306 research outputs found
Quotas have led to more women on corporate boards in Europe
No full textBut the effect on firm performance has been mixed across the different countries, write Simona Comi, Mara Grasseni, Federica Origo and Laura Pagan
The side effect of pension reforms on the training of older workers. Evidence from Italy
No full textDue to pension reforms, minimum retirement age in Italy increased substantially above age 50 between the second part of the 1990s and the early 2000s. We evaluate whether these reforms affected training participation by private sector employees aged 40–54, who entered their fifties during the relevant years. We find evidence of a sizeable effect: our estimates suggest a 9% increase in training incidence following a one-year increase in minimum retirement age. We also show that, while policies that increase the residual working horizon are effective in increasing training participation by senior workers in their forties and early fifties, traditional training policies that aim at reducing training costs by providing subsidies are ineffectiv
ILRR_Pagani_Suppl_Online_Appendix – Supplemental material for Where Women Make a Difference: Gender Quotas and Firms’ Performance in Three European Countries
No full textSupplemental material, ILRR_Pagani_Suppl_Online_Appendix for Where Women Make a Difference: Gender Quotas and Firms’ Performance in Three European Countries by Simona Comi, Mara Grasseni, Federica Origo and Laura Pagani in ILR Review</p
Does Public Investment in ICTs Improve Learning Performance? Evidence From Italy
No full textThis article provides a detailed and robust estimate of the impact of three different digital technologies (interactive whiteboards, wireless connections, and mobile devices) on Italian language and mathematics performance in lower secondary schools in Italy. Our analysis of longitudinal data from 2010 to 2014 shows that no significant effects emerge at a national level from increased stocks of any of the three technologies, confirming the existing literature. However, when controlling for geographical area, we show that all three technologies had a positive effect on mathematics results in the north of Italy, with a detrimental effect in the south. We find that the positive effect in the north was driven by low‐attaining schools, while the negative impact in the south was driven by higher attaining schools. No effects were found on Italian language performance, except for a slightly positive impact in the lowest‐achieving schools in all geographical areas. The significance of these results is discussed with regards to future public intervention and research in this field
The Effects of Human Capital on Social Capital - A Cross-Country Analysis
No full textThis paper uses two sets of cross-country micro datasets to analyse individuals’ participation in voluntary and community activities and organisations. Analysing countries in the International Adult Literacy Survey and focusing on the impact of human capital I find a consistently positive effect of years of education on participation with the marginal effect of an additional year being around 2 or 3% for most countries. The effects are somewhat higher in English speaking countries. However controlling for functional literacy reduces this significantly with literacy accounting for around half the marginal effect of education. Labour market effects are generally very weak Using instrumental variables for a subset of countries we test and are unable to reject the hypothesis that education is exogenous. Using Eurobarometer data yields higher estimated impacts of schooling for most countries. It is also shown how attitudes towards the “third sector” predict higher participation in some forms of volunteering while a measure of religiosity often predicts more altruistic volunteering.
Social Costs of Gambling Harm in Italy
No full textThe aim of this study is to provide an estimate of the social costs of gambling in Italy. In line with other research on social costs, the present study estimates the consequences of gambling harm on public finances, focusing on the estimated costs to treat high-risk gamblers, costs associated with productivity losses, costs of unemployment, personal and family costs, crime and legal costs. We used two different approaches to calculate these costs. The first approach, used for health care costs, consists of using the lump sum spent to prevent the harm caused to high-risk gamblers. The second approach involves estimating the number of high-risk gamblers causing the cost, which is then multiplied with the average unit cost per person. Our estimates of the annual social costs of gambling in Italy – more than EUR 2.3 billion – demonstrate a substantial economic burden to society. However, the costs are a substantial underestimate, as they are limited to those of a public nature and do not take into consideration those costs borne by moderate and low-risk gamblers, as well as affected others
Training subsidies and the wage returns to continuing vocational training
No full textWe use the regional and time variation of training grants in Italy to identify the causal effect of (formal continuing vocational) training on earnings. We estimate log-linear earnings regressions with constant marginal returns to training and find that one additional week of training increases monthly net earnings by 1.36%, substantially less than the 3% or more often found in the literature. Estimated returns vary significantly by firm size, and range from 0.40% in firms with more than 100 employees to 2.51% in smaller firms, the bulk of the Italian private sector. A simple back of the envelope comparison of the marginal costs and benefits of training policy suggests that the latter are higher than the former
Training subsidies and the wage returns to continuing vocational training : Evidence from Italian regions
No full textWe use the regional and time variation of training grants in Italy to identify the causal effect of (formal continuing vocational) training on earnings. We estimate log-linear earnings regressions with constant marginal returns to training and find that one additional week of training increases monthly net earnings by 1.36%, substantially less than the 3% or more often found in the literature. Estimated returns vary significantly by firm size, and range from 0.40% in firms with more than 100 employees to 2.51% in smaller firms, the bulk of the Italian private sector. A simple back of the envelope comparison of the marginal costs and benefits of training policy suggests that the latter are higher than the former
Lavori in corso. Tra formazione e occupazione
No full textL’analisi dei dati raccolti con questionario somministrato a laureati in servizio sociale in 24 atenei italiani tra gli anni 2006 e 2012, considera in particolare gli aspetti relativi al rapporto tra l’esperienza formativa nei corsi di laurea e laurea magistrale e le attività di lavoro retribuito , svolte dagli intervistati sia durante il periodo di studi universitari che successivamente.
Si sono evidenziate nei laureati in servizio sociale prevalenze di genere (femminile), di ceto (medio-basso), di vocazione professionale (lavoro relazionale e sociale) considerate la caratteristiche della popolazione analizzata in relazione alla famiglia d’origine, alla pregressa formazione scolastica, al tempo di completamento della carriera di studi, alle performance di studio, alle preferenze manifestate per le diverse discipline e per le competenze acquisite, all’applicazione delle competenze in campo lavorativo. Si è giunti, inoltre, a stilizzare le tre seguenti etichette tipizzanti la parte prevalente degli intervistati: “umanistici non speculativi”, “presto attivi a paghe basse”, “proiettati al lavoro con le persone, da organizzazioni a conduzione altrui”. Si evidenzia in fine una maggiore focalizzazione dei laureati verso il lavoro professionale con le singole persone e con i gruppi, differendo nella gran parte dei casi alla formazione universitaria magistrale l’approfondimento delle competenze più specificamente gestionali e di progettazione sociale
Reliability, validity and responsiveness of the cross-culturally adapted Italian version of the core outcome measures index (COMI) for the neck
No full textPurpose: Evaluation of the psychometric properties of a cross-culturally adapted questionnaire, the Core Outcome Measurement Index for neck pain (COMI-neck). Methods: The COMI-neck was cross-culturally adapted for the Italian language using established procedures. The following psychometric properties of the instrument were then assessed in patients with chronic neck pain undergoing rehabilitation: test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC); construct validity by comparing COMI-neck with the Neck Pain and Disability Scale, a numerical pain rating scale, and the EuroQol-Five Dimension (Pearson's correlations); and responsiveness by means of Standardized Response Mean (SRM), unpaired t tests, and Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curves. Results: The questionnaire was completed by 103 subjects. The COMI-neck summary score displayed no relevant floor or ceiling effects. Test-retest reliability was excellent (ICC = 0.87). With one exception (symptom-specific well-being), the individual COMI items and the COMI summary score correlated to the expected extent with the scores of the reference questionnaires (r = 0.40-0.80). The mean change scores for the Italian COMI-neck differed significantly between patients with a good global outcome and those with a poor outcome (p = 0.002); SRM for the good outcome group was 1.23, and for the poor outcome group 0.40. ROC analysis revealed an area under the curve of 0.73 (95 % CI: 0.62-0.85). Conclusions: This study provides evidence that the Italian version of the COMI-neck is a valid and responsive questionnaire in the population of patients examined. Its use is recommended for clinical and research purpose
- …
