OUTWARD FDI AND HOME-COUNTRY PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE FROM ITALIAN MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE FIRMS

How does outward foreign direct investment (FDI) affect employment and productivity growth in the home country? Does the impact of outward investment differ among manufacturing and service sectors? In this paper, we analyze the effects of investing abroad using firm-level data for Italy in the period 2003-2006. We adopt matching techniques in combination with a difference in difference estimator in order to investigate the causal effect on domestic employment and productivity of becoming multinational. Preliminary results suggest that, on average, Italian outward FDI has limited effects on the domestic employment and performance of internationalizing firms. However, results differ significantly according to the sector (manufacturing versus services) in which the MNEs operate. In particular, we find that whereas in the manufacturing sector, outward FDI tends to strengthen both productivity and to a lesser extent employment, in the service sector there is a negative effect on both employment (two years after the investment) and productivity

Skilled and Unskilled Wage Dynamics in Italy in the ‘90s: Changes in the individual characteristics, institutions, trade and technology.

In this paper we use individual micro data on workers combined with industry and regional data to study the wage dynamics of skilled and unskilled workers in Italy in the period 1991-1998. Being different to previous empirical studies, our data allow us to explore in a unique framework the role of many of the factors indicated in the literature as possible causes of the widening of the wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers: changes in the individual characteristics of workers, changes in the institutions of the labour market, increasing international integration and skill-biased technological progress. Our results show that international integration, both in terms of trade in goods and in terms of international labour mobility, plays a role in determining the wage dynamics of skilled (white collar) and of unskilled (blue collar) workers. In addition, in line with the research in labour economics, our findings show that the individual characteristics of workers, and the institutional variables matter more in explaining skilled and unskilled wage dynamics than differential wage one.Skilled and unskilled wages, individual characteristics, labour market institutions, international trade.

Foreign Direct Investment, Wage Inequality, and Skilled Labor Demand in EU Accession Countries

During the 1990s Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic have experienced rapid increases in wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers and received the largest FDI inflow in Central and Eastern Europe. This paper analyzes whether FDI has contributed to the raise in earning inequality via a change in the skill composition of labor demand in the three countries. While we find that in Hungary and the Czech Republic FDI exerts a positive direct impact on the skill-premium, in none of the countries considered FDI has worsened wage inequality by favoring labor demand shifts.Foreign direct investment; Labor demand; Wage inequality

International Fragmentation of Production and Trade Volatility: An Analysis for the European Countries

In the last years, world exports have displayed very strong fluctuations, much higher than GDP fluctuations. Some recent works tried to understand the causes of these fluctuations, and in particular if these strong swings in world trade flows are related to the growing weight of intermediates in trade and to the phenomenon of international fragmentation of production (IFP) or international outsourcing. This is the issue addressed in this paper. We analyze the influence of international fragmentation of production and trade in intermediate goods on the fluctuations of trade flows for the EU countries. After assessing the relevance of international trade in intermediate goods at the sector level using indices computed from the input-output tables of the EU countries, we test whether a significant relation exists between the extent of international fragmentation of production measured by this proxy and the volatility of trade flows, and the possible implications of these results

IMPORTING JOBS AND EXPORTING FIRMS? ON THE WAGE AND EMPLOYMENT IMPLICATIONS OF ITALY’S TRADE AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT FLOWS

International economic integration is often blamed for the deteriorating fortunes of unskilled workers in industrial countries. We look at the labor market impact of trade and foreign direct investment in the case of Italy. Our empirical framework allows for trade, technology and factor supply effects. We find that international trade did not contribute to Italy’s labor market problems. Indeed, given that Italy holds quite a distinct pattern of trade specialization, compared to other industrialized countries, international integration as reflected in falling import prices may have boosted the demand for labor there. We also argue that the inability of the Mezzogiorno’s economy to adjust to the changing international environment is one of the main stumbling blocks in Italy’s economy. Finally, we find that greater firm’s mobility may have weakened the power of trade unions and contributed to wage moderation.international trade, foreign direct investment,wages, employment

Motivations and concerns of outgoing Erasmus students

Internationalization of higher education is a priority in the European education policy. Since it began in 1987/1988, the world’s most successful student mobility programme, the Erasmus programme, has provided over three million European students with the opportunity to go abroad and study at a higher education institution. Aiming to speed up this trend, for the next long-term EU budget 2021-2027, the European Commission has proposed to double funding for Erasmus to EUR 30 billion. In this way, it will make it possible to support up to 12 million people between 2021-2027. However, learning mobility barriers still exist and the shares of study abroad participants vary widely across Member States. Within this context, the aim of this contribution is to investigate the motivations and concerns about the experience abroad of 1272 students of a medium size Italian university – the University of Bergamo – that apply for an Erasmus+ or Extra-EU Program. To analyse the data collected by an on-line survey we used the Principal Component Technique. Caviezel, V.; Falzoni, AM.; Galizzi, L. (2020). Motivations and concerns of outgoing Erasmus students. En 6th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'20). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. (30-05-2020):1173-1180. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd20.2020.112301173118030-05-202

CALCAREOUS PLANKTON BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF THE SANTONIAN-CAMPANIAN BOUNDARY INTERVAL IN THE BOTTACCIONE SECTION (UMBRIA-MARCHE BASIN, CENTRAL ITALY)

The Bottaccione section (Umbria-Marche Basin, central Italy) was analyzed for calcareous nannofossil and planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy across the Santonian-Campanian boundary interval to achieve a high-resolution and updated zonation directly calibrated with magnetostratigraphy. Several calcareous plankton events were detected, including zonal markers and additional potential biohorizons. The base of magnetochron C33r, proposed for placement of the base of the Campanian, lies between the first occurrence of Aspidolithus parcus parcus and the last occurrence of Dicarinella asymetrica in the Bottaccione section. The literature survey indicates that these events were found in the Santonian-Campanian boundary interval at supraregional scale and, may be used to confidently approximate the base of the Campanian

La Philosophie moderne di Henri Lelevel: un manuale di filosofia malebranchiana

Henri Lelevel’s La philosophie moderne par demandes et réponses is a very interesting as well as pretty neglected attempt to disseminate the new philosophy among a larger audience, including the non specialists. Either the style of presentation or the oversimplification of the topics discussed is clearly intended to reach people interested to a smattering of philosophy. More than the comparisons between the traditional and the new philosophy and the compendia, this work vouches for the great interest toward the new philosophy. In this particular case the model is the philosophy of Malebranche, whose interpretation of Descartes thought is preferred by Lelevel, worried by the excessive twist given toward empiricism in P.-S. Régis rendering of Cartesian philosophical system. Lelevel’s logic is directed to eliminate the confusion between sense data and knowledge, echoing also Malebranche’s notion of éténdue idéale, one of the major contribution to the reconsideration of Descartes’ thought. This paper aims to sketch the mains topics discussed in the four sections of Lelevel’s work, with some cross-references to Malebranche’s writings

Toxic Chemical Compounds of the Solanaceae

The Solanaceae is comprised of some 2500 species of cosmopolitan plants, especially native to the American continent. They have great value as food, like the well-known potato, tomato and eggplants, and medicines, like species of Atropa, Withania and Physalis, but many plants of this family are toxic, and sometimes lethal to mammals, in particular to man. Some of them also produce hallucinations and perceptual changes. The toxic species of this family are characterized by the occurrence of a variety of chemical compounds, some of which are responsible for the toxicity and lethality observed after ingestion, while others are suspected to be toxic. In this review, the following toxic compounds belonging to different members of the Solanaceae family are described: Tropane alkaloids (Atropa, Datura, Hyoscyamus, Mandragora); pyrrolidine and pyrrolic alkaloids (Nierembergia, Physalis, Solanum); protoalkaloids (Nierembergia); glycoalkaloids (Lycopersicon, Solanum); nicotine (Nicotiana); cardenolides (Cestrum, Nierembergia); capsaicinoids (Capsicum); kaurene-type tetracyclic diterpenes (Cestrum); steroidal glycosides (Cestrum, Solanum); 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 and vitamin D3 (Cestrum, Solanum, Nierembergia); and withasteroids, withanolides (Withania), and physalins (Physalis). Other bioactive chemical constituents of members of this family are sugar esters and lectins. Phenylpropanoids are not included in this paper.Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicada

Pforams@microtax: Anew online taxonomic database for planktonic foraminifera

A new relational taxonomic database for planktonic foraminifera (“pforams@mikrotax�) has been constructed and is now freely available online at http://www.mikrotax.org. It represents amajor advance from its predecessor, the CHRONOS online taxonomic database, which has served the research community since 2005. The benefits of the new database to the research and industrial biostratigraphic communities are many, as it will serve as an immediately accessible taxonomic guide and reference for specialists and non-specialists alike by providing access to a wealth of information and images from original authors and from expertswho have inserted recent authoritative updates to planktonic foraminiferal taxonomy, phylogeny and biostratigraphy. The database will be continually updated and used as a guide for training current and future generations of students and professionals who will be able to self-educate on planktonic foraminiferal taxonomy and biostratigraphy. Further investigation of species traditionally included in the Cretaceous genera Heterohelix, Globigerinelloides, Marginotruncana, and Globotruncana is required to exclude the use of polyphyletic morphotaxa. The taxonomy for Paleogene planktonic foraminifera is quite stable following publication of the Paleocene, Eocene, and Oligocene taxonomic atlases, but revisions to the taxonomy and phylogeny of Neogene taxa are needed to incorporate results from genetic sequencing studies and recent biostratigraphic observations