The Determinants of Suppliers’ Performance in E-Procurement: Evidence from the Italian Government’s E-Procurement Platform

Participation of small businesses in the market for public contracts is widely recognized as a key policy issue. It is also commonly held that the adoption of e-procurement solutions can be effective in pursuing such an objective. To this end, we analyze the transactions completed in the period 2004-2007 through the Italian Government’s e-procurement platform, that is, the marketplace managed by the Italian Public Procurement Agency (Consip S.p.A.). Although descriptive statistics indicate that micro suppliers are the most represented group of firms in the marketplace, our econometric treatment provides some evidence that the former are less successful than all other suppliers in getting public contracts. Degree of loyalty with buyers, location and the use of other MEPA negotiation tools, also emerge as relevant factors of success in the e-procurement market.E-Procurement, Small Suppliers, Request For Quotations, Performance, Public Contracts, Count Data

Challenges of Global Value Chains.

Monográfico: Estructura y dinámica de las cadenas globales de valorEste articulo discute algunas cuestiones recientes acerca de la evolución de las cadenas globales de valor (CGV). En particular, se analizan el rol que la evolución reciente de los costos laborales, factores institucionales y tecnológicos pueden jugar en la modificación del mapa de comercio y producción global. Además, el artículo se centra en la relación entre CGV y mercado laboral, sosteniendo que esta dimensión de análisis es clave para entender a fondo las consecuencias de la reorientación productiva y que, sin embargo, queda en gran parte inexplorada en la literatura.This article discusses some recent issues related to the evolution of global value chains (GVCs). In particular, it analyses the role that recent developments in labour costs, institutional and technological factors can play in modifying the map of global trade and production. Additionally, the article focuses on the relationship between GVCs and the labour market, arguing that this dimension of analysis is key to fully understanding the consequences of productive reorientation, which however remains largely unexplored in the literature.Instituto Complutense de Estudios InternacionalesTRUEpu

La crisi e le riforme del mercato del lavoro in Italia: un’analisi regionale del Jobs Act

This paper provides an analysis of the dynamics of the Italian labor market after the introduction of the Jobs Act analyzing, in particular, the regional dimension. In line with the evidence shown in Fana et al. (2016), we show that, after the Jobs Act, temporary employment increased more than permanent one. Moreover, it emerges as the slight increase in employment is significantly linked to the stabilization of existing contracts rather than the creation of new employment. The dynamics of employment at the regional level is characterized by a significant degree of heterogeneity. However, no specific regional patterns seems to emerge. The empirical analysis is based on data on the labor force (ISTAT) distinguished by regions and on administrative data (INPS) concerning the quantity, quality and duration of employment contracts. 

The COVID confinement measures and EU labour markets

This paper assesses the potential impact of the early 2020 COVID confinement measures on EU labour markets, on the basis of an analysis of the restrictions on economic activity imposed in three EU Member States (Italy, Spain and Germany). Following the legislative measures adopted, we classify all economic sectors into different categories according to the likely impact of the COVID crisis, and compare the share of employment that is likely to be strongly affected in each country. Once this is done, we apply these categories of sectors to recent data on EU employment and estimate the groups of workers that would be more or less affected by the economic lockdown measures. Finally, we use all this information to speculate about possible mid-term developments and broader socio-economic implications of the COVID crisis in Europe.JRC.B.4-Human Capital and Employmen

European Jobs Monitor 2019: Shifts in the employment structure at regional level

Accumulating evidence indicates that large metropolitan centres are faring much better than other regions within the Member States of the EU. Such interregional inequality contributes to disenchantment with existing political systems, which in turn can weaken the social bonds that ground democratic systems. This report analyses shifts in the employment structure – meaning change in the distribution of employment across occupations and sectors – of the EU regions. The analysis covers 130 regions of nine Member states, which together account for nearly four out of five EU workers. The study finds that regions within countries are becoming more occupationally different, but in similar ways. It also finds that cities have disproportionately high and rising shares of well-paid, high-skilled services employment alongside growth in low-paid employment. The findings support continued EU regional policy assistance of regions in danger of being left behind.JRC.B.4-Human Capital and Employmen

The Third Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-ray Pulsars

We present 294 pulsars found in GeV data from the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Another 33 millisecond pulsars (MSPs) discovered in deep radio searches of LAT sources will likely reveal pulsations once phase-connected rotation ephemerides are achieved. A further dozen optical and/or X-ray binary systems co-located with LAT sources also likely harbor gamma-ray MSPs. This catalog thus reports roughly 340 gamma-ray pulsars and candidates, 10% of all known pulsars, compared to $\leq 11$ known before Fermi. Half of the gamma-ray pulsars are young. Of these, the half that are undetected in radio have a broader Galactic latitude distribution than the young radio-loud pulsars. The others are MSPs, with 6 undetected in radio. Overall, >235 are bright enough above 50 MeV to fit the pulse profile, the energy spectrum, or both. For the common two-peaked profiles, the gamma-ray peak closest to the magnetic pole crossing generally has a softer spectrum. The spectral energy distributions tend to narrow as the spindown power $\dot E$ decreases to its observed minimum near $10^{33}$ erg s$^{-1}$, approaching the shape for synchrotron radiation from monoenergetic electrons. We calculate gamma-ray luminosities when distances are available. Our all-sky gamma-ray sensitivity map is useful for population syntheses. The electronic catalog version provides gamma-ray pulsar ephemerides, properties and fit results to guide and be compared with modeling results.Comment: 142 pages. Accepted by the Astrophysical Journal Supplemen

Trois essais sur l'économie italienne

Cette thèse se compose de trois essais empiriques qui contribuent à la littérature sur la political economy et économie du travail. Le premier chapitre analyse comment les effets du changement dans le degré de fédéralisme fiscal sur la composition de la dépense publique au niveau municipal dépend de la qualité des institutions ex-. Le deuxième chapitre se concentre sur la définition de la classe moyenne à l'aide de l'approche fondée sur les actifs et étudie comment, selon cette définition, les composantes du revenu et de la richesse se répartissent à travers les classes au fil du temps. Le troisième chapitre étudie plutôt comment la flexibilisation du marché du travail affecte le bien-être des travailleurs à l'entrée et au début de leur carrière. Les trois essais sont basés sur l'Italie pour faire la lumière sur trois sujets largement discutés tant au niveau académique que politique.This thesis consists of three empirical essays that contribute to the literature on political economy and on labor economics. The first chapter analyzes how the effects of changes in the decree of fiscal federalism and mafia penetration on the composition of public expenditure at the municipal level depends on ex-ante institutional quality. The second chapter focus on the definition of the middle class using the asset based approach and studies how, according to this definition, income and wealth components distribute across classes over time. The third chapter, instead, studies how labor market flexibilisation affected workers well-being at entry and during the early career. All three essays are based on Italy to shed light on three topics widely discussed both at the academic and policy level

Labour market deregulation and workers’ outcomes at the beginning of the career. Evidence from Italy

We estimate whether early career patterns of tertiary graduates changed after the reform that deregulated fixed-term arrangements in 2001 in Italy, comparing the first six years of the career of those who graduated before and after 2001. Considering short- and medium-term outcomes in the labour market, we find that the searching time for the first job reduces for those graduated after 2001, while these individuals start working more frequently through atypical arrangements. Furthermore, post-2001 graduates worsen their economic condition with respect to the previous cohort as their weekly wages drop, while no significant differences emerge as concerns yearly working weeks

A Service of zbw Labour market reforms in Italy: evaluating the efects of the Jobs Act Labour market reforms in Italy: evaluating the effects of the Jobs Act *

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in Abstract Law 183 of 2014, evocatively named the 'Jobs Act', has determined a deep change in the Italian industrial relations. Bringing at completion a reform process begun in the 1990s, the Jobs Act has introduced a new contract type -'contratto a tutele crescenti' -implying a substantial downsize of obligation for workers' reinstatement in case of firms invalidly firing them. The new permanent contract is therefore deprived of the substantial requirements of an open-ended contract. The Law has also weakened the legal constraints for firms intending to monitor workers through electronic devices and introduced new incentives for firms using temporary contracts. This article frames the Jobs Act within the overall labour market reform process occurred in Italy since mid-nineties and provides a first evaluation of its impacts on the Italian labour market. Taking advantage of different data sources (administrative and labour force data) and concentrating the analysis over the period after the Jobs Act implementation, the investigation provides the following results: the expected boost in employment growth is not detected; an increase in the share of temporary contracts over the open-ended ones is observed; a raise of part-time contracts within the new permanent positions emerges. The analysis shows that the Jobs Act failed in achieving its main goals. We discuss the observed evidence evaluating the appropriateness of the Law 183/2014 in the present Italian economic context accounting, in particular, for the structural effects of the recent crisis