Analyzing the gender gap in European labour markets at the NUTS-1 level

In the labour market framework, gender inequalities penalizing women in participation, remuneration and career still persist almost everywhere, even though there are remarkable differences between countries. At the EU level, in many cases, the levels of these gaps also vary within the same country. According to human capital theory, labour market outcomes should be strongly influenced by the worker's educational level. However, the gender gap endures even in countries where women have surpassed men in education. In this paper, both the aspects of spatial differences (in accordance with the NUTs 1 districts) and the impact of education on the gender gap in the labour market are analysed. With this aim, the composite indicator methodology (including sensitivity analysis involving bootstrap techniques) has been used. The results highlight the substantial stability of the gap in eduacation within the same country but a strong variability in the gap in the labour market outcomes within some countries. Adapting national policies to different regional frameworks could be an efficacious strategy for closing the gap

A prospective analysis of the efficiency in the reorganisation process of Italian seaports

The purpose of this paper is to compare the competitiveness of Italian seaports in terms of efficiency scores as a result of significant policy changes adopted in September 2016. An appropriate data set on seaport activities is used that consists of input and output variables obtained by fixing the statistical classification of economic activities (NACE codes) of a sample of 10,763 active firms involved in the new Italian Port Network Authorities (AdSPs). The investigation analyses the major causes of inefficiency and may be viewed as an analysis of the potential of each AdSP, rather than an analysis based on already existing entities. In the authors’ opinion, the results of the data envelopment analysis (DEA) are suitable to support policy decisions designed to improve operational performance of inefficient AdSPs. The empirical analysis reveals several findings that can be extended to different territorial districts

Performance assessment of major European ports: an empirical investigation

In the recent literature, the strategic relevance of ports has improved, and this paper provides a comparative analysis of 24 European ports. The port performance has been evaluated considering data envelopment analysis and Shephard’s distance function. This latter approach offers an alternative method to address a significant restraint of the standard Stochastic Frontier when the model needs to consider multiple outputs. From a policy point of view, the conclusion could offer valuable insights to support policy measures targeted to expand port efficiency. The findings obtained from the analysis reveal that several contextual indicators must be included in benchmark analysis

A Prospective Analysis of the Efficiency in the Reorganisation Process of Italian Seaports

The purpose of this paper is to compare the competitiveness of Italian seaports in terms of efficiency scores as a result of significant policy changes adopted in September 2016. An appropriate data set on seaport activities is used that consists of input and output variables obtained by fixing the statistical classification of economic activities (NACE codes) of a sample of 10,763 active firms involved in the new Italian Port Network Authorities (AdSPs). The investigation analyses the major causes of inefficiency and may be viewed as an analysis of the potential of each AdSP, rather than an analysis based on already existing entities. In the authors' opinion, the results of the data envelopment analysis (DEA) are suitable to support policy decisions designed to improve operational performance of inefficient AdSPs. The empirical analysis reveals several findings that can be extended to different territorial districts

Chapter Innovation and sustainability: the Italian scenario

Society and policy makers demand innovation systems oriented towards several goals of sustainable development. Therefore, recent literature has dedicated a growing interest to both innovation and sustainability in the pursuit of environmental, economic and social development; in addition, the emerging topic of ‘sustainable innovation’ (and ‘eco-innovation’) seems to combine the main features of them. The definition of these concepts has been significantly changed during the last decades, and a broad discussion continues today about which indicators should be used to measure innovation, sustainability and their combination. The current paper investigates this relationship, and - in the authors’ opinion - the research question connected to the impact of the innovative product (and service and process) solutions on sustainability can be addressed by means of a stable theoretical framework. To study the interaction between innovation and sustainability, the usage of specific territorial features might represent a useful perspective to manage short-and long-term environmental and economic issues. As for the theoretical model, the present article considers a specific technique suitable for investigating the entire set of characteristics involved in the model. From a public makers and managerial point of view, the possibility of improving the firm’ efficiencies in terms of several dimensions of sustainable innovation represents a relevant topic that must be encouraged

The Generational Perspective of Gender Gap and Discrimination in Southern Europe

The paper aims at investigating gender differentials in education and wage across four developed countries of southern Europe (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain), taking into account the generational transmission of preferences and some peculiarities of gender equality policies implemented in each national legislative framework. More precisely, a set of α-indexes – which reflect the whole wage and educational distributions of women – is computed to explore the different extent to which these gaps can be attributed to discrimination. Country-specific differentials are sketched and the often controversial role of national contexts in shaping gender discrimination is discussed

Women’s job search propensity and selection effect in European labour markets

The aim of this paper is to explore the main determinants of women’s job search propensity and the mechanism underlying the selection effect into labour markets. The analysis compares the European countries which share the lowest female activity rates with the well-developed economies of North Europe characterized by the highest levels of female labour force participation. The potential selection bias due to the overlap in some unobserved characteristics is addressed via a bivariate probit model. Significant selection effects in women’s job search process of opposite signs are found for the Greek and for the Polish and the Norwegian labour markets

The Generational Perspective of Gender Gap and Discrimination in Southern Europe

The paper aims at investigating gender differentials in education and wage across four developed countries of southern Europe (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain), taking into account the generational transmission of preferences and some peculiarities of gender equality policies implemented in each national legislative framework. More precisely, a set of α-indexes – which reflect the whole wage and educational distributions of women – is computed to explore the different extent to which these gaps can be attributed to discrimination. Country-specific differentials are sketched and the often controversial role of national contexts in shaping gender discrimination is discussed

Chapter Sustainable Innovation: worldwide trends in the scientific production through a bibliometric study

The scientific production on the Innovation, especially on Sustainable Innovation, has grown in recent years. Various expressions and definitions for sustainability and innovation have been reported in the literature. Sometimes the two concepts are combined and described with one term, Sustainable Innovation. Research on sustainable innovation has grown in popularity due to the need to incorporate sustainability within business practices. The purpose of this study is to investigate the status and the evolution of the scientific studies on this topic and identify the worldwide trends in scientific production over time through a research conducted on the metadata of Web of Science, a database commonly used by researchers. A bibliometric analysis has been developed to analyse a total of 1,511 documents published between 2000 and 2021 in order to discover the research trends in this field and the main dimensions and words related to the term “Sustainable Innovation”