Entry barriers in Italian retail trade

The 1998 reform of the Italian retail trade sector delegated to the regional governments the regulation of entry of large retail shops. We use the local variation in regulation to determine the effects of entry barriers on firm performance for a representative sample of medium and large retail outlets. Using a diff-in-diff approach, we find that entry barriers are associated with substantially higher profit margins and substantially lower productivity of incumbent firms. We also find that liberalizing entry has a positive effect on investment in ICT, which the recent literature has shown to be the main driver of the remarkable sectoral productivity growth in the US. Finally, in the most liberal regions yearly inflation in the CPI component “food and beverages” was approximately half a percentage point lower than in the other regions: higher productivity coupled with lower margins resulted in lower consumer prices.entry barriers, productivity growth, technology adoption, retail trade

An Empirical Micro Matching Model with an Application to Italy and Spain

A large literature investigates the role of frictions in explaining labour market dynamics. Their presence is often summarized by an aggregate matching function relating the number of job matches to total unemployment and total vacancies. Most empirical specifications, however, are only reduced forms with no micro-foundation. Further, for many countries, empirical research on the matching function cannot be carried out because data on vacancies are simply not available. This paper looks at a job match as a transition from non-employment to employment. This transition is decomposed into two parts, one determined by the matching technology and one by individual search intensity. We show how the micro-founded model of Pissarides (1979) can be identified using only microdata on labour market transitions. This enables us to obtain a measure of market tightness even without information on the demand side of the market. The method is then applied to estimating the Italian and Spanish matching functions using data from the quarterly labour force surveys.Matching function, market tightness, labour market transitions, search intensity

UnÂ’analisi critica delle definizioni di disoccupazione e partecipazione in Italia

One of the most widely cited labour market indicators, the unemployment rate, is based on a conventional definition of unemployment. In Italy, following the ILO recommendations, the “unemployed” category comprises all persons who state to look for a job, to be immediately available for work and to have undertaken specific search steps within the month before the interview. Because of this last requirement, about one third of Italian job seekers are not classified as unemployed; these individuals are generally named “potential labour force”. A test on the transition probabilities estimated using the Italian Labour Force Survey suggests that in the Southern part of Italy the unemployed and the potential labour force categories are not behaviourally distinct labour market groups. The standardised ILO definition of unemployment is then too rigid for a relevant part of the Italian labour market.disoccupazione, classificazioni ILO, probabilità di transizione.

Entry regulations and labor market outcomes: evidence from the Italian retail trade sector

The paper analyzes the relationship between barriers to entry and employment in the Italian retail trade sector. In Italy the opening of large outlets is regulated at the regional level. By using differences-in-differences estimators I study the effects of the rules implemented in Abruzzo and Marche, two otherwise close and similar Italian regions, that adopted very different policies: the first set tight restrictions on the opening of large stores; the second did not impose substantial entry barriers. The results show that entry barriers have a negative and sizeable impact on employment growth. Some evidence is also found that fiercer competition encourages the development of more efficient small retail trade shops. These findings are robust to a number of checks.entry barriers, employment growth, differences-in-differences estimator

Does the ILO Definition Capture All Unemployment?

The labour market status of many non-working persons is at the boundary between unemployment and inactivity. Like the unemployed, they seek and are available for work; unlike them, their last search action was not recent enough to meet the ILO definition of unemployment. In this paper we examine by non-parametric tests how the transition probabilities of these out-of-the-labour-force job seekers differ from those of the unemployed as well as the other non-participants. First, using data from the European Community Household Panel, we show that in most EU countries these job seekers constitute a distinct labour market state. Second, we rely on information only available in the Italian Labour Force Survey to derive a measure of search intensity which we use to break down the out-of-the-labour-force job seekers. On the basis of their transition probabilities, the most active are indistinguishable from the unemployed.unemployment, ILO classifications, transition probabilities

Hidden Consequences of a First-Born Boy for Mothers

We show that in the US, the UK, Italy and Sweden women whose first child is a boy are less likely to work in a typical week and work fewer hours than women with first-born girls. The puzzle is why women in these countries react in this way to the sex of their first child, which is chosen randomly by nature. We consider two explanations. As Dahl and Moretti (2008) we show that first-born boys positively affect the probability that a marriage survives, but differently from them and from the literature on developing countries, we show that after a first-born boy the probability that women have more children increases. In these advanced economies the negative impact on fertility deriving from the fact that fewer pregnancies are needed to get a boy is more than compensated by the positive effect on fertility deriving from the greater stability of marriages, which is neglected by studies that focus on married women only.preference for sons, female labour supply, mothers’ behaviour

Accounting for total work in labour statistics

The interest for household production has grown since the release of the new System of National Accounts in 2008. In this paper we analyse how accounting for own-use production may affect labour statistics. Traditional headcount ratios may not be very informative when employment rates consider both home and market production, as most people are engaged in at least one of those activities. Hence, we propose a general class of indices based on the hours spent on each type of work that encompasses headcount indicators as a special case. Our empirical analysis based on time use data for a selected group of countries shows that international rankings are sensitive to the shift from headcounts to hour-weighted indices and that accounting for own-use production changes considerably the picture on the work burden of men and women

Hidden consequences of a first-born boy for mothers

We show that in the US, the UK, Italy and Sweden women whose first child is a boy are less likely to work in a typical week and work fewer hours than women with first-born girls. The puzzle is why women in these countries react in this way to the sex of their first child, which is chosen randomly by nature. We consider two explanations. As Dahl and Moretti (2008) we show that first-born boys positively affect the probability that a marriage survives, but differently from them and from the literature on developing countries, we show that after a first-born boy the probability that women have more children increases. In these advanced economies the negative impact on fertility deriving from the fact that fewer pregnancies are needed to get a boy is more than compensated by the positive effect on fertility deriving from the greater stability of marriages, which is neglected by studies that focus on married women only

Italian households and labour market: structural characteristics and effects of the crisis

This analysis aims at studying joblessness and the effect of the economic crisis at the household rather than the individual level. With respect to the main European countries, in Italy the jobless household rate is lower because of the larger household size (the more adults present the lower the risk of joblessness) and the greater propensity to link household formation to employment status. The effects of the economic crisis on the labour market have led to an increase in the jobless household rate. However this increase has been lower than expected, thus suggesting that Italian households have partly absorbed the negative shocks in the labour market. Within households, the job losses mostly related to young people still living with their parents, reflecting an employment protection system that is segmented on a generational basis.jobless household, distribution of work

The crisis and employment in Italy

The fall in employment and the increase in unemployment rates in Italy in 2009 were fairly modest, given the sharp drop in GDP and compared with the recession of the early 1990s. This work shows that these data should be interpreted with caution, however. Firstly, employment trends as measured by Italian labour force survey may understate the decline in total employment if, as seems plausible, a lag exists between the entry of immigrants into the country and their registration. Secondly, the rise in the unemployment rate has been curbed by extensive recourse to temporary income support schemes to reduce working hours (such as the Cassa integrazione guadagni or Wage Supplementation Fund) in the northern regions, and by the sharp drop in participation in the South (the discouragement effect). The results of the Bank of Italy’s Survey of Industrial and Service Firms conducted in September 2009 show that the largest employment cuts occurred in the firms most exposed to international markets. Based on estimated labour input elasticity and on the available GDP forecast for 2010-11, we calculate that Italian employment is likely to remain well below its pre-crisis level in the coming quarters.crisis, employment,unemployment