1,722,599 research outputs found
The impact of training on productivity: Evidence from a panel of italian firms
No full textPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of training activity on labor productivity in a panel of Italian firms. Design/methodology/approach – The use of a large panel data of individual firms allows the author to properly account for the possible endogeneity of training activity and avoid aggregation biases typical in industry-level data. Findings – The paper finds that training has a positive and significant impact on productivity. While unobserved heterogeneity leads to overestimate the impact of training, failing to account for the endogeneity of training leads to underestimate its effects on productivity. Within occupational groups, training has large and significant effects for blue-collar workers, while the effects for executives and clerks are relatively small. Finally, using a measure of effective training intensity the paper finds that failing to account for training duration may lead to underestimate the effect of training on productivity. Originality/value – Our data set is unique in terms of size and coverage and overcomes several limitations of previous research using firm-level data. Moreover, besides estimating the overall effect of training on productivity, the paper allows to address some more specific questions. Does the effect of training depend on the type of worker being trained? What is the relevance of effective participation to training activity
Colombo e la tavola globale
No full textCatalogo della mostra "Colombo e la tavola globale", allestita presso il Museo civico di storia naturale G. Doria di Genova dal 13 marzo al 26 agosto 200
Restructuring as a signal: a simple formalization
No full textSeveral studies stressed that contrary to the initial expectations, state-owned firms at the beginning of the transition, undertook painful measures to adjust to the new economic environment. This paper investigates this behaviour in a simple game theoretic framework. It is argued that the massive amount of lay-offs created by state-owned firms during the initial phase of the transition can be interpreted as a signal directed to the banking sector in order to obtain more favourable financing conditions for the subsequent process of restructuring
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
AI meets labor market: Exploring the link between automation and skills
No full textThis paper develops a set of innovative tools for labor market intelligence by applying machine learning techniques to web vacancies on the Italian labor market. Our approach allows to calculate, for each occupation, the different types of skills required by the market alongside a set of relevant variables such as region, sector, education and level of experience. We construct a taxonomy for skills and map it into the recently developed ESCO classification system. We subsequently develop measures of the relevance of soft and hard skills and we analyze their detailed composition. We apply the dataset constructed to the debate on computerization of work. We show that soft and digital skills are related to the probability of automation of a given occupation and we shed some light on the complementarity/substitutability of hard and soft skills
Il ruolo dell’università nella divulgazione scientifica in campo energetico: diverse esperienze sul campo
Full text linkSocial Configurations of Municipal Debt (State of Milan, XVII-XVIIIth Centuries)
No full textThis article copes with local configurations of municipal debt in early modern Lombardy, trying to analyse the social contribution to it as well as the role played by local communities in dealing with burden's debt
System-dynamics modelling of the electricity-development nexus in rural electrification based on a Tanzanian case study
Full text linkThe rural electrification-based literature reports a limited knowledge of the long-term socio-economic changes that electricity access can bring in remote contexts and the consequent feedback on electricity demand. Such lack of understanding causes an inefficient allocation of economic resources for rural energy projects and inappropriate sizing processes. We model the multifaceted dimensions of the rural electricity-development nexus by formulating a system-dynamics model based on a Tanzanian case-study and using 13-years of data for calibrating it. The modelled structure provides the first quantitative step in the research committed to develop an appropriate modelling framework for deriving policy insights regarding the electricity-development nexus and the evolution of electricity demand for rural areas of developing countries. The simulation results show and highlight the dynamics behind the structural behaviour of some socio-economic system variables (e.g. income and IGAs growth), the exogenous determinants (e.g. accessibility of the rural village), and the complementary activities (e.g. micro-credit at electricity access) that allow electricity access to foster local socio-economic changes, which in turn supports the growth of electricity demand. Our findings allow increasing the understanding on the complex electricity-development nexus and providing a novel modelling framework for projecting the electricity demand for rural settings
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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