Education as a precautionary asset

By using data from the latest wave of the Indonesia Life Family Survey, the present work investigates whether and to which extent child time allocation depends on the joint impact of liquidity constraints and risk attitudes. We employ a double selection model of school hours, by adding time preferences, risk attitudes and proxies of risks and shocks among the relevant regressors, and controlling for sample selection and endogeneity of liquidity constraints and school enrolment. To this aim, we exploit measures of time preferences and risk attitudes elicited from individuals’ responses to hypothetical gambles and consider the past occurrence of shocks to proxy the risk profiles of the households under the assumption that households use past income volatility to predict future volatility. It will be shown that, under liquidity constraints, risk averse parents raise a precautionary demand for education as an ex-ante risk coping strategy, so to insure future consumption through higher returns from their children’s work.schooling; risk aversion; liquidity constraints; risks; shocks

Animal Spirits in Entrepreneurial Innovation: Theory and Evidence

This paper proposes and empirically tests a theory of entrepreneurial innovation in order to explain its high degree of concentration in space and time. In the model, a successful entrepreneurial project is the result of a search and matching process between entrepreneurs looking for funds and capitalists looking for new ideas to finance. The resulting strategic complementarity between them gives rise to a multiplier effect, whereby any exogenous shock has a magnified effect on the process of innovation. Moreover, if complementarity is sufficiently strong, multiple equilibria arise, which are characterized by different levels of entrepreneurial activity. Using data from the European and the US business angels markets for the period 1996-2010, we show that (i) a complementarity exists between business angels and the entrepreneurial projects submitted to them, and that (ii) the result of multiple equilibria is empirically plausible

Entrepreneurs meet financiers: Evidence from the business angel market

This paper formalizes and estimates the process of search and matching between entrepreneurs and financiers in the business angel (BA) market. Our theoretical model describes the market for entrepreneurial finance as a fair in which the two sides of the market can meet bilaterally and transform a rough entrepreneurial idea into a real start-up firm. We then collect a new dataset from the BA markets of 17 developed countries for the period 1996-2014, and we estimate the aggregate matching function expressing the number of deals as a function of the number of submitted entrepreneurial projects and of business angels. Empirical findings confirm the technological features assumed in the theoretical literature: positive and decreasing marginal returns to both inputs (stepping on toes effect), technological complementarity across the two inputs (thick market effect) and constant returns to scale. We discuss the theoretical and policy implications of these findings

Gender mainstreaming active inclusion policies

The aim of this report therefore is to inform and help develop gender mainstreaming in active inclusion policies. In order to do this, the report at first reviews gender differences and inequalities in the risks of poverty and social exclusion and it provides a close look at the connections between active inclusion policies and gender equality strategies (Chapters 2 and 3). It then analyses examples of concrete gender mainstreaming in each of the three pillars of active inclusion, i.e. income support (Chapter 4), labour inclusion (Chapter 5) and access to services (Chapter 6). Under each heading, the report summarises available information on the actual policy developments and looks at the results of the policies in terms of gender equality. Finally, Chapter 7 draws some conclusions. The information in this report is mainly provided by the national experts of the EGGSI network of experts in gender equality, social inclusion, healthcare and long-term care and covers 30 European countries (the EU-27 Member States) and the three EEA–EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway)

Women\u2019s Labour Market Performance in Europe: Trends and Shaping Factors

The objective of this paper is two-fold. First, it aims to assess recent trends in women\u2019s employment and labour market participation with a focus on the changes in the \u2018type\u2019 of occupation (temporary vs. regular and part-time vs. full-time) women are involved in. Secondly, it examines the role played by the interplay of macro-institutional factors and policies and individual characteristics in explaining the observed trends and cross-country differences by means of a multi-level approach. In particular, it questions the role that the reforms towards a model of a \u2018flexicure\u2019 labour market have played in explaining recent trends in women\u2019s participation

Education as a precautionary asset

By using data from the latest wave of the Indonesia Life Family Survey, the present work investigates whether and to which extent child time allocation depends on the joint impact of liquidity constraints and risk attitudes. We employ a double selection model of school hours, by adding time preferences, risk attitudes and proxies of risks and shocks among the relevant regressors, and controlling for sample selection and endogeneity of liquidity constraints and school enrolment. To this aim, we exploit measures of time preferences and risk attitudes elicited from individuals’ responses to hypothetical gambles and consider the past occurrence of shocks to proxy the risk profiles of the households under the assumption that households use past income volatility to predict future volatility. It will be shown that, under liquidity constraints, risk averse parents raise a precautionary demand for education as an ex-ante risk coping strategy, so to insure future consumption through higher returns from their children’s work

Female labour market participation in Europe: novel evidence on trends and shaping factors

We investigate the changes in women\u2019s participation patterns across 15 EU countries over the last 20 years using individual data from ECHP and EUSILC databases. Our findings show that the observed trends in female participation differ substantially both across countries and across different groups of women. We explore such heterogeneity in trends by looking at the effects of policies and labour market institutional factors on the participation of women with different family and individual characteristics. Our estimates reveal a role of policies and institutions that is stronger than what has so far been assessed. Labour market institutions and family-oriented policies explain almost 25% of the actual increase in labour force participation for young women, and more than 30% for highly educated women. Surprisingly, changes in the institutional and policy settings contribute less in explaining the participation of low-skilled women. We also find that reforming the institutional framework towards a model of \u201cflexicure\u201d labour market is effective in enhancing women labour supply only when deregulation is accompanied by sufficient social compensation

Education as a precautionary asset

By using data from the latest wave of the Indonesia Life Family Survey, the present work investigates whether and to which extent child time allocation depends on the joint impact of liquidity constraints and risk attitudes. We employ a double selection model of school hours, by adding time preferences, risk attitudes and proxies of risks and shocks among the relevant regressors, and controlling for sample selection and endogeneity of liquidity constraints and school enrolment. To this aim, we exploit measures of time preferences and risk attitudes elicited from individuals’ responses to hypothetical gambles and consider the past occurrence of shocks to proxy the risk profiles of the households under the assumption that households use past income volatility to predict future volatility. It will be shown that, under liquidity constraints, risk averse parents raise a precautionary demand for education as an ex-ante risk coping strategy, so to insure future consumption through higher returns from their children’s work

Le infrastrutture di trasporto: una valutazione dell\u2019Italia all\u2019uscita dalla "grande recessione"

Questo lavoro si pone l\u2019obiettivo di valutare lo stato delle infrastrutture di trasporto e degli investimenti ad esse dedicati in Italia al termine della recente e prolungata crisi economica degli anni 2008-2013. A tale scopo costruiamo un nuovo dataset che comprende tre misure alternative per le infrastrutture di trasporto, segnatamente, la spesa annua in infrastrutture di trasporto (dati OCSE), un nuovo indice di dotazione infrastrutturale (costruito a partire da dati Eurostat) e l\u2019indice di accessibilit\ue0 (ESPON, 2011). Il dataset cos\uec composto verr\ue0 utilizzato per verificare le relazioni esistenti tra le tre diverse dimensioni (dotazione, accessibilit\ue0 e spesa) e soprattutto per offrire una prima stima dell\u2019investment gap che l\u2019Italia ha accumulato durante questi anni di crisi e del costo che il paese dovrebbe sostenere per colmarlo. In particolare, questo lavoro presenta i risultati di tre esercizi quantitativi. Il primo esercizio stima il costo, in termini di perdita di PIL, sia per l'Italia sia per l\u2019UE-15, del cosiddetto investment gap dovuto alla grande recessione. Il secondo esercizio stima l'impatto atteso sul PIL in Italia del "Piano Juncker" promosso dalla Commissione Europea. Infine, il terzo esercizio valuta il gap infrastrutturale dell\u2019Italia rispetto all\u2019UE-15, ossia il costo monetario che l\u2019Italia dovrebbe sostenere al fine di portare sia la dotazione fisica di infrastrutture di trasporto sia il suo livello di accessibilit\ue0 ai livelli medi dell\u2019UE-15

When Entrepreneurs Meet Financiers: Evidence from the Business Angel Market

This paper estimates the process of search and matching between entrepreneurs and financiers in the business angel (BA) market. We hand-collect a new dataset from the BA markets of 17 developed countries for the period 1996-2014, and we estimate the aggregate matching function, which captures the number of successful deals as a function of the number of potential entrepreneurs and of business angels. Empirical findings confirm the technological features assumed in the theoretical literature: positive and decreasing marginal returns to both inputs (stepping on toes effect), technological complementarity across the two inputs (thick market effect) and constant returns to scale (CRS). As we show, evidence on CRS rules out equilibrium multiplicity in the BA market. We discuss the policy implications of these findings