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Disparities In Economic Growth And Unemployment Across The European Regions: A Sectoral Perspective
Get PDFThe picture on disparities in productivity growth and in unemployment across European regions reveals the existence of a slow and not very systematic convergence of labor productivity toward a common level, and of an even more uncertain convergence of unemployment rates. This paper uses a unified framework to study both phenomena. We adopt a three-sector perspective (agriculture, industry and services) to assess whether sectoral dynamics helps explaining the observed heterogeneity in the growth and employment regional performances. The main theoretical hypotheses upon which our empirical investigation is based are obtained by models on the dual-economy (e.g. Mas Colell and Razin 1973), where predictions on how out-migration from agriculture can generate convergence are formulated; and by Baumol (1967), where the role of an expansion of services on aggregate growth is studied. Part of our evidence is based on the use of cluster analysis to identify subsets of regions homogeneous in terms of variables such as sectoral dynamics, labor market dynamics, and overall productivity growth. The results are largely consistent with the adopted theoretical framework. Regions that start from a low agricultural share are the richest and grow relatively slowly; regions that start from very high agricultural shares are characterized by a fast decline of that share and by higher than average growth rates; they also show a limited decline in their employment rates. Regions specialized in service activities show a particularly slow rate of productivity growth and a rising employment rate. More generally, we find a large body of evidence suggesting that convergence in aggregate productivity is strongly associated with out-migration from agriculture, and that the magnitude of the impact of the latter on aggregate regional growth depends significantly on which sector absorbs the migrating workers
Ulteriori proposte per la determinazione di indicatori di inefficienza dell'attività formativa dell'Università
Get PDFEvaluation is one of the major tasks for managing the Italian
University system. One of the evaluation parameters has to do with the
efficiency/inefficiency of the university in pursuing one of its main goals:
graduation of the students. Inefficiency could be seen with respect to three
different components: (a) students quitting before the end of the legal length of
their studies, (b) students quitting in a period that is the double of the legal
length of the studies, (c) students that do not terminate their studies in time. The
aim of the present paper is to propose some indicators that can be fruitfully used
in a joint evaluation of these components. Some simulations are also provided
Externalities and local economic growth in manufacturing industries
Get PDFThe growing interest on the economic geography issues has provided new vigour to the research efforts aiming at explaining economic phenomena without neglecting space. In particular several studies have focused on the role of spatially bounded externalities on firms agglomeration processes at the local industry level. This paper has a twofold objective. Firstly, we outline a general eclectic model of local economic growth to provide the theoretical background to guide the econometric analysis. The model includes a general taxonomy of different factors which may explain economic growth in a specific industry and location. Secondly, we assess the role of a large set of potential determinants of the process of local agglomeration of economic activity and we address the issue of spatial association of the local growth processes. We apply our model to the case of Italy making use of a very ample database on socio-economic indicators for 784 Local Labour Systems and 97 manufacturing sectors over the period 1991-96. Our econometric results show that local growth in Italy is not a homogeneous process. On the contrary, it is characterized by significant differences across macro regions with respect to the relevance of the explanatory factors. Among the most important determinants of local industry growth, it is worth mentioning the positive role of the diversity externalities. We also find robust evidence of the negative influence of specialisation externalities on labour dynamics at the local industry level. Moreover, we have assessed the effects of other determinants of local growth like: human capital, social environment and public infrastructures. The analysis of spatial dynamics, carried out for the North-East and Centre-North, shows that at the local industry level there are polarisation phenomena at work and that employment dynamics are self-contained within the boundaries of local labour systems once we have controlled for a large set of local determinants
Una valutazione dell'impegno di studio degli studenti universitari. Il caso della Facoltà di Scienze Politiche di Cagliari
Get PDFThe purpose of this research is attempt to quantify the average total an effort required by the students
for an examination in the Faculty of Political Science. It is hoped to extend this study to all other
faculties within the University. The survey aimed to ask all students who had set examinations in the
February-March and June-July sessions 2000 to complete a structured questionnaire. 1789
examinations were considered. If all subjects where considered together, it was clear that although
significant differences accured between groups of subjects, the data revealed that the average number
of hours required for the preparation of the various exams amounted to 200 active hours of study
Rockets and feathers revisited: an international comparison on European gasoline markets
Get PDFThis paper re-examines the issue of asymmetries in the transmission of shocks to crude oil prices onto the retail price of gasoline. Relative to the previous literature, the distinguishing features of the present paper are: i) use of updated and comparable data to carry out an international comparison of gasoline markets; ii) two-stage modeling of the transmission of oil price shocks to gasoline prices (first refinery stage and second distribution stage), in order to assess possible asymmetries at either one or both stages; iii) use of asymmetric error correction models to distinguish between asymmetries that arise from short-run deviations in input prices and from the speed at which the gasoline price reverts to its long-run level; iv) explicit, possibly asymmetric, role of the exchange rate, as crude oil is paid for in dollars whereas gasoline sells for different sums of national currencies; v) bootstrapping of F tests of asymmetries, in order to overcome the lowpower problem of conventional testing procedures. In contrast to several previous findings, the results generally point to widespread differences in both adjustment speeds and short-run responses when input prices rise or fall
Industry profits and market size under bilateral oligopoly
Get PDFWe show that, contrary to the key result of the standard Cournot-Nash oligopoly model, industry profits can increase with the number of firms if input prices are not exogenous but are determined by bargaining in bilateral oligopoly. The relationship between industry profits and market size is shown to depend on the relative bargaining power of the upstream and downstream agents
Domanda di istruzione universitaria in Sardegna da parte degli studenti delle scuole secondarie
Get PDFCol presente lavoro si cercherà di offrire alcuni spunti di riflessione
sui problemi dell’efficienza e dell’efficacia del sistema universitario
principalmente attraverso uno studio sull’intenzione di accedere
all’istruzione universitaria espressa da un insieme di studenti dell’ultimo
anno delle scuole medie superiori. Si farà, cioè, riferimento a quella che
comunemente viene indicata come la domanda potenziale di istruzione
universitaria.
Il lavoro è articolato in due parti, nella prima vengono illustrate le
dinamiche evolutive, a partire dagli anni Cinquanta, della citata domanda
di istruzione con riferimento all’università italiana in generale ed agli
atenei sardi in particolare. Nella seconda, la domanda di istruzione
universitaria viene analizzata attraverso un’indagine condotta sugli
studenti delle scuole medie superiori di tre province sarde: viene
descritto l’insieme dei rispondenti utilizzato per l’analisi della stessa e
viene presentato un modello logit a risposta politomica attraverso il
quale, considerando alcuni predittori quali il sesso e la scuola di
provenienza, è stata modellata la variabile dipendente a tre modalità (Sì,
Non so, No), relativa al quesito posto agli studenti delle scuole medie
“Intendi proseguire gli studi dopo il diploma di maturità?”
Graduates and graduate labour markets in the UK and Italy
Get PDFIn the context of policy reforms in Higher Education in both the UK and Italy, we review recent evidence on student outcomes in higher education and subsequent transitions into the labour market for both these countries. We also provide the results of some new analysis for each of the two and, among other things, show that pre-university qualifications are strong influences on degree performance in both countries but that, unlike the UK, Italian university graduate earnings are largely insensitive to measured educational performance. Length of time taken to graduate in Italy exerts a significant negative effect both on degree performance and on graduate earnings. Similarly, being over-qualified for one’s job is associated with a 5% pay penalty. Finally, we make recommendations regarding possible data improvements to enhance the policy usefulness of the analyses for each of the two countries
Kyoto Commitment And Emissions Trading: A European Union Perspective
Get PDFThis paper presents an estimation of the cost of reducing CO2 emissions as agreed in Kyoto by Annex I countries. Unlike most of the existing literature, this paper focuses on European Union countries abatement costs and, using a simple model, estimates the role of each EU country within a EU market as well as an Annex 1 market. As a major result, marginal (and total) abatement costs for each EU country (as well as the EU total cost) are presented. Some conclusions on the redistribution of income among market participants related to the trading system are also shown
La qualità negli interventi di ammodernamento e sistemazione della viabilità ordinaria extraurbana
Get PDFThis paper turns its attention to the problems concerning the works which, usually, are not considered impacting on the crossing territory. For this reason they escape to a
correct control of their environmental compatibility, control that results to depend on designer sensibility and capacity. This is the major part of the ordinary one way
viability, that, very often, move itself in places with their own sensibility. Currently the need to improve existing viability give occasion to think about an environmental compatibility of the whole road constructions, not only the wudge ones, allouding that
the improvment became also “environmental”. In this contest, in the environmental qualifications of the interested area, plays a central rule the project of the green arrangement