Unemployment scarring in high unemployment regions

This paper investigates the effect of individual unemployment experiences on re-employment wages. The empirical analysis is carried out on a panel of Italian individuals. The main result is that while in the northern regions the effect is similar to the one estimated for the UK, in the southern area of the country the impact is not significant. We link this result to the particular socio-economic environment in which the unemployment spells are experienced. We argue that this might be due to the fact that in a high unemployment environment individual unemployment experiences are perceived as "normal" and do not necessarily signal poor quality of the worker. This might have effects in inducing the hysteresis of unemployment, and reducing the downward pressure of unemployment on wages at the macro level.

Family Income and Students’ Mobility

This paper investigates the reasons that determine students’ mobility in Italy and tries to explain why in the presence of quality differentials among universities the majority of students choose to remain in their regions of origin. We find that low mobility is related to family income and other financial and background characteristics. Low mobility in turn implies the existence of little competition among universities, and hence little incentive for improvement in either teaching or research. A crucial issue is therefore to evaluate if and how the government may affect this process and improve the supply of higher education quality and the degree of competition among academic institutions.Higher education, University choice, Liquidity constraints

Testing for asymmetry in economic time series using bootstrap methods

In this paper we show that phase-scrambling bootstrap offers a natural framework for asymmetry testing in economic time series. A comparison with other bootstrap schemes is also sketched. A Monte Carlo analysis is carried out to evaluate the size and power properties of the phase-scrambling bootstrap-based test.Asymmetric time series

Average Labor Taxes and Unemployment: Evidence from Italian Regions

By focusing on the Italian experience, we ask whether the relationship between labor taxes and unemployment varies across regions. In spite of similar national labor market institutions, we show that this relationship is significantly stronger in the highly industrialized North than in the less developed South, where unemployment is much higher. An important source of variation in the regional responsiveness of unemployment originates from the fact that regional gross wages in the North increase more than in the South in response to a hike in labor taxes.regional unemployment, labor taxes.

Family Income and Students Mobility

This paper investigates the reasons that determine students mobility in Italy and tries to explain why in the presence of quality differentials among universities the majority of students choose to remain in their regions of origin. We find that low mobility is related to family income and other financial and background characteristics. Low mobility in turn implies the existence of little competition among universities, and hence little incentive for improvement in either teaching or research. A crucial issue is therefore to evaluate if and how the government may affect this process and improve the supply of higher education quality and the degree of competition among academic [email protected]@unical.itpublished in Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia, vol 68 (2009), no. 1, pp. 1-23

Early Enrollees and Peer Age Effect: First Evidence from INVALSI Data

This paper estimates peer age effect on educational outcomes of Italian pupils attending primary school by exploiting changes in enrollment rules over the last few years. The empirical procedure allows to understand if there is selection in classroom formation, arguing that in the absence of pupils sorting by early age at school entry, it is possible to estimate the “true” peer age effect. Results suggest that the proportion of youngest students “in advance” in the classroom has a positive impact on child’s achievements measured by Normalized and Rasch test scores both in Reading and Mathematics. Additional empirical evidence shows that the effect on individual scores of sharing the classroom with pupils “in advance” differs by students’ age group and it is higher for youngest pupils. Findings do not seem to be invalidated by “cheating” phenomena that may occur during the implementation and evaluation of tests

Overeducation and unemployment spells' duration

Abstract This work proposes an investigation of educational mismatch focusing on the study of individuals' unemployment spells. We present evidence for Italy, showing that overeducation is basically an occurrence that follows long periods of unemployment and it is strictly related to individuals' innate ability. We build up a matching model coupled with endogenous educational and technological choices and we consider the role of university selectivity and individual innate ability in determining unemployment duration

The supply of education quality in a spatial model with asymmetric moving costs

The paper analyses the characteristics of the supply of higher education in different geographical macroareas using a strategic interaction framework. It focuses on universities operating in centralised funding system that autonomously set the quality of education showing that in equilibrium it is inversely related to students' moving costs across areas. We show that in the presence of asymmetric information about workers' ability and asymmetric costs of moving, the only PBE consistent with forward induction involves that only high ability workers acquire education and the quality of education is lower in macroareas where the moving costs are higher. Our model predicts that in economies with centralised university funding, educational policies must be regulated according to the specific socioeconomic characteristics of the area. Direct subsidies to universities may be ineffective in improving the quality of education in the less developed areas. When regional disparities are not too big, efficiency gains may be obtained by reducing moving costs.Cost sharing funding Perfect Bayesian equilibrium Forward induction Spatial models