1,721,021 research outputs found
Economic hardship, housing cost burden and tenure status: evidence from EU-SILC
No full textThe primary goal of this study is to contribute on the literature on poverty by looking at household economic hardship in relation to the housing cost burden. Being one of the most significant outlays in a household balance, housing costs may indeed cause households to reduce non-housing expenditure such as health care, education, food, and clothing, thus creating serious household economic hardship. Using microdata from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions dataset (EU-SILC) regarding five European countries (Italy, Germany, UK, Spain, and France) we have examined the predictive power of housing costs in explaining family economic hardship. Furthermore, we have jointly estimated the effect of the housing cost burden upon economic hardship for renters versus homeowners paying mortgages. Results showed that housing costs represent a non negligible burden in all the five European countries. Moreover, home ownership was found to significantly reduce household hardship status
Does portfolio diversification mitigate financial risk? Evidence from Italian survey data
No full textIn this paper we empirically show that given the positive causal relationship running from investment in risky assets to precautionary saving, portfolio diversification mitigates the effect of financial risk upon desired precautionary savings. Using a self-reported measure of desired precautionary wealth, we re-estimate the relationship between precautionary wealth and financial risk using indicators for financial literacy as instruments for the ownership of risky assets. We eventually find financial risk to be a strong determinant of precautionary accumulation. However, financial diversification helps to mitigate overall risk: households with an adequately diversified portfolio do not perceive financial risk to be a determinant of precautionary saving. Furthermore, the probability of diversifying the portfolio is estimated conditionally to the knowledge of the benefits of diversification. We eventually found that financial risk does not affect precautionary accumulation for those households who diversify their portfolio and they are aware that diversification helps to reduce overall portfolio risk. In this perspective, financial diversification helps to reduce exposure to uninsurable financial risk, thus reducing households’ need to additionally save to prevent potential financial losses
Precautionary Saving, Financial Risk, and Portfolio Choice
No full textRelying on a direct question about the desired amount of precautionary wealth from the 2002 wave of the Italian “Survey of Household Income and Wealth,” I assess the main determinants of the precautionary motive for saving, focusing on the role played by financial risk on households' saving decisions. Households that invest mainly in safe assets do not need to protect themselves against future and unexpected financial losses. Consequently, once we control for households' sources of risk beside financial ones, the amount of precautionary savings of a household investing exclusively in safe assets should be lower compared to households who detain a non-negligible share of risky assets in their portfolio. Results show that, as expected, a strong and negative correlation exists between the desired amount of precautionary wealth and the ownership of a portfolio made exclusively of safe assets
Financial development and selection into entrepreneurship: evidence from Italy and US
No full textThe existence of capital market imperfections causes business investment decisions to be strongly dependent on households' private wealth allocation. I claim that if a linkage exists between private wealth and business decisions, it should be stronger in countries characterized by less developed capital markets. Here, I provide a cross-country comparison assessing the relationship between households' initial net wealth and the probability to switch to entrepreneurship in Italy and United States, using household-level data from the Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) and the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics (PSID). Although they are both developed countries, Italy and US are characterized by striking differences with respect to transaction costs, downpayment requirements and participation in the financial markets. I formulated several theoretical predictions, which are then confronted with the data at hand. First of all, I argue that initial wealth should matter more for Italian potential entrepreneurs, who might encounter more difficulties than US ones in obtaining enough funds to start a business from a bank or a financial institution. In this perspective, "informal markets" (i.e. help from friends or parents) should play a more significant role for Italian potential entrepreneurs, especially for those ones who are more likely to be constrained. Secondly, I claim that a well developed financial market, reducing household exposure to financial risk, would positively affect transition into entrepreneurship. Therefore, I fill a gap in the literature introducing an index of portfolio diversification, calculated as the inverse of the Herfindhal index, in order to control for the level of financial sophistication. Last but not least, I simultaneously estimate the probability to switch to entrepreneurship and changes in net wealth. Using a sample selection model with endogenous switching allows me to deal with endogeneity problems, related to the fact that households might actually pile up assets in advance in order to start a business
Insularity and economic development: a survey
No full textThis survey reviews theoretical and empirical evidence on the impact of insularity on regional economic development. Far from being a mere geographical condition, insularity can be regarded as a permanent phenomenon of economic and social peripheralization that prevents islands to reach the goals of sustainable development that are reached by the mainland. Even if the issue of the consequences of insularity on economic development is garnering greater interest in the light of the growing recognition of the significant economic disadvantage faced by islands, both the theoretical and empirical literature in this regard are fragmented. More importantly, the effects of insularity on economic development are not disentangled from similar conditions such as remoteness, smallness and peripherality. The survey focuses as well on the two-sided nature of insularity, since if it is true that islands suffer from permanent handicaps, adequate policy interventions may not only mitigate insularity effect, but also transform insularity into an asset leading a great potential for growth. Finally, some policy suggestions are drawn, highlighting the need for custom-tailored policy measures
Precautionary saving under liquidity constraints: evidence from Italy
No full textI empirically investigate precautionary savings under liquidity constraints in Italy using a unique indicator of subjective variance of income growth to measure the strength of the precautionary motive for saving, and a variety of survey-based indicators of liquidity constraints. The main contribution of the paper is twofold. First of all, I attempt to differentiate between the standard precautionary saving caused by uncertainty from the one due to liquidity constraints using an endogenous switching regression approach, which allows me to cope with endogeneity issues associated with sample splitting techniques. Second, I move one step further with respect to previous studies on consumption behaviour by taking explicitly expected liquidity constraints into account. I eventually found the precautionary motive for savings to be stronger for those households who face binding constraints, or expect constraints to be binding in the future. Indeed, a complementarity relation exists between precautionary savings and liquidity constraints
European Hospital Survey: Benchmarking deployment of e-Health services (2012–2013). Methodological Report
No full textThe European Hospital Survey: Benchmarking deployment of e-Health services (2012–2013) project is the continuation of eHealth benchmarking Phase III survey. This survey funded and managed by Unit F4 of DG CONNECT, gathered data from a statistically representative sample of European acute hospitals in order to benchmark their level of eHealth deployment. IPTS researchers were part of the steering board of this project and were given the opportunity to access and use the data as soon as they were ready. In 2011 as a result of this collaboration between IPTS and DG CONNECT/F4 "A composite index for the benchmarking of eHealth Deployment in European acute Hospitals. Distilling reality in manageable form for evidence based policy" was published.
The aim of the European Hospital Survey: Benchmarking deployment of e-Health services (2012–2013) Project is to design, gather and analyse eHealth deployment in European acute Hospitals to develop a follow up of the composite indicator carried out by IPTS and to identify the trends among the other benchmarking exercises.JRC.J.3 - Information Societ
Analyzing the Performance of the South Tyrolean Hospitality Sector: A Dynamic Approach
No full textThis paper analyzes the dynamic efficiency of the hospitality sector in the province of Bolzano (Italy) to identify similar behavior of firms across the period 2002–2008. A data envelopment analysis is run as a basis to analyze the efficiency evolution of the firms by employing two complementary measures of distance (i.e. correlation and average distances). Via a hierarchical clustering approach, results show the existence of homogeneous groups with similar dynamical characteristics. Structural factors (e.g. size, number of stars and sub-sector of activity) are found to affect the evolution of hotel efficiency over time. Policy and management implications are drawn from the present analysis
Employment Subsidies, Informal Economy and Women's Transition into Work in a Depressed Area: Evidence from a Matching Approach
No full textWe analyse the effects of an active labour market program for disadvantaged workers recently implemented in an Italian depressed area. Our sample includes 859 workers, mostly women, who entered the program before April 2008 and were subsequently interviewed in 2009-10. We complement the existing administrative data with survey data that enables us to control for numerous individual and labour market characteristics for both treated and non-treated individuals. Using propensity-score matching methods, we do find that the employment subsidy had a positive and significant effect (ATT) on both the probability of finding a job for participants and on their level of income. We also control for effect heterogeneity and find that the outcome of the policy was higher for women and, among them, we also find that the program was more effective on less educated and older female workers. Finally, we exploit unique information on previous contacts between workers and firms and on the use of informal channels for job search activity to explore the role of underground employment relations for the effectiveness of the policy
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