Is Work Flexibility a Stairway to Heaven? The Story Told by Job Satisfaction in Europ

In this paper we investigate the relationship between di¤erent aspects of flexibility and job satisfaction using data taken from the 2001 Special Eurobarometer 56.1 "Social Exclusion and Modernization of Pension Systems". More speci?cally, we verify whether functional, numerical and time flexibility produce different impact on job satisfaction, also distinguishing between satisfaction for quantitative aspects (such as pay, hours of work and career prospects) and qualitative ones (such as motivation, job variety and on the job relations). Then, we test the impact of flexibility on job satisfaction for different types of workers (e.g. high or low skilled, young or old, male or female and country clusters). Taking into account of potential endogeneity, on the whole results from econometric analysis seem to point to a positive link between functional flexibility and job satisfaction and either no effect or a negative impact of numerical and time flexibility. With regard to estimation by groups, differences in the impact of flexibility on job satisfaction are particularly relevant among those groups that are characterized by significant gaps in the incidence of flexibility, such as the young and the old workers, the low and the high educated, Southern and Nordic countries' workers.Job satisfaction; flexibility

The Market for Paintings in XVII Century Italy

We study the XVII century market for figurative paintings in Italy, analyzing original contracts between patrons and artists: this is one of the first manufacturing markets for which econometric evidence of the basic laws of economics can be found. Size of paintings, expected quality, type of commissions and aggregate shocks affect prices as expected. We find evidence of contractual solutions to moral hazard problems in the patron-artist relation: since quality was not negotiable, prices were made conditional on correlated variables such as the number of figures depicted. We find evidence of price equalization between high and low demand destinations due to endogenous mobility of the painters (or the paintings). We also provide support for the Galenson hypothesis of a positive relation between age of experimental artists and quality as priced by the market.Art market, Moral hazard, Endogenous market structures, Galenson hypothesis

Labour Market Assimilation and Over Education: The Case of Immigrant Workers in Italy

In this paper we study the assimilation of immigrants into the Italian labour market using over-education as an indicator of labour market performance. The main objective is to assess the extent to which work experience in the host country’s labour market favours the international transferability of immigrants’ human capital. Using data from the Istat Labour Force Survey for the years 2005-2007, we find that foreigners are much more likely to be over-educated than natives upon their arrival in Italy and that work experience gained in the country of origin is not valued in the Italian labour market. Moreover, we find that not even experience acquired in Italy is helpful in improving immigrants’ educational job matches, suggesting that catch-up by foreigners seems unachievable, even after they adapt their skills to the host country labour market.Assimilation, Over education

The Market for Paintings in Italy during the Seventeenth Century

We study the Seventeenth century market for figurative paintings in Italy analyzing original contracts between patrons and artists. We show that a number of supply and demand factors affected prices. We find a positive and concave relation between prices and size of paintings reflecting economies of scale. We show evidence of a positive relationship between prices and the number of figures depicted. Trade in paintings was sufficient to equalize prices between different destinations. Finally, we provide support for the Galenson hypothesis of a positive relation between age of experimental artists and quality as priced by the market.

The Market for Paintings in Baroque Venice

We study the art market in the XVI-XVIII centuries with an econometric analysis of a new dataset on original contracts between patrons and artists for commissions of oil paintings of historical subject in the Venetian Republic. Size of paintings, reputation of the painters as perceived at the time, type of commissions and aggregate demand shocks (the plague) a¤ect prices as expected. We ?nd evidence of contractual solutions to moral hazard problems: since quality was not contractable, prices were made conditional on measurable features correlated with quality as the number of human ?gures. We also ?nd strong evidence of price equalization between high-demand and low-demand towns due to painters?mobility. Finally, we provide support for the Galenson hypothesis of a positive relation between age of experimental artists and quality as priced by the market. The results are con?rmed for other Italian art centres.

The allocation of competences between the European Union and the Member States: an analysis of the determinants of Europeans’ preferences

In this paper we empirically study the preferences of European citizens concerning the allocation of powers between EU and the member States. To this aim, we use various issues of the Eurobarometer survey from year 1995 to year 2003. In the first part of the paper we present descriptive results regarding preferences of EU citizens by country and by policy domains and we find interesting results pointing out a ranking of countries according to their level of Europeanism, and a quite clear pattern of preferences relative to the allocation of competences for specific policy domains. In the second part of the paper we turn to econometric analysis; first, we regress a measure of “Europeanism” of EU citizens on a number of individual characteristics including demographic information and various indicators of the attitude towards EU. Next, we select a certain number of policy domains and, for each of these, we investigate which individual characteristics make European citizens more prone to prefer centralisation of competences. Also econometric analysis reveals interesting patterns regarding EU citizens’ preferences for allocation of powers.

Flexicurity and Workers Well-Being in Europe: Is Temporary Employment Always Bad?

In this paper we study the effect of a micro-level measure of flexicurity on workers job satisfaction. To this aim, using micro data from the Eurobarometer survey, we split workers in different groups according not only to their employment contract (i.e. permanent or temporary), but also to their perceived job security, and we evaluate differences in job satisfaction between these groups. After controlling for the potential endogeneity of job type, results show that what matters for job satisfaction is not just the type of contract, but mainly the perceived job security, which may be independent of the type of contract. The combination “temporary but secure job” seems preferable with respect to the combination “permanent but insecure job”, pointing out that the length of the contract may be less relevant if the worker perceives that he/she is not at risk of becoming unemployed. Our main conclusions are robust to the use of alternative definitions of workers’ types and they generally hold within different welfare regimes and also for different aspects of job satisfaction, mainly for those more related to job security.Flexicurity, Job Satisfaction, POLS

The impact of elderly parents on labour market participation of italian women

The importance of the participation of women in the labour market and source of policy-marking interest in the subject can be considered from various points of view. First, a higher average degree of female education, and the changing of cultural models regarding the division of roles within the family, have resulted in a higher preference by women for work on the market. Second, interest in this issue also aries from the deep changes that have occured, and still occur, within the family structure: the older age at which families are started and the rise of divorce and separation contribute to the spreading of families headed by single women, who cannot rely on a spouse for economic support. Finally, the rise of female employment is vitally important for the sustainability of social protection system, in a context defined by the fast and relevant ageing of the population and by the widespread reduction in fertility rates. The latter phenomenon is extrremely relevant in Italy, where the fertility rate is one of the lowest among OECD countries. According to forecasts, by 2020 the eldeerly dependency index - i.e. the ratio of population above age 64 to the working age population (age rank 15-64) - will surpass 30% (Visco,2000). The low fertility rate implies the impossibility of increasing labour supply through demographic dynamics; an increase in female labour force becomes, therefore, a fundamental tool for the overall growth of employment. The increse in female employment is an important goal also at Eurpean level: briding the gap between the female employment rates in the EU and the USA would increase the number of employed women in Europe by 21 milion (European Commission, 2000), and Eurpean policy makers believe that the EU "must set itself the goal of restoring full employment as the key objective of economic and social policy" (European Commission, 2000). In light of this, the Lisbon strategy states that the female employment rate in the European Union should reach 60% by 2010, up from 51% now. Meeting this goal is an especially difficult task for Italy, where the female employment rate in 2001 was 41.6%. The participation rate was also much lower than 60% - in the same year it was at 48% - indicating how distant the Lisbon target is, even in the absence of unemployment. Indeed, in Italy women employment is low not only because female unemployment rate is high, but also because partecipation rate is small; the latter can be seen as an indication of "volontary" non-employment. Therefore, the partecipation rate is the first issue to address if the goal is to increase female employment. Figure 1 shows the female employment, unemployment and partecipation rates in Italy and in the European Union from 1979 to 2001. From the graph one can infer two especially interesting phenomena. First, there is a marked increase in the rates of female employment and partecipation both in Italy and the EU, while the ratio of unemployed women to working age female population and the unemployment rate do not vary greatly. This suggest that the better employment performance of women over the last 20 years is largely tied to a shifting of preference towards jobs on the market, rather than better demand conditions

The Labor Market in the Seventeenth-Century Italian Art Sector

We analyze the labor market for painters in Baroque Rome using unique panel data on primary sales of still lifes, portraits, genre paintings, landscapes and figurative paintings. In line with the traditional artistic hierarchy of genres, average price differentials between them were high. We identify supply and demand factors related to prices of paintings. The panel dimension of the dataset and its matched painter-patron nature allows us to evaluate the extent to which price heterogeneity is related to unobservable characteristics of painters and patrons. We find that most of the inter-genre price differential is explained by the variation in average artist heterogeneity across genres. This suggests that the market allocated artists between artistic genres to the point of equalizing the marginal return of each genre. We also explain residual price differences in terms of efficiency wage, signalling and incentive mechanisms to induce effort in the production of artistic quality.Art market, Occupational choice, Wage equalization, Signalling

The Labor Market in the Seventeenth-Century Italian Art Sector

We analyze the labor market for painters in Baroque Rome using unique panel data on primary sales of still lifes, portraits, genre paintings, landscapes and figurative paintings. In line with the traditional hierarchy of genres, average price differentials between them were high. We identify supply and demand factors related to prices of paintings. The panel dimension of the dataset and its matched painter-patron nature allow us to evaluate the extent to which price heterogeneity is related to unmeasured differences among painters or patrons. Most of the inter-genre price differential is explained by the variation in average individual heterogeneity across genres: this suggests that the market was rather competitive and allocated artists between artistic genres to the point of equalizing the marginal return of each genre. We also explain residual price differences in terms of efficiency wage, signalling and incentive mechanisms to induce effort in the production of artistic quality.Art market, Occupational choice, Wage equalization, Signalling