44 research outputs found
Ranking high schools using student university performance in Italy
No full textThe Eduscopio project is the rst attempt to build school performance indicators
based on the university performance of high school leavers in Italy. It provides
stakeholders (students and their families) with publicly available school performance
indicators, and school rankings. A potential weakness of Eduscopio is that it relies
on first-year student performance only. In this study, we extend its methodology to
include longer-term academic outcomes, such as cumulative third-year performance
and the probability of on-time graduation. Our results demonstrate that differences in
university students' performance across high schools are not temporary and limited to
the rst-year, but persist in the following academic years, and that the ranking of high
schools based on long-term indicators remains rather stable. Moreover, our analysis
highlights non-negligible differences of between-school track dispersion in the Eduscopio
index across cities, which hints on geographical differences in student selection mechanisms
into school tracks or in the level of dispersion of school value added within tracks
Informazione, scelte e disuguaglianze educative
No full textGli autori discutono di diseguaglianze educative e, dopo aver descritto il portale Eduscopio, che consente di confrontare i vari istituti scolastici sulla base delle performance universitarie degli studenti che vi provengono, mostrano come l’influenza della scuola frequentata alle superiori persista nel tempo, anche fra chi poi si iscrive all’Università. Gli autori sottolineano, quindi, che ridurre le carenze informative delle famiglie nella scelta dell’indirizzo scolastico potrebbe contribuire a ridurre la persistenza intergenerazionale dei livelli di istruzione
Effects of COVID-19 on gender gaps in educational outcomes of college students in Italy
No full textThe gendered impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been observed in many domains, such
as labor market outcomes and mental health. One sector that was particularly disrupted
by the pandemic was education, owing to the need to close educational institutions and
move all learning activities online. In this paper, we investigate the impact of COVID-19
on the gender gap in university student performance, focusing on a large public university
located in one of the European regions most affected by the first pandemic wave in 2020
(Lombardy, in Northern Italy). Despite concerns that the pandemic might have had a
heavier toll on the educational outcomes of female students, our empirical analysis using
administrative data on the whole student population shows that women were not more
negatively affected than men by COVID-19 in terms of number of credits earned, and that
in some college majors (in social sciences and humanities) they improved their GPA
relative to men
Projections of Electricity Demand in European Cities Using Downscaled Population Scenarios
No full textThis work projects future residential electricity demand derived from cities and municipalities’ population and residential land-use projections. Starting from national-level energy intensity data, we derived statistically downscaled residential electricity consumption with the aim to disaggregate residential electricity at the local administrative unit level for all EU member states in the year 2050. The intensity in 2050 is obtained from population density that, in turn, depends on the evolution of population and residential land-use. Residential land-use is projected to 2050 according to a model linked to population trajectories at the LAU level via the share-of-growth method. Finally, country-level intensity multiplied by the projected value of LAU residential area returns the electricity demand for every LAU. The results suggest that the amount of electricity required by cities depends on their land-use patterns, but with an evident between-and-within-country heterogeneity. The national average temperature does not provide significant effects over the evolution of electricity demand, highlighting the need for more detailed climate-related variables. This evidence poses significant challenges for the planning of future cities because it points out how the current patterns of land-use will need to be properly categorized with respect to the development of future electricity requirements
The effects of air pollution on COVID-19 related mortality in Northern Italy
No full textLong-term exposure to air pollutant concentrations is known to cause chronic lung inflammation,
a condition that may promote increased severity of COVID-19 syndrome caused by the novel
coronavirus. In this paper, we empirically investigate the ecologic association between longterm
exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) concentration and excess deaths in the first
quarter of 2020 in municipalities of Northern Italian. The study accounts for potentially spatial
confounding factors related to urbanization that may have influenced the spreading of the novel
coronavirus. Our epidemiological analysis uses geographical information (e.g., municipalities)
and Poisson regression to assess whether both ambient PM concentration and excess mortality
have a similar spatial distribution. Preliminary evidence confirms the hypothesis and suggests a
positive association of ambient PM on excess mortality in Northern Italy
Exploring the relationship between public spending composition, firm productivity, and financial structure: evidence from EU manufacturing firms
No full textLAUREA MAGISTRALEQuesta tesi esamina la relazione tra la composizione della spesa pubblica e la produttività delle imprese, colmando una lacuna nella letteratura riguardo l'effetto a livello microeconomico della politica fiscale. Si indaga se l'allocazione della spesa pubblica verso funzioni produttive aumenti la Produttività Totale dei Fattori (TFP) e come tale effetto sia mediato da condizioni finanziarie e caratteristiche strutturali specifiche delle imprese.
Utilizzando un vasto insieme di dati panel a livello di impresa provenienti da aziende manifatturiere dell'UE e dati macroeconomici sulla spesa pubblica, si rileva che un aumento del livello della spesa pubblica destinata a Istruzione, Sanità e Affari Economici (EHEA) è associato a un incremento della Produttività Totale dei Fattori delle imprese. Tale risultato è coerente con l'ipotesi di crowding-in; l'assenza di effetti di crowding-out suggerisce una relazione di complementarità tra investimenti pubblici e privati. L'effetto non è omogeneo, poiché le condizioni finanziarie modellano l'impatto positivo per le imprese con maggiore esposizione al rischio e una salute finanziaria più debole, indicando che i vincoli finanziari inibiscono l'assorbimento dei benefici derivanti dagli investimenti pubblici.
Questi risultati, che si dimostrano robusti anche a fronte di una serie di specificazioni alternative, sottolineano che l'efficacia della politica fiscale dipende dalla qualità e dalla destinazione della spesa. La composizione della spesa conta più della sua dimensione aggregata, e il suo impatto a livello di impresa è influenzato in modo cruciale dalla salute finanziaria e dalla dimensione delle aziende.This thesis examines the relationship between the composition of public expenditure and firms’ productivity, addressing a gap in the literature concerning the micro-level effect of fiscal policy. It investigates whether allocating public spending toward productive functions enhances Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and how this effect is mediated by firm-specific financial conditions and structural characteristics.
Employing a large panel dataset of firm-level data from EU manufacturing firms and macroeconomic data on public expenditure, we find that an increase in the level of public spending allocated in Education, Health, and Economic Affairs (EHEA) is associated with an increase in firm Total Factor Productivity. This effect is consistent with the crowding-in hypothesis; the absence of crowding-out effects suggests a complementary relationship between public and private investment. This effect is not homogeneous, as financial conditions shape the positive impact for firms with high-risk exposure and weaker financial health, indicating that financial constraints inhibit the absorption of public investment benefits.
These findings, which are robust to a battery of alternative specifications, underscore that the effectiveness of fiscal policy relies on the quality and targeting of expenditure. The composition matters more than its aggregate size, and its impact at the firm level is crucially mediated by the financial health and size of firms
The effect of research evaluation excercises on research output: fifteen years of evidence from Italy
No full textIn this paper, we investigate the potential benefits of implementing performance-
based university research funding systems (PRFSs) in terms of both the quantity and
«quality» (i.e. citation impact) of research outputs (measured through the Web of Science database).
The Italian experience of the first two Research Evaluation Exercises is examined. We
use a difference-in-differences in reverse (DDR) strategy, in which a country where a PRFS was
always in place during the period of analysis – the «always treated» country, the UK – is compared
with a country that switched from not having to implementing a PRFS – the «switched»
country, Italy. Our analysis highlights that PRFSs are associated with an improvement in the average
«quality» of research output (percentage of documents cited in the Web of Science database),
although they do not positively impact output quantity (number of articles), which actually
decreases, or «excellent» outputs (measured as the percentage of top-cited articles). An analysis
of heterogeneous effects by scientific discipline shows that the effect on research «quality»
concerns all fields except the humanities, with some positive effects on excellent research outputs
in most hard sciences. Effects on research quality were not generalised but were observed
only for the second research evaluation exercise. Other innovations introduced in the university
system (the National Scientific Habilitation) may have partly contributed to this result
O anti-republicanismo na Itália do século XV: o caso de Aurelio Lippo Brandolini
No full textThe article deals with the way in which, in the 15th century in Italy, a thought contrary to republicanism, which had become the most important current of political humanism of the period, developed. To approach the theme we use a work by Aurelio Lippo Brandolini - De comparatione reipublicae et regni- which makes the comparison between the republican and the monarchical form of government. The author clearly points out how to deal with the issue of anti-republicanism in the Renaissance, a fact present not only in public life, but, more precisely, in scholarly debates.O artigo trata da maneira como, no século XV na Itália, se desenvolveu um pensamento contrário ao republicanismo, que havia se tornado a corrente mais importante do humanismo político do período. Para abordar o tema nos servimos de uma obra de Aurelio Lippo Brandolini - De comparatione reipublicae et regni- que faz a comparação entre a forma republicana e a forma monárquica de governo. O autor aponta de maneira clara como tratar o tema do anti-republicanismo no Renascimento, fato presente não somente na vida pública, mas, de forma mais precisa, nos debates eruditos
