1,720,996 research outputs found
Jobs and Competitiveness in a Polarised Europe
Full text linkIn the aftermath of the crisis, Europe is becoming more polarised in terms of employment, competitiveness and industrial specialisation. A “German-centred core”–which maintained employment and production–has emerged, contrasted by a “Southern periphery”, where major economic losses have occurred. Such geographical divergence is associated with a further polarisation in terms of skills. A new European industrial policy is needed to reverse this polarisation process and its dangerous implications for trade balances and cohesion
Weaker jobs, weaker innovation. Exploring the effects of temporary employment on new products
No full textThis work explores the relationship between temporary employment and product innovation focusing on five major European economies (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands) observed between 1998 and 2012. The analysis distinguishes sectors according to their technological characteristics and regimes finding that industries using temporary employment tend to have a weaker product innovation propensity. The negative correlation between temporary employment and innovation turns out to be stronger in those sectors where tacit firm’s specific knowledge is crucial to the development of innovations. These sectors are identified using both the ‘Cumulativeness’ proxy stemming from Peneder’s classification as well as distinguishing between different Schumpeterian regimes–Schumpeter Mark I vs. II–of knowledge accumulation
Working from home and the explosion of enduring divides: income, employment and safety risks
No full textWhy are there so many non-teleworkable occupations? Is teleworking only a matter of ICT usage or does it also reflect the division of labour and the underlying hierarchical layers inside organizations? What does it happen to those workers not able to telework in terms of socio-economic risks, and how does the gender dimension interact with risk stratification? Hereby, we intend to shed light on these questions using a detailed integrated dataset at individual and occupational level (Indagine Campionaria delle Professioni, Indagine delle Forze di Lavoro and Inail archive) which provides information on different nature of risks (income, employment and safety). Our results entail that, first, class attributes, intended as execution of tasks, degrees of autonomy in doing the job, layers of the occupational categories, strongly influence the chance of working from home; second, those individuals who are not able to perform their work remotely are more exposed to transition to unemployment, to earn low wages, and to safety and health risks; third, being woman and employed with a temporary contract significantly amplify risk stratification
Skill mismatch and the dynamics of Italian companies’ productivity
No full textThis work explores the relationship between labour productivity and skill (mis) match relying on a unique database integrating information at both the firm and the worker level. The analysis is based on a novel skill match indicator providing actual and qualitatively detailed information on the demand/supply of skills. Focusing on a sample of Italian limited liability companies observed during 2012, 2014 and 2017, we show that the ability to match their skills need via new hires is always positively correlated to companies’ labour productivity. This result is robust to the inclusion of variables accounting for sectoral-level training intensity, firm-level recruitment behaviour, a capillary set of firm-level controls and across size classes
Platform work and economic insecurity in Italy
No full textUsing representative survey data from Italy, this study investigates the levels and sources of economic security amongst platform workers relative to other labour force participants. Platform workers face greater economic insecurity relative to all other occupation groups, and a rate of economic insecurity that is not significantly different from that of unemployed adults. Higher levels of insecurity are not primarily channelled through lower incomes; instead, higher rates of insecurity persist when accounting for family incomes, suggesting that other dimensions of precarity associated with platform work matter as much as income differences in shaping economic insecurity
Regimes of robotization in Europe
No full textThis work analyses the impact of robots on employment testing for the presence of different robotization regimes. Focusing on European manufacturing industries, we find that robot adoption positively affects total employment. Heterogeneous patterns are detected across both countries and occupational groups, however. The labour-friendly impact of robotization is detected only in core and service-oriented countries and for those at the top of the occupational structure (i.e. managers and technicians). In turn, peripheral countries and manual workers do not seem to benefit at all from robotization
La crisi dell’Unione Monetaria e le relazioni centro-periferia in Europa
Full text linkGiuseppe Celi, Andrea Ginzburg, Dario Guarascio e Anna Maria Simonazzi presentano un sintesi del loro recente libro “Crisis in the European Monetary Union. A core-periphery perspective” dove propongono una lettura di lungo periodo dei problemi dell’Europa. In particolare, essi danno conto del processo di polarizzazione in atto che vede, da un lato, un ‘centro’ forte (la Germania) e, dall’altro, due ‘periferie’ eterogenee ma dipendenti dal medesimo centro (il Sud e l’Est Europa). Nelle conclusioni gli autori indicano la strada da percorre per rinnovare le politiche europee
What drives employment–unemployment transitions? Evidence from Italian task-based data
No full textRelying on a unique longitudinal integrated database supplying micro-level information on labor market transitions (concerning the 2011–2017 period) and occupation task characteristics (e.g. routine-task intensity), this paper provides fresh evidence of the determinants of unemployment risk in Italy. We find that workers employed in routine-intensive occupations (measured with the RTI proposed by Acemoglu and Autor in Handb Labor Econ 4B:1043–1171, 2011) display—on average—higher unemployment risks than the rest of the workforce. This result is driven by workers employed in occupations entailing a large proportion of routine cognitive tasks and it is concentrated in high and medium–low skill occupations. In addition, the distribution of unemployment risk and its relation with routine-task intensity varies significantly across sectors—with higher risk in manufacturing and construction—confirming the importance of industry-level economic, technological and institutional heterogeneities. Finally, by exploring the gender dimension, we find that that being in a routine-intensive occupation increases unemployment risk for male workers only
Business cycles, technology and exports,
Full text linkThis article shows—on both conceptual and empirical grounds—the importance of business cycles in affecting key relationships between innovation and international performance. While periods of upswing are characterised by a well documented ‘virtuous circle’ between innovation inputs, new products and export success, during downswings most of the positive relationships and feedbacks tend to break down. The findings of Guarascio et al. in (University of Urbino DESP WP 1406, 2014) on the long-term relationships between R&D, new products and exports are confirmed and qualified with major novelties. But when the period of analysis is split between periods of upswing and downswing—following Lucchese and Pianta in (Comparat Econ Stud, 54: 341–359, 2012)—significantly different relationships emerge. These results are obtained through an approach that combines several complementary perspectives. A Schumpeterian view on the diversity of technological change allows to disentangle the specificities and effects of innovation inputs and outputs, and of new products and new processes. A structural change perspective on the role of demand as a driver of innovation and on the importance of open economies allows to link industries’ dynamics with international competitiveness. A business cycle perspective crossing the two previous approaches sheds new light on the fragility of key economic relationships and on the long term damage that recessions may cause to the ‘virtuous circle’ of innovation and performance. The model we propose links exports, R&D and innovation success in a system of three simultaneous equations allowing for the presence of feedbacks loops among key variables. The empirical test is carried out for the period 1995–2010 at the industry level, on 21 manufacturing and 17 service sectors; country coverage includes Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, representing a very large part of the European economy
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