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The aim of this paper is to examine if and how the reclassification of platform workers from self-employment status to employment status can provide them with adequate social security protection. Little is known about how this transition would guarantee platform workers adequate social protection within the social protection scheme for employees. National social security schemes, in particular income replacement benefit schemes, often (still) depart from the standard employment relationship, leading to lower protection for atypical work forms. Platform workers combine several of the characteristics of atypical forms of work, such as low earnings, irregular working patterns and working. Integrating platform workers into employee social security schemes faces additional challenges due to the online nature of their work, algorithmic management, high levels of unpaid labor, and employer identification difficulties. This paper focuses on unemployment protection, as EU Member States struggle to provide adequate protection for workers with irregular work patterns and income fluctuations, in the case of (short term) income replacement benefits. By constructing nine ideal work patterns reflective of diverse nature of platform work and current practices among platform work, we analyse how different types of 'employed' platform workers may fare within the legislation of three EU countries (Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands). This approach allows us to assess the applicability of unemployment protection to different working patterns among 'employed' platform workers, considering formal, effective, and adequate access to unemployment schemes as outlined in the Council Recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed (2019). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is focused on an interesting aspect of accounting education: based on the analysis of the syllabi of "Economia Aziendale" ("EA") from all 65 Italian universities teaching economics or business administration, strong inconsistencies emerge among themselves and between syllabi and theory. The choice of the analysed subject is very relevant in Italian universities of Economics and Business Administration, since it represents a fundamental subject of the curricula and deeply impacts on financial accounting. "EA" is strongly related to the specific Italian approach to financial accounting compared with many other countries, and in particular with the "Anglo-Saxon" and International Financial Reporting Standard system. Our findings are the following. First of all, the analysed syllabi are generally not fully consistent with the theory as it was stated at its origin, and how it is still considered today. In particular, the unitary approach of the discipline specifically stated as one of the main characteristics of this science is missing. One of the pillars of "EA" is, in this way, omitted or deleted. Our paper analyses the reasons of these inconsistencies and finds an important connection with these three elements: the career needs, the working constraints and the legal system of rules.

This paper presents one of the first cross-nationally comparative studies on the economic and social returns to grit (perseverance and passion for long-term goals). Specifically, we investigated whether grit incrementally predicted objective (income) and subjective (job satisfaction) career success over and above cognitive skills and educational attainment; whether grit's association with career success was moderated by individual characteristics; whether grit's associations with career success varied across countries; and whether this variation could be explained by labour market conditions (unemployment rates). Multi-group structural equation models with data from 6,738 respondents from 19 countries revealed that grit was incrementally associated with income and job satisfaction in some but not all countries. Grit's effect sizes were mostly modest, yet there were some indications for variations by education and labour market conditions. Overall, these findings suggest that the associations between grit and career success are not uniform but vary across individuals and contexts.

In his article "In Italy, North-South differences in IQ predict differences in income, education, infant mortality, stature, and literacy," Richard Lynn claims to have found the reason causing the divergence between the Northern and the Southern regions of Italy. This article identifies the four main hypotheses formulated in his paper and presents significant evidence against each one of them. We claim that the evidence presented by the author is not sufficient to say that the IQ of Southern Italians is lower than the one of Northern Italians; that his analysis does not prove that there is any causal link between what he defines as IQ and any of the variables mentioned; that there is no evidence that the alleged differences in IQ are persistent in time and, therefore, attributable to genetic factors. (Contains 1 table.)

Lynn (2010) suggests that differences in average intelligence explain many of the differences observed across the Italian regions. This paper puts forward a methodological critique to his study, coupling it with an empirical test showing that Lynn's analysis is not sufficiently robust to support its conclusions. (Contains 2 tables.)

Ample evidence indicates that a person's human capital is important for success on the labor market in terms of both wages and employment prospects. However, unlike the efforts to identify the impact of school attainment on labor-market outcomes, the literature on returns to cognitive skills has not yet provided convincing evidence that the estimated returns can be causally interpreted. Using the PIAAC Survey of Adult Skills, this paper explores several approaches that aim to address potential threats to causal identification of returns to skills, in terms of both higher wages and better employment chances. We address measurement error by exploiting the fact that PIAAC measures skills in several domains. Furthermore, we estimate instrumental-variable models that use skill variation stemming from school attainment and parental education to circumvent reverse causation. Results show a strikingly similar pattern across the diverse set of countries in our sample. In fact, the instrumental-variable estimates are consistently larger than those found in standard least-squares estimations. The same is true in two "natural experiments," one of which exploits variation in skills from changes in compulsory-schooling laws across U.S. states. The other one identifies technologically induced variation in broadband Internet availability that gives rise to variation in ICT skills across German municipalities. Together, the results suggest that least-squares estimates may provide a lower bound of the true returns to skills in the labor market.

The concept of active aging has become central to the public debate in many Western countries, given the increasing aging of the population and the future challenges associated with it. This phenomenon is tightly intertwined with choices regarding the retirement period, which can be postponed for different reasons by individuals in a society. The purpose of this paper is to understand the personal and family characteristics that influence future choices about retirement date in Italy. Utilizing data provided by the Bank of Italy in the Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW), a logistic regression is performed to observe the impact of different covariates on the hypothesized retirement date of individuals close to retirement, i.e., over the age of 50 who are still in working status. The results show that the decision to delay retirement has increased in recent years, and is influenced by personal (e.g., matrimonial status), work, and economic factors. In addition, these factors have different impacts between males and females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the literature on innovation brokerage by analysing the effects of brokerage activities on the innovation and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The authors provide a detailed description of the Technology Transfer Service (TTS), credited as a European best-practice innovation broker, at Area Science Park in Italy. They then carry out an exploratory econometric analysis, the results of which show that the support provided by the TTS enables research-industry collaboration and has positive effects on product and process innovation in SMEs, but it appears not to affect the generation of new patents in SMEs. The results also suggest that the growth in innovation enabled by the support of TTS has a positive effect on the SMEs' revenue growth and job creation. However the innovation broker is more effective in relation to larger firms than it is for micro-enterprises. (Contains 6 tables and 4 notes.)

In this paper, we evaluate income distributions in four European countries (Austria, Italy, Spain and Hungary) using two complementary approaches: a standard approach based on reported incomes in survey data, and a microsimulation approach, where taxes and benefits are simulated. These two approaches may be expected to generate slightly different results, particularly in respect of individuals on lower incomes, because benefit receipts tend to be under-reported in survey data, and over-estimated in microsimulation procedures. However, we find that the two approaches do in fact produce reasonably consistent results, in terms of both inequality measures and poverty rates. To the extent that the results differ, we explore the reasons why these differences arise, and suggest directions for future research, in which each approach may inform improvements in the other.

Poverty is generally defined as income or expenditure insufficiency, but the economic condition of a household also depends on its real and financial asset holdings. This paper investigates measures of poverty that rely on indicators of household net worth. We review and assess two main approaches followed in the literature: income-net worth measures and asset-poverty. We provide fresh cross-national evidence based on data from the Luxembourg Wealth Study. (Contains 3 figures, 6 tables, and 16 footnotes.)

Beraldo (2010) and Cornoldi, Belacchi, Giofre, Martini, and Tressoldi (2010) (CBGMT) have eight criticisms of my paper (Lynn, 2010) claiming that the large north-south differences in per capita income in Italy are attributable to differences in the average levels of intelligence in the populations. CBGMT give results for seven data sets for IQs in the north and south of Italy. All of these show that IQs are higher than in the north than in the south, although the differences are not as great as those I calculated. Other criticisms to the effect that the PISA tests are not measures of intelligence are refuted. The results of two further studies are given that confirm that IQs in the north of Italy are approximately 10 IQ points higher than in south. (Contains 2 tables.)

This paper provides a longitudinal perspective on changes in Italian men's earnings inequality since the late 1970s by decomposing the earnings autocovariance structure into its long-term and transitory parts. Cross-sectional earnings differentials grew over the period and the longitudinal analysis shows that such growth was determined by the long-term earnings component. Using parameter estimates to analyze low-pay probabilities shows that low-pay persistence and the probability of repeated low-pay episodes grew for all birth cohorts during the early 1990s. Moreover, long-term heterogeneity is found to characterize the earnings distribution of nonmanual workers, accounting for a large part of overall heterogeneity.

This paper presents a model considering intergenerational occupational mobility as the joint outcome of three main determinants: income incentives, equality of opportunity and changes in the composition of occupations. The model, rationalising the use of transition matrices to measure occupational mobility, allows for identifying asymmetric mobility patterns and constructing a specific mobility index for each determinant. The empirical application of our model to Italy suggests that intergenerational mobility increased from the cohort of children born in the period 1940-1951 to the one born in the period 1952-1965, then to remain at the same level for the cohort of children born in the period 1966-1977. This steady mobility, however, hides i) lower structural mobility, caused by a declining trend in the composition of occupations in favour of upper-middle classes; ii) less upward mobility for those whose fathers were in the lower class; and iii) higher downward mobility from upper-middle classes, both caused by a decrease in the income incentives. Equality of opportunity is low and constant for those born after 1951. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy was unified in 1861. As part of the process of nation-building, a mandatory free-of-charge primary school system was established. Whereas the new school system greatly contributed to the modernization of the country, its initial design did not considerably reduce regional disparities in human capital, with Southern regions lagging behind. The paper studies the effects of the heterogeneous territorial diffusion of literacy during the post-unification period (1871–1911) on economic outcomes of Italian provinces 100 years later. We exploit the exogenous variations in the territorial spread in literacy rates arising from the gradual building and expansion of the railway network across provinces. We find evidence that provinces with a higher territorial diffusion of literacy in the post-unification period today have higher income per capita, lower unemployment and greater educational attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to check the existence of the added worker effect (AWE) in Italy during the Great Recession.Design/methodology/approach The authors used the Bank of Italy Survey on Household Income and Wealth to study factors driving the change in female work status over the period 2006-2012. The probit model was used to identify the timing, significance and the magnitude of the AWE. The authors also performed panel estimates to understand how women, positioned at either extensive or intensive margins, respond to the reduction in male hours of work which appear to be crucial for the AWE to manifest.Findings The authors find that with the crisis progressing, Italian women respond ever less to the reduction in male earnings, at the same time they become more responsive to the job loss by male partner which is the worst outcome. This means that the AWE survives, even if only in cases of serious hardship. It also remains when the reduction in male incomes is coupled with the reduction in their hours of work, suggesting that the redistribution of household chores is an important prerequisite for women to get into work.Originality/value This paper provides evidence on the AWE in Italy during the Great Recession. The authors took into account the peculiarity of the Italian labour market whose performance was affected by the use of the Wage Supplementation Fund. It masks part of the AWE when the standard methodology is used. By looking at the reduction in male earnings with or without a change in their work hours, the authors were able to reveal additional channels through which the AWE operates in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conspiracy Beliefs (CB) are a key vector of violent extremism, radicalism and unconventional political events. So far, social‐psychological research has extensively documented how cognitive, emotional and intergroup factors can promote CB. Evidence also suggests that adherence to CB moves along social class lines: low‐income and low‐education are among the most robust predictors of CB. Yet, the potential role of precarity—the subjective experience of permanent insecurity stemming from objective material strain—in shaping CB remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we propose for the first time a socio‐functional model of CB. We test the hypothesis that precarity could foster increased CB because it undermines trust in government and the broader political 'elites'. Data from the World Value Survey (n = 21,650; Study 1, electoral CB) and from representative samples from polls conducted in France (n = 1760, Study 2a, conspiracy mentality) and Italy (n = 2196, Study 2b, COVID‐19 CB), corroborate a mediation model whereby precarity is directly and indirectly associated with lower trust in authorities and higher CB. In addition, these links are robust to adjustment on income, self‐reported SES and education. Considering precarity allows for a truly social‐psychological understanding of CB as the by‐product of structural issues (e.g. growing inequalities). Results from our socio‐functional model suggest that implementing solutions at the socio‐economic level could prove efficient in fighting CB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since European Union (EU) enlargement in 2003, labour migration from East to West and South to North has increased. It is to be expected that a share of these workers will want to retire in their host countries. According to the academic literature, EU legislation protects such mobility well by allowing the transfer of rights accrued in any EU country to another. However, such research has focused on legislation, not outcomes. We know little about how migration will affect the financial status of retired migrants in their host country and their ability to sustain a life there, should they stay after retirement. Using migration, wage and pension policy data (Eurostat, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), this paper projects the post-retirement incomes of a range of hypothetical EU migrants, selected in relation to the most common migratory flows since 2003. After having worked in their home countries (Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Italy) for at least ten years, these people move to richer countries (Italy, Spain, Germany, United Kingdom) and work there for at least 30 years. To determine whether they can remain settled after decades of labour force participation in the host country, the paper adds their pension entitlements from home and host countries and compares this income with the relative poverty line of the host countries. This shows that good portability of entitlements matters little when these are very low because of a large wage gap between home and host country. Thus, after at least 30 years of enjoying all citizenship rights as workers, most of these individuals are projected to receive incomes below the relative poverty line of their host countries and thus experience a sharp drop in this status. Their citizenship is diminished. The paper concludes by considering policies that could avoid such an outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses a topic still largely under-researched in comparative welfare state literature: the role of right parties in the reform of last resort safety nets. More precisely, the study investigates minimum income schemes' reforms promoted during the Great Recession (2008-2013) by centre-right governments in three countries belonging to the European periphery: Italy, Portugal and Latvia. Despite common political orientation and increased problem pressure, these countries have gone through distinct reform trajectories in their social safety nets that may be labelled expansion (Latvia), retrenchment (Portugal), and continuity (Italy). Against this backdrop, the paper suggests that right parties display substantially different positions and pursue different reform strategies in anti-poverty policies. These differences can be explained by the diverse types of right parties and varying competition and coalition dynamics in the three countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic insecurity has increased in importance in the understanding of economic and socio-demographic household behaviour. The present paper aims to analyse patterns of household economic insecurity over the years 2004–2015 by using the longitudinal section of the Italian SILC (Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) survey. In the identification of economic insecurity statuses, we used indicators of economic hardship in a latent transition approach in order to: (i) classify Italian households into homogenous classes characterised by different levels of economic insecurity, (ii) assess whether changes in latent class membership occurred in the selected time span, and (iii) evaluate the effect of employment status and characteristics of individuals on latent status membership. Empirical findings uncovered five latent statuses of economic insecurity from the best situation to the worst. The levels of economic insecurity remained quite stable over the period considered, but a non-negligible worsening can be detected for the unemployed and individuals with part-time jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Census of a nation's people and housing provides statistics about its health, income and social structures at a local level. While the demand for these statistics is unchanged the way they are collected is changing in many nations because of common drivers: cost pressure, web-based collection, decreasing response rates, environmental shocks and the availability of administrative data. Within this context, this paper gives an overview of the evolution of the Census in Israel, Italy, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom and thereby provides an insight of the challenges and solutions of the modern Census. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the wealth accumulation and saving behavior of the retired elderly in Italy using micro data from the "Survey of Italian Households' Income and Wealth," a panel survey of households conducted every 2 years by the Bank of Italy. We find that, on average, the retired elderly in Italy are decumulating their wealth (dissaving) but that their wealth decumulation rates are much slower than expected. Moreover, we also find that more than 40% of the retired elderly in Italy are continuing to accumulate wealth and that more than 80% are doing positive amounts of saving. Thus, the Wealth Decumulation Puzzle (the tendency of the retired elderly to decumulate their wealth more slowly than expected) appears to apply in the case of Italy, as it does in most other countries, before as well as after the Global Financial Crisis. Moreover, our regression analysis of the determinants of the wealth accumulation and saving behavior of the retired elderly in Italy suggests that the lower than expected wealth decumulation rates and dissaving of the retired elderly in Italy is due largely to intergenerational transfers (bequests and inter vivos transfers) and saving for precautionary purposes, especially the former. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an effective procedure for matching data from the Italian Household Budget Survey (HBS) and the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC), carried out by the Italian National Statistical Institute. In recent years, there is an emerging consensus on the need for distributional measures of well-being as a joint function of income and consumption, that should be jointly explored for explaining the households' economic conditions. However, the Italian National Statistical Institute does not maintain a unified database on income and expenditures for consumption. One of the most widespread approaches for fusing data is to use statistical matching techniques, which are based on the Conditional Independence Assumption. This assumption implies that the variables of interest are independent, given a set of common auxiliary variables with strong explicative power on income and consumption. Between the auxiliary variables, we also exploit suitable variables which are proxy of income, thus permitting to impute income on HBS, and proxy of consumption, thus permitting to impute consumption on SILC. The joint distribution of the proxies can be considered as a proxy of the joint distribution between income and consumption. Moreover, through the use of two synthetic measures, we reduce the dimensionality of the set of auxiliary variables, simultaneously preserving as much as possible of the available common information and the correlation structure between the auxiliaries and income, as observed in SILC, and between the auxiliaries and consumption, as observed in HBS. The contribution to the existing literature is various. In particular, we obtain a pooled sample with income and consumption, while previous attempts aimed at imputing only one of the two variables of interest in one survey. Second, the uncertainty deriving from the lack of information on the joint distribution of income and consumption is reduced with respect to previous works. Finally, the use of proxies, the high quality of the other auxiliary variables, as well as the particular mixed-mode matching procedure, permit to take advantage of all the available information reducing it to only two dimensions, so that the Conditional Independence can be considered a mild assumption. Keeping in mind that an effective matching for also imputing wealth, that is the third pillar of the households' economic wellbeing, is yet to come, the joined dataset could permit several types of analyses on economic inequalities and fiscal policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The total income Y can be expressed as the sum of c components called income sources. The N units of the population can be partitioned into k different subpopulations. In the paper the decompositions by subpopulations as well as by income components of the point ( ) h IY and the synthetic ( ) I Y inequality indexes proposed by Zenga in 2007 are considered. These indexes can be decomposed into the contributions of income sources and/or into the contributions of subpopulations,and also the decomposition into within- and between-group inequality can be carried out. In the paper, the two-step approach was used: first of all "additive" decompositions of the point index were derived, and then, by averaging these decompositions, the corresponding decompositions of the synthetic index were obtained. The results were then applied to the analysis of income distributions in Poland and Italy based on the household budget surveys conducted by Statistics Poland and the Bank of Italy, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to analyse, for men and women, the microeconomic determinants of life insurance purchases. Indeed, only a few papers have tried to justify rigorously the gender-based differences in life insurance ownership. On the basis of survey data collected by the Bank of Italy in 2012 (the Survey on Income and Households), we estimate the propensity to buy and the willingness to pay for a life insurance contract. We examine the differences between two types of contracts, that is, traditional life and term life insurance and show that, in all cases, women are less likely to be insured than are men. The demand for insurance is highly correlated with income, family structure and employment status. Geographical variables within Italy significantly affect the demand too. We introduce novel variables that measure the financial status of households and their proximity to the financial market or, similarly, their familiarity with financial market opportunities. These determinants turn out to be significant and affect demand almost as much as traditional variables. To study policy implications, we calculate the probabilities of having either traditional life or term insurance, under several scenarios for the determinants of demand. Again, financial market proximity plays a key role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the main socio-demographic and economic determinants of subjective economic well-being in different typologies of households. Previous studies have used dummy variables to explore the effect of family structure. In this paper, however four different models-one for each family typology-have been estimated to test if each selected explanatory variable is significant and how it acts in determining the level of subjective economic well-being. To achieve this, we apply an under-used logit model-the partial proportional ordered model. Our analysis, based on data from the 2005 Italian Survey on Income and Living Conditions highlights the main variables affecting the subjective economic well-being of all household typologies. These main variables are related to income adequacy, such as being able to afford housing, clothes and holidays, and also include the work-status and level of education of the respondent. These variables produce notable differences in the level of subjective economic well-being. We find that couples with no children have the highest level of perceived economic well-being, while couples with two or more children and even more so one-person households are more economically insecure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to shed light on transitions from the state of unemployment to that of employment and of inactivity in Italy and Spain. Design/methodology/approach – First, the paper investigates the determinants of unemployment outflows in these two Mediterranean labour markets. Then, the paper examines discrepancies and similarities between specific outflow determinants, especially the interactions between gender and marital status, by comparing results obtained across countries. Findings – The findings of the paper suggest that gender and marital status influence the probability of unemployment outflows in both countries, although not in the same way, especially with reference to marital status. Discrepancies also emerge in relation to the role of geographical area of residence. Originality/value – International comparisons of unemployment outflows are rather new in the literature, and as far as we know none have been performed using European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions data. Further, although studies quite often examine the issue of gender-related labour mobility using the European Community Household Panel survey that took place in the 1990s (Arulampalam et al., 2007; Garcia Pérez and Rebollo Sanz, 2005; Theodossiou and Zangelidis, 2009), one of the main contributions of this paper is that it provides a systematic examination of the issue, considering the influence of gender and marital status differences on patterns of unemployment outflows to employment and inactivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the impact of cooperative banks on local economic development. Italian municipality data indicate that cooperative banks – more than conventional banks – are associated with enhanced income, employment and firms' growth rates. This evidence is consistent with several other studies indicating a distinct role of cooperative banks in supporting traditional credit provision to local borrowers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the consumer credit market in Italy and the related risk of over-indebtedness. Using panel data from the Survey on Household Income and Wealth, we investigate the role of households financial fragility on the use and increase in consumer debt over time, evaluating, in particular, whether there exists a statistically significant relationship between the growth in the use of consumer credit and the increase in the proportion of indebted households that are in a negative financial situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a stylized short-run neo-Kaleckian model incorporating personal income inequality and income taxes. The main goal is to investigate how changes in income taxes and personal income distribution affect output growth. The theoretical discussion of the stylized model is then empirically assessed using data for Italy retrieved from the Survey of Household Income and Wealth published by the Bank of Italy. The empirical analysis confirms both the heterogeneity of the propensities to consume of Italian households and the dominance of absolute income effects in the Italian consumer behavior that assures the negative trade-off between inequality and aggregate demand. More specifically, it is shown that, overall, Italians are still income constrained, not allowing for a compensation of the demand-depressing effects of raising inequality via debt and wealth-based consumption. Likewise, it is argued that decreasing personal income inequality via progressive income tax reforms would have positive effects on aggregate demand, utilization, and growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of the probability of low income for households with disabled members in Italy, over the period 2004-2007, with special focus on the role of persistence. Design/methodology/approach – Households with disabled members are compared with those without disabled members, and those with disabled members temporary limited. Alternative definitions of disability are considered. The probability of low income is estimated adopting dynamic probit models accounting for unobserved heterogeneity, state dependence and endogenous initial conditions. Findings – Evidence is found of significant true state dependence for households with disabled members. However, true state dependence does not significantly differ from that of other households. The probability of low income for households with disabled members is also determined by some structural variables, such as employment of disabled individuals, living in the South, household's partner employment and household size. Practical implications – In the short run, money transfer is effective to lift households with disabled members from low income and to prevent the risk of low income in the future. Structural policies are possibly relevant in reducing the long-term risk of low income. These include interventions to favour employment of disabled members and development of caring services for disabled members to free family members for outside work. Originality/value – Not much is known about how disability affects the conditions of households with disabled members. The paper contributes to this literature with a novel analysis of low income persistence, providing some policy suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The importance of social comparison in shaping individual utility has been widely documented by subjective well-being literature. So far, income and unemployment have been the main dimensions considered in social comparison. This paper aims to investigate whether subjective well-being is influenced by inter-personal comparison with respect to health. Thus, we study the effects of the health of others and relative health hypotheses on two measures of subjective well-being: happiness and subjective health. Using data from the Italian Health Conditions survey, we show that a high incidence of chronic conditions and disability among reference groups negatively affects both happiness and subjective health. Such effects are stronger among people in the same condition. These results, robust to different econometric specifications and estimation techniques, suggest the presence of some sympathy in individual preferences with respect to health and reveal that other people's health status serves as a benchmark to assess one's own health condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The Saint Valentine's Decree (1984) and the ensuing hard-fought referendum (1985), which reduced the automatisms of scala mobile, started a process of redefinition of wage fixing in Italy, which culminated with the final abolition of scala mobile (1992) and the approval of Protocollo d'intesa (1993). Since then, following new corporatist principles, a national system of centralised wage bargaining (concertazione) and so-called "institutional indexation" have governed the determination of wages. Does incomes policy generate greater coordination in the process of wage formation? Does it cause greater co-movement of wages, prices, labour productivity and unemployment? This paper aims to answer these questions with reference to one of the G8 economies. Design/methodology/approach -- After testing for unit root each component by using the ADF, Phillips and Perron, DF-GLS and Zivot and Andrews statistics, the paper tests for co-integration the so-called WPYE model using different methods. The Engle and Granger approach is used to assess the impact of incomes policy on the speed of adjustment of real wages, productivity (and unemployment) to their equilibrium value, while the Gregory and Hansen procedure serves as a means to endogenously detect the presence of are gime shift. The paper estimates coefficients before and after the structural break. Findings -- Incomes policy based on the 1993 Protocol has caused a regime shift in the process of wage determination. The long-run estimates of the WPYE model do not generate stationary residuals except when a dummy for 1993 is added. The share of wages over GDP reduces by about ten percentage points in the early 1990s and has stood at about 57 per cent since 1995. The link with productivity is close to one-to-one only before the break. The feedback mechanism, as measured by the coefficient of lagged residuals in short-run estimates, is increased from 20.46 in the pre-reform to 20.79 in the post-reform period, suggesting that incomes policy has increased real wage flexibility indeed. In recent years the link between real wages and (very low) labour productivity growth has weakened. In a sense, incomes policy has introduced a new form of (upward) wage rigidity. Last but not least, incomes policy has changed the correlation with the unemployment rate from positive to not statistically significant. Research limitations/implications -- Future developments will focus on disentangling the impact of incomes policy vis-à-vis other policy interventions on WPYE and on unemployment. Practical implications -- The analysis calls for a careful revision of the 1993 Protocol aimed at better protecting the purchasing power of real wages without losing control on inflation, and introducing growth-generating mechanisms. Originality/value -- The paper studies the impact of incomes policy on WPYE and the Phillips curve by means of co-integration and structural break analysis. It proposes to interpret the effect of incomes policy on the Phillips curve as changing the coefficient of the error correction mechanism that leads real wages to their long-run equilibrium value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2008 the global economy, following also the financial crisis, is facing a severe decline in economic activity and the economic estimates concerning the first quarter 2009 are even worse. The Italian Consumers Confidence Indicators (CCI), however, after a sharp fall beginning in 2007, is unexpectedly showing some signals of recovery since the end of summer 2008. It seems that the effects of the financial crisis have not influenced Italian consumers yet, as it is documented worldwide. It is worth sorting out this puzzle. The paper tries to explain these trends starting from the role played by the single elements on which the composite indicator of confidence climate is determined. Then the recent price evolution and its influence on the Italian Consumer Confidence dynamics are investigated. Since end of summer 2008, the sharp inflation slowdown together with nominal wages increase, may have contributed to keep confidence from falling. A further tool for explaining recent CCI dynamics could also be represented by a microdata analysis of opinions of population sub-groups, because some of these could have been more exposed than others to the crisis. Therefore the paper explores reactions of different consumers segments (e.g. by income, professional status, household composition). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts a spatial econometric methodology to investigate the relationship between income and direct household emissions in Italy, as posited by the environmental Engel curve. The spatial approach is motivated by an expanding strand of studies that have detected significant spatial interactions in household‐polluting activities responsible for the generation of direct household emissions. Our results suggest the presence of significant spatial dependence for household emissions emerging among regions. At the same time, increases in the level of income do not seem to be coupled with a higher demand for environmental quality by Italian households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional interactions and spillover effects should be considered as important factors in growth analysis of regional economies. Using modified versions of the Dendrinos–Sonis model, this paper analyses the spatial hierarchical system of Italy. The interaction among Italian regions is considered at three different levels of spatial aggregation, the NUTS-1, NUTS-2 and NUTS-3 levels. Compared to more popular spatial econometric approaches, the Dendrinos–Sonis model and its extensions provide greater flexibility in the way interaction between regions is handled but the results strongly depend on the choice of a reference region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we document the income-related inequality in gambling. We employ a novel database from 2014–2017 waves of the Italian Population Survey on Alcohol and other Drugs (IPSAD) which also include information on the preferences for games of chance. Following the Erryegers Index, our findings suggest that traditional lotteries are concentrated among the richest individuals, while betting and new generation games tend to be pro-poor games. The decomposition of income-related inequalities reveals that pro-rich inequality observed in traditional games is mainly driven by gender, age, and working condition. Higher components of the pro-poor inequality observed in betting and new generation games come instead from income and age. Since the pro-poor games are also the major contributors of the growth in gambling turnover and the increase in gambling disorders, our results indicate that a relevant part of increasing social costs associated to gambling are more likely to be paid by the less-well off, and potentially most vulnerable members of the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Southern European countries share a similar welfare system which does not perform well either in terms of equity or efficiency. Using EUROMOD, the EU-wide microsimulation model, this paper evaluates the enhancement of both the redistributive and the incentive effects of the Italian tax-benefit system by introducing either a family-based or an individual in-work benefit, financed through the abolition of the existing tax credit targeted at dependent adults. The results show an increase in the labour supply of women both in couples and lone mothers, in particular among the poorest, with important redistributive effects. The in-work benefits can contribute to the de-familialisation of the Mediterranean welfare states by reducing the reliance on the family and compensating the cost of services. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While the analysis of inequality has been central to economic studies for centuries, it was only in recent years that studies have concentrated on the distinction between inequality of opportunity and inequality of returns to effort and have attempted empirical estimates of the two components. The decomposition of a general inequality index into these two components allows to analyse the prevalence of fair or unfair income inequality within a country. This paper suggests to test the differences between the two sources of inequality in a simple way using the ANOVA framework adapted to decompose the coefficient of variation, to better suit the requirements of an inequality index. The proposed procedure is applied to the Italian Survey on Income and Living Condition (IT-SILC data, wave 2005 and 2011). The empirical results help identifying the circumstances that foster the rise of inequality of opportunities in Italy. Our analysis shows, in particular, that father education, region of residence and gender result as the most relevant circumstances determining inequality of opportunity. On the other side, the role of mother education starting from a lower level as an inequality of opportunity factor has increased its influence over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Common Agricultural Policy 2023-2027 introduces a new result-oriented approach based on a new delivery model. At the core of this model lies the need to ensure a higher consistence between stated objectives and the implementation of policy tool, such a direct payment. Enhancing farm income and fostering the provision of environmental public goods represent relevant policy goals that the new basic income support for sustainability is aimed to pursue. However, the use of land-based payments has been largely criticized as ineffective and unfair. To this purpose, we use "Italian Farm Accountancy Data Network" data, in order to descriptively analyse whether and how different criteria used to allocate this payment are differently correlated with farm income distribution and the use of chemical inputs and natural resources. Findings reveal that other parameters, rather than land, may be also taken into account in order to improve the effectiveness of the basic income support for sustainability in achieving its specific goals. However, there is not a first-best solution aimed to ensure at the same time a fairer distribution of the income support, by rewarding farmers that make a lesser use of input. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of the Protocol '93 bargaining model in favouring the slow-down of the Italian economy and to design a correction. Design/methodology/approach -- The impact of the Protocol on factor income distribution is assessed through a deterministic dynamic model, and tested for the 1993-2008 period. The paper explores theoretically and empirically the weakening of the incentives for both workers and employers to engage in fostering productivity. Findings -- In a macroeconomic setting with structural imbalance between the product and the labour markets reforms, the bargaining model has automatically increased up to 2002 the capital share in income, reducing the incentives for both social partners to accelerate productivity, as the labour share in income and the propensity to invest are co-integrated (Johansen test). An analytical solution for correcting the bargaining distributive bias is proposed. Research limitations/implications -- Further research should provide a picture of the different distributive behaviours of industrial sectors, particularly for industries exposed to/protected from international competition. The actual functioning of the new bargaining model (the Accordo Quadro of 2009) should also be assessed. Practical implications -- The bargaining model should be reformed so as to restore the right incentives for social partners. National industry-wide wage bargaining should both incentivise and complement insufficient local bargaining. Social implications -- The benefit of increased productivity and resumed growth has vast social implications, especially with reference to the sustainability of the welfare system. Originality/value -- The scientific literature has lacked any formal description of the dynamic operation of the Italian bargaining model, which is particularly valuable to both social partners and policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore the statistical properties of the distributions of consumption expenditures for a large sample of Italian households in the period 19892004. Goodness-of-fit tests show that household aggregate (and age-conditioned) consumption distributions are not log-normal. Rather, their logs can be invariably characterized by asymmetric exponential-power densities. Departures from log-normality are mainly due to the presence of thick lower tails coexisting with upper tails thinner than Gaussian ones. The emergence of this irreducible heterogeneity in statistical patterns casts some doubts on the attempts to explain log-normality of household consumption patterns by means of simple models based on Law applied to permanent income and marginal utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although circus represents one of the most accessible art forms, the economics of the arts and culture has completely neglected to address this topic. This paper represents an attempt to fill in this lack by identifying the determinants of the demand for circus in Italy, both in terms of structural characteristics of the shows and socio-economic factors that have impact on it. To this aim, we collected information on the tournée of the bigger circuses performing in Italy during 2005 and 2006. The results show a positive elasticity of demand to income and, differently from similar studies on performing arts, to ticket price. There also are differences between circuses in the importance of animal acts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a fixed-effect panel methodology that enables us to simultaneously take into account both TFP convergence and the traditional neoclassical-type of convergence. We analyse a sample of Italian regions between 1963 and 1993 and find strong evidence that both mechanisms were at work during the process of aggregate regional convergence observed in Italy up to the mid-seventies. Finally, we find that our TFP estimates are highly positively correlated with standard human capital measures, where the latter is not statistically significant in growth regressions. This evidence confirms one of the hypotheses of the Nelson and Phelps approach, namely that human capital is the main determinant of technological catch-up. Our results are robust to the use of different estimation procedures such as simple LSDV, Kiviet-corrected LSDV, and GMM à la Arellano and Bond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Households save income for various reasons, including the need to plan for the future, the intention to leave a bequest, and the desire to guard against unforeseen expenditures and income fluctuations. Although it is widely believed that prudent individuals engage in precautionary saving, the extent of such saving is not well understood. This paper develops a model of saving with an explicit role for the Leland-Kimball measure of prudence. Estimation of the model using household-level data from Italy suggests an average value of relative prudence near 4 or 5, with approximately 15 to 36 percent of total saving being precautionary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this paper is to estimate the preferences of the Italian society towards equity in order to verify whether preferences (i) have changed across the years, and (ii) can be related to specific socio-demographic characteristics. Introducing equity concerns in the implementation of economic policies is a fundamental problem faced by both economists and policy makers. This paper uses a social welfare function à la Jorgenson and Slesnick to estimate society’s aversion towards inequality by implement in a voting scheme for compiling individuals’ equity preferences in to a social choice by majority rule. The results show that preferences are highly polarized toward a low and a high concern for equity aversion and that this concern is significantly related with several sociodemographic characteristics. Among them, income plays an important role with richer people tending to favor less equity. Results also show that preferences towards equity have changed across the years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the issue of actuarial fairness of the new Italian public pension system in view of the recent trends in old-age mortality and the survival differences by gender, birth cohort and region of residence. After reviewing the secular trends in elderly mortality in Italy, and the evolution of regional differences in survival over the last three decades, we evaluate the impact, on the conversion factors introduced by the Dini reform, of a further decline in elderly mortality over the next few decades. We compute the conversion factors using a close approximation to the unknown formula employed in the Dini reform but allowing for gender- and region-specific survival probabilities. Our results leave no doubt about the importance of frequently updating the conversion factors in the light of the rapid increase in elderly survival. The paper also quantifies to what extent gender- and region-specific conversion factors may differ from their currently legislated values, that only vary by age. Finally, we recognize that the actuarial fairness of the system introduced by the recent reform can only be guaranteed on average and that, in the presence of a heterogeneous population of individuals that differ considerably in their mortality prospects, the current system implies a substantial degree of redistribution from high-mortality groups (typically characterized by low income and low wealth) to low-mortality groups (typically characterized by high income and high wealth). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies some features of unemployment in Italy using cross section individual micro data. Since unemployment is particularly harsh with respect to youths, interest is focused on 15-29-year-old youngsters. The analysis is carried out using standard logit models and the results show that personal and family characteristics play an essential role in shaping youth activity and unemployment rates of short and long duration, together with product market conditions and labour market features. In particular, the income effect seems relevant for participation decisions, while the family wealth helps in reducing youth unemployment. Various policy instruments might be able to reduce youth unemployment, especially if these instruments are targeted through means-testing on family income and wealth and through a proper distinction between the first job seekers and the strictly unemployed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Migrants resident in Italy exceeded 5 million in 2015, representing 8.2% of the resident population. The study of the mechanisms that explain the differential health of migrant workers (as a whole and for specific nationalities) has been identified as a priority for research. The international literature has shown that migrant workers have a higher risk of total and fatal injury than natives, but some results are conflicting. The aim of this paper is to study the injury risk differentials between migrants, born in countries with strong migratory pressure (SMPC), and workers born in high income countries (HIC), taking into account individual and firm characteristics and job tenure. In addition to a comprehensive analysis of occupational safety among migrants, the study focuses on Moroccans, the largest community in Italy in the years of the analysis.Methods: Using the Work History Italian Panel-Salute integrated database, only contracts of employment in the private sector, starting in the period between 2000 and 2005 and held by men, were selected. The analysis focused on economic sectors with an important foreign component: engineering, construction, wholesale and retail trade, transportation and storage. Injury rates were calculated using a definition of serious occupational injuries based on the type of injury. Incidence rate ratios (IRR) were calculated using a Poisson distribution for panel data taking into account time-dependent variables.Results: Injury rates among SMPC workers were higher than for HIC workers in engineering (15.61 ‰ py vs. 8.92 ‰ py), but there were no significant differences in construction (11.21 vs. 10.09), transportation and storage (7.82 vs. 7.23) and the wholesale and retail sectors (4.06 vs. 4.67). Injury rates for Moroccans were higher than for both HIC and total migrant workers in all economic sectors considered. The multivariate analysis revealed an interaction effect of job tenure among both SMPC and Moroccan workers in the construction sector, while in the wholesale and retail trade sector an interaction effect of job tenure was only observed among Moroccan workers.Conclusions: Migrant workers have higher occupational injury rates than Italians in the engineering and construction sectors, after two years of experience within the job. Generally the risk differentials vary depending on the nationality and economic sector considered. The analysis of injury risk among migrant workers should be restricted to serious injuries; furthermore, job tenure must be taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EKC hypothesis postulates that the relationship between economic growth and environmental deterioration is represented by an inverted U-shaped function. Its validity has been questioned from several perspectives and a need for public policies has been expressed. This paper uses a heuristic approach to analyze the relationship between per capita income and land consumption, as proxied by the number of Building Permits issued by public authorities. Using data from the Italian regions, we run a panel data regression model to test whether the EKC hypothesis holds. Results confute it, evidencing a U-shaped relationship. In the authors' opinion, the combined effect of market conditions, lifestyle evolution and institutional and political factors have produced an adverse effect on environment. On this basis, the paper claims that, when social and intergenerational aspects are involved, a balanced mix of market, policies and institutional architecture is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most empirical studies of poverty assume an equal sharing of resources between all household members There is a growling body of research indicating that this assumption is not realistic. This paper explores how the unequal sharing of resources could potentially affect the measurement of poverty. Simulations based on micro-data from two countries (Italy and the U.S.A.) are carried out under the assumption that women "lose" and men and children "gain" because of unequal sharing in the household. Our findings suggest that if there is significant intra-household inequality of this type, as some writers have suggested, then conventional methods of poverty measurement will likely to lead to a serious under-estimate (over-estimate) of the incidence and intensity of female (male) poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]