Dropping the books and working off the books

irregular employment, underground economy, dual informal sector, occupational choice, education, school drop-out, North and South divide Abstract: The paper empirically tests the relationship between underground labour and schooling achievement for Italy, a country ranking badly in both respects when compared to other high-income economies, with a marked duality between North and South. In order to identify underground workers, we exploit the information on individualsÂ’ social security positions available from the Bank of ItalyÂ’s Survey on Household Income and Wealth. After controlling for a wide range of socio-demographic and economic variables and addressing potential endogeneity and selection issues, we show that a low level of education sizeably and significantly increases the probability of working underground. Switching from completing compulsory school to graduating at college more than halves this probability for both men and women. The gain is slightly higher for individuals completing the compulsory track with respect to those having no formal education at all. The different probabilities found for self-employed and dependent workers support the view of a dual informal sector, in which necessity and desirability coexist.

Vertical specialisation in Europe: Evidence from the import content of exports

We use input-output tables to estimate the import content (IC) of exports for several European countries, interpreting this as a measure of internationalisation. Between 1995 and 2000 the IC grew everywhere but in France; the transport equipment sector emerged as the most internationalised one. The change we detect for a set of EMU countries is remarkable when compared with previous estimates over the 20-year period between 1970 and 1990. Italy and Germany showed very different patterns, although both started from a very low level of IC. Italy experienced the weakest growth and Germany the most sizeable rise. We argue that Italian firms might have felt less pressured to transform their organisation due to the delayed effects of the 1992 and 1995 Lira crises.external trade, outsourcing, import content, input-output analysis

FDI and Corporate Geography in the Home Country

This paper contributes to the empirical literature on the home-country effects of FDI. Instead of comparing FDI firms to non-FDI firms, we look at what happens within multi-plant FDI firms and we compare headquarters to onheadquarter plants belonging to the same firm. Using survey data on Italian industrial firms, we find that in FDI firms non-headquarter plants show a significantly worse performance in terms of employment and investment than headquarter plants. This suggests that the home-country effects of FDI tend to be biased in favour of headquarters.foreign direct investment, multi-plant firms, employment, Italy

Economic and Financial Statistics Department Balance of Payments Division Domestic value added content of exports: a cross-country comparison for the major European economies

Abstract By matching data from foreign trade statistics, National Accounts and input-output tables the analysis aims to evaluate the stimulus to growth supplied by exports. It does so taking apart the impact of the international outsourcing between 2000 and 2007 for the major European economies, i.e. Germany, Italy and France. In place of the simple value of gross exports, two indicators, direct value added content and domestic value added, try to measure the domestic effects generated by exports. In the same vein, the paper proposes a proxy to measure labour share in the three countries' exports

Domestic value added content of exports: a cross-country comparison for the major European economies

Abstract By matching data from foreign trade statistics, National Accounts and input-output tables the analysis aims to evaluate the stimulus to growth supplied by exports. It does so taking apart the impact of the international outsourcing between 2000 and 2007 for the major European economies, i.e. Germany, Italy and France. In place of the simple value of gross exports, two indicators, direct value added content and domestic value added, try to measure the domestic effects generated by exports. In the same vein, the paper proposes a proxy to measure labour share in the three countries' exports

Rising protectionism and global value chains: quantifying the general equilibrium effects

Quantifying the effects of trade policy in the age of ’global value chains’ (GVCs) requires an enhanced analytical framework that takes the observed international input-output relations in due account. However, existing quantitative general equilibrium models generally assume that industrylevel bilateral final and intermediate trade shares are identical, and that the allocation of imported inputs across sectors is the same as the allocation of domestic inputs. This amounts to applying two proportionality assumptions, one at the border to split final goods and inputs, and another behind the border to allocate inputs across industries. In practice, neither assumption holds in available inputoutput data sets. To overcome this limitation of existing models, we consider a richer input-output structure across countries and sectors that we can match with the actual structure reported in inputoutput tables. This allows us to investigate the relation between the effects of changes in trade policies and GVCs. When we apply the enhanced quantitative general equilibrium model to the assessment of the effects of Brexit, we find trade and welfare losses that are substantially larger than those obtained by previous models. This is due to the close integration of UK-EU production networks and implies that denser GVCs amplify the adverse effects of protectionist trade policies

Fisical and Monetary Policy Coordination with Endogenous Unions: a Theoretical Policy Game

The aim of this paper is to analyse the effects in terms of output, price and budget level, of monetary and fiscal policies aimed at stabilising the level of output and, thus, employment. This issue is discussed by using a one-shot game which investigates on the macroeconomic consequences of the interaction among three independent endogenous utility-maximising agents: the central bank, the government and the trade union. The model allows also to evaluate the impact on the economy of institutional reforms modifying the degree of central bank's independence and the degree of centralisation in the wage bargaining process. This theoretical framework offers a key to interpret the performance of the Italian economy in the light of some important institutional reforms introduced since the mid-eighties.

Note bibliografiche: Roccas M. (2021), Theory and Reality of International Trade, Milano: EGEA – Bocconi University Press

Recensione di: Roccas M. (2021), Theory and Reality of International Trade, Milano: EGEA – Bocconi University Pres

Vertical Specialisation in Europe: Evidence from the Import Content of Exports

We use input-output tables to estimate the import content (IC) of exports for several European countries, interpreting it as a measure of internationalisation. Between 1995 and 2000 the IC grew everywhere but in France; the transport equipment sector emerges as the most internationalised one. Italy and Germany show very different patterns, although both started from a very low level of IC. Italy experienced the weakest growth whereas Germany the most sizeable rise. We argue that Italian firms might have felt a lower pressure to transform their organisation due to the delayed effects of the 1992 and 1995 Lira crises.