Human capital, unemployment, and probability of transition to permanent employment in the Italian regional labour markets

The aim of this paper is to investigate the factors determining the “speed” of transition between a temporary/precarious job towards a stable one in the Italian regional labour markets. In this context the importance of individual human capital is widely recognized by the economic literature. Nevertheless, education is not the only variable affecting this kind of labour market transitions. In this paper, in order to have a better understanding of the transition processes to stable employment in Italy, I developed a theoretical model in which the intensity of transition between temporary and stable jobs depends on individual human capital and unemployment rates at regional level. In particular, the claim is that higher rates of unemployment at regional level would reduce the new entrants’ wages and would contribute to increase the minimum level of education for the investment in training, and the subsequent confirmation of a temporary worker on the expiry of a fixed-term contract, to be profitable for the firm. To test this hypothesis I estimated a discrete time duration model with gamma-distributed unobserved heterogeneity, based on ECHP data for Italian regions (1995-2001), disaggregated at territorial level. Results are consistent with the implication of the theoretical model

Overeducation and spatial flexibility in Italian local labour markets

According to a recent strand of literature this paper highlights the relevance of spatial mobility as an explanatory factor of the individual risk of being overeducated. To investigate the causal link between spatial mobility and overeducation we use individual information about daily home-to-work commuting time and choices to relocate in a different local area to get a job. In our model we also take into account relevant local labour markets features. We use a probit bivariate model to control for selective access to employment, and test the possibility of endogeneity of the decision to migrate. Separate estimations are run for upper-secondary and tertiary graduates. The results sustain the appropriateness of the estimation technique and show a significantly negative impact of the daily commuting time for the former group, as well as, negative impact of the decision to migrate and of the migration distance for the latter one.Overeducation; Spatial flexibility; Local labour markets; Sample selection bias

Household income, family composition, and human capital in Southern Italy

In this paper I analyse the reasons for the low rate of growth of average level of education in the South of Italy from the labour supply side point of view. In particular I try to develop a theoretical and empirical model based on the hypothesis that the lower income of southern families (compared to those of the Centre and the North), along with the different fertility levels and composition of the families at regional level, have a strong effect on the choice on whether or not to continue studying at university level for the individuals living in different areas of the country

Employer-provided training and knowledge spillovers: evidence from Italian local labour markets

Following suggestions from theoretical and empirical literature on agglomeration and on social returns to education which emphasise the contribution of local knowledge spillovers to productivity and wage growth, this paper aims at uncovering the relationship between local human capital and training. Furthermore, we check the effects of other variables measuring distinctive features of local labour markets, like the degree of specialization, average firms’ size, intensity of job turnover, economic density, employment in R&D activities and some other control variables. Our key-results are consistent with the prediction that training should be more frequent in areas where the aggregate educational level is higher. Moreover, interaction between local and individual human capital is positive and significant for those with an upper secondary educational attainment. These results have proved to be robust since they are not altered when different definitions of local human capital are adopted or different sub-samples are considered (with the exception of female workers). We coped also with the problem of omitted variables and spatial sorting, that could bias econometric results, by means of a two-step strategy based on instrumental variables

Employer-provided training and knowledge spillovers: evidence from Italian local labour markets

Following suggestions from theoretical and empirical literature on agglomeration and on social returns to education which emphasise the contribution of local knowledge spillovers to productivity and wage growth, this paper aims at uncovering the relationship between local human capital and training. Furthermore, we check the effects of other variables measuring distinctive features of local labour markets, like the degree of specialization, average firms’ size, intensity of job turnover, economic density, employment in R&D activities and some other control variables. Our key-results are consistent with the prediction that training should be more frequent in areas where the aggregate educational level is higher. Moreover, interaction between local and individual human capital is positive and significant for those with an upper secondary educational attainment. These results have proved to be robust since they are not altered when different definitions of local human capital are adopted or different sub-samples are considered (with the exception of female workers). We coped also with the problem of omitted variables and spatial sorting, that could bias econometric results, by means of a two-step strategy based on instrumental variables

Employer-provided training and knowledge spillovers: evidence from Italian local labour markets

Following suggestions from theoretical and empirical literature on agglomeration and on social returns to education which emphasise the contribution of local knowledge spillovers to productivity and wage growth, this paper aims at uncovering the relationship between local human capital and training. Furthermore, we check the effects of other variables measuring distinctive features of local labour markets, like the degree of specialization, average firms’ size, intensity of job turnover, economic density, employment in R&D activities and some other control variables. Our key-results are consistent with the prediction that training should be more frequent in areas where the aggregate educational level is higher. Moreover, interaction between local and individual human capital is positive and significant for those with an upper secondary educational attainment. These results have proved to be robust since they are not altered when different definitions of local human capital are adopted or different sub-samples are considered (with the exception of female workers). We coped also with the problem of omitted variables and spatial sorting, that could bias econometric results, by means of a two-step strategy based on instrumental variables

Employer-provided training and knowledge spillovers: evidence from Italian local labour markets

Following suggestions from theoretical and empirical literature on agglomeration and on social returns to education which emphasise the contribution of local knowledge spillovers to productivity and wage growth, this paper aims at uncovering the relationship between local human capital and training. Furthermore, we check the effects of other variables measuring distinctive features of local labour markets, like the degree of specialization, average firms’ size, intensity of job turnover, economic density, employment in R&D activities and some other control variables. Our key-results are consistent with the prediction that training should be more frequent in areas where the aggregate educational level is higher. Moreover, interaction between local and individual human capital is positive and significant for those with an upper secondary educational attainment. These results have proved to be robust since they are not altered when different definitions of local human capital are adopted or different sub-samples are considered (with the exception of female workers). We coped also with the problem of omitted variables and spatial sorting, that could bias econometric results, by means of a two-step strategy based on instrumental variables

Employer education, agglomeration and workplace training: poaching vs knowledge spillovers

This paper analyzes the role of the employer in workplace training, a novelty with respect to the literature on this topic. Taking advantage of a unique dataset on Italy, we study how individual employer profile and the agglomeration of employers influence firms‟ propensity to invest in training. Our findings show that highly educated employers have a greater propensity to invest in workplace training. Moreover, we are able to capture the effect of employers‟ human capital agglomeration on the training decision. We assert that such agglomeration leads to two different alternative scenarios: 1) a poaching effect may prevail, therefore competition among employers induces less propensity to train workers; 2) a positive knowledge spillover effect may prevail leading to a greater propensity to engage in training. We test these two options discovering that in the Italian case, where small businesses are prominent, the first effect is stronger. Several econometrics issues are considered in our empirical strategy: the skewed and bounded nature of the training decision indicator, the endogeneity issues derived from the agglomeration effect as well as the cross section dependence problems affecting standard errors

Quando i divari salariali si sommano: essere donna ed immigrata in Italia

Gli autori in questo articolo sostengono che quando l’essere donna si accompagna all’essere straniera, l’effetto sul mercato del lavoro può essere quello di una forte penalizzazione in termini salariali. A questo proposito, presentano i risultati di un loro recente lavoro riferito all’Italia dal quale risulta che la quota del divario salariale tra uomini italiani e donne straniere, non attribuibile a differenze nelle caratteristiche demografiche o di rilievo per il mercato del lavoro, è molto elevata