setting practices at the firm level. This third wave sampled about 25,000 fi rms in 25 European countries with the aim of assessing how firms adjusted wages and employment in response to the various shocks and labour market reforms that took place in the European Union (EU) during the period 2010-13. This paper summarises the main results of WDN3 by identifying some patterns in firms’ adjustments and labour market reforms. It seeks to lay out the main lessons learnt from the survey in terms of both the general response of EU labour markets to the crisis and how these responses varied across the countries that took part in the surve