Producing abroad while making profits at home:Veneto footwear and clothing industry

Over the last twenty years globalisation has brought about a sharp increase in the real and financial integration of the worldwide economy. In this closely knit context, the outsourcing of some of the productive and trade activities abroad has become one of the focal points of the policies followed by businesses in order to handle competition at worldwide level. In the 80s Italian clothing and footwear firms faced the increased competition in the international markets by outsourcing to domestic subcontractors and in the 90s transferred much of the previous outsourcing abroad, in countries with low labour costs, mainly in Eastern Europe, North Africa and East Asia. This paper is aimed to assess the impact of the offshoring strategy on firms. performance. It is based on a survey delivered to a group of 70 final producers, operating in the Veneto, that during the 90s began to manage production on a global scale. Direct investments, subcontracting and partnerships that materialize in product manufacturing abroad are considered as forms of international outsourcing. On this basis, by combining direct observations with balance sheets data, and data on employment stock at the firm’s level, the impact of the offshoring decision is evaluated. The study shows the importance of production management along the global value chain in giving new competitivity to the Veneto traditional sector.production organization, global value chains, fragmentation, internationalization, clothing industry, Italy

Understanding Caregiver Factors Influencing Childhood Influenza Vaccination

Influenza is a contagious disease that affects approximately 30% to 40% of American children yearly, and all children 18 and under are recommended to be vaccinated. Through the use of a survey tool, 119 responses were collected about the factors that influence the decisions of caregivers whether or not to vaccinate their children against influenza. The knowledge generated from the survey may be used to formulate education programs to increase vaccination rates

Labor market intermediaries make the world smaller

This paper uses network analysis to study how employment intermediaries have influenced inter-firm worker mobility in a region of Italy, in response to a 1997 reform that introduced temporary employment agencies. Worker reallocations from a matched employer-employee dataset are mapped onto a directed graph where the vertices are firms and the links denote transfers of workers between firms. Temporary employment agencies significantly improve network integration and practicability, while rapidly increasing the control over mobility channels. The trade off inherent in intermediation activity is captured and discussed. The potential of network analysis as tool for monitoring regional labor markets is highlighted.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt

Exploring the complex structure of labour mobility networks. Evidence from Veneto microdata

This essay investigates the network structure of inter-firm worker mobility in Veneto, an industrial region of Northern Italy, using comprehensive employer-employee matched data. The empirical network reveals a small world pattern that hinges critically upon a few hub firms. Main hubs are found to be: (1) long-established manufacturing companies; (2) wholesale companies; and (3) companies supplying workforce to third parties. The methodology of investigation provides a toolkit for monitoring labour market evolution, and should enable industry policies supporting labour reallocation mechanisms.regional labour markets, worker reallocation, complex networks, small world, hub dependence

The value of international outsourcing: an empirical study of Veneto clothing industry

This paper investigates production outsourcing of the Veneto footwear and clothing industries. It is based on a survey delivered to a group of final producers that in the 90s began to manage production on a global scale. Direct investment, subcontracting and partnership that materialize in product manufacturing abroad are considered. The positive impact of the delocalization decision on firm’s value added and gross earnings is estimated by combining direct observation with the data from the balance sheets and employment stock at the firm’s level. The study shows the importance of production management along the global value chain in order to give new competitivity to the Veneto traditional sector. In the 80s Veneto clothing and footwear firms faced the increased competition in the international markets by outsourcing to domestic subcontractors and in the 90s transferred much of the previous outsourcing abroad, in countries with low labour costs, mainly in Eastern Europe and East Asia. This decision has been accompanied by a significant increase both in value added per capita and gross profi

Temporary employment agencies make the world smaller:Evidence from labour mobility networks

This paper investigates how employment intermediaries affected the inter-firm network of worker mobility in an region of Italy in response of the reform that first allowed for temporary employment agencies in 1997. We map worker reallocations from a matched employer-employee dataset onto a directed graph, where vertices indicate firms, and links denote transfers of workers between firms. Using network-based methodologies we find that temporary employment agencies significantly increase network integration and practicability, while fastly increasing control over hiring channels. The policy implications of the results are discussed, highlighting the potential of network analysis as monitoring tool for regional and local labour markets.Inter-firm networks, labour mobility, temporary employment agencies

Quantum-inspired Machine Learning on high-energy physics data

Tensor Networks, a numerical tool originally designed for simulating quantum many-body systems, have recently been applied to solve Machine Learning problems. Exploiting a tree tensor network, we apply a quantum-inspired machine learning technique to a very important and challenging big data problem in high energy physics: the analysis and classification of data produced by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. In particular, we present how to effectively classify so-called b-jets, jets originating from b-quarks from proton-proton collisions in the LHCb experiment, and how to interpret the classification results. We exploit the Tensor Network approach to select important features and adapt the network geometry based on information acquired in the learning process. Finally, we show how to adapt the tree tensor network to achieve optimal precision or fast response in time without the need of repeating the learning process. These results pave the way to the implementation of high-frequency real-time applications, a key ingredient needed among others for current and future LHCb event classification able to trigger events at the tens of MHz scale.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Produrre all'estero e fare profitti in patria: uno studio sulle imprese venete dell'abbigliamento e delle calzature

Information on the globalization of Italian companies is vast but incomplete and bitty. This work estimates some effects of delocalization on firm’s profits and value added for Veneto clothing and footwear firms. Through a direct survey on several companies and the estimate of a fixed effect model, we have estimated the “advantages” to a company brought about by the overseas delocalisation of some production phases. The increase in production moved abroad coincides with a significant net increase of both the per capita value added and the gross operative margin. These results seem to be in contrast with the idea that overseas outsourcing can only be a short-term answer to competitive pressures. However this is a measure which does not seem to have had any effect on the rate of production growth.Firm organization; globalization; outsourcing; global value chain; clothing industry; footwear industry

A hierarchical dataset of vegetative and reproductive growth in apple tree organs under conventional and non-limited carbon resources

A monitoring of apple fruit, shoot and trunk growth was performed on 15 trees, equally split according to three treatments, which determined heavily contrasting carbon assimilate availability: unmanipulated trees (FRU), thinned trees (THI) and defruited trees (DEF). Several variables describe the vegetative growth on FRU and DEF trees (shoot length, base diameter, number of fruits on shoot, and height, diameter, pruning intensity and number of fruits of the branch carrying the shoot; trunk circumference), as well as the fruit growth on FRU and THI trees (3 fruit diameters). Additional measurements from ancillary shoots (apical diameter, number of leaves, leaf dry weight, stem dry weight, fresh mass, volume) and fruits (3 diameters, dry weight) from trees undergoing the same treatments, provide a more complete (destructive) characterization of organs growth, thanks to several measurements performed across the growing season. Organs are provided with categorical variables indicating the treatment, tree, canopy height, orientation (for both shoots and fruit), as well as branch and shoot identifiers, so that hierarchical modeling of the dataset can be performed. The dataset is completed with dates and day of the year of the measurements and the accumulated growing degree days from full bloom. Data can be used to calculate apple tree absolute and relative growth rates, maximum potential growth rates, as well as shoot growth responses to thinning and pruning. The dataset can also be used to calibrate allometric relationships, estimate structural apple tree growth parameters and their variabilit