Search

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

This paper provides a normative framework for the assessment of the distributional incidence of growth. By removing the anonymity axiom, such framework is able to evaluate the individual income changes over time and the reshuffling of individuals along the income distribution that are determined by the pattern of income growth. We adopt a rank dependent social welfare function expressed in terms of initial rank and individual income change and we obtain partial and complete dominance conditions over different growth paths. These dominance conditions account for the different components determining the overall impact of growth, that is the size of growth and its vertical and horizontal incidence. We then provide an empirical application for Italy: this analysis shows the distributional impact of the recent economic crisis suffered by the Italian populaltion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a sample of 440 Italian banks over the period 2007–2016, we find that low interest rates motivate banks to expand their fee and commission income and to restructure their securities portfolios. A granular breakdown suggests that banks grow noninterest income in various ways, including portfolio management, brokerage and consultancy services and increase fee income from current account and payment services. In addition, banks rebalance securities portfolios away from those "held for trading" to securities "available for sale" and "held to maturity." Our findings allude to different behavior between large and small banks: while larger banks increase brokerage, consultancy and portfolio management services, smaller banks generate fees from customer current accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT In this paper, we estimate price and income semi-elasticities of the length of stay at different destinations in Italy using the ' Multipurpose survey on tourism demand, holidays and trips' provided by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). We derive the conditional demand function for the length of stay, which depends on tourists' socio-demographic characteristics, travel characteristics, income and price of touristic services. Since income was not reported in our database, we use the propensity score matching to retrieve this information from the ' Survey on household income and wealth (SHIW)', and we use quantile regression to account for the multimodality of the length of stay. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By exploiting the Roback model, we analyze the impact of agglomeration on both production and consumption. We postulate that the evaluation of urban amenities may vary across skill-groups. Empirically, we use the Bank of Italy's survey of household income and wealth (SHIW) dataset, and find evidence of a substantial urban rent premium, while we do not find support for an urban wage premium. We conclude that urban agglomeration is predominantly a source of positive amenities for residents and, in particular, highly-educated individuals seem to care about the welfare effects of agglomeration more than their less-educated counterparts. Survey results also suggest that urban skilled workers benefit from jobs of higher quality, and from shopping possibilities and cultural consumption opportunities, such as cinemas, theatres, and museums. Resumen Aprovechándonos del modelo de Roback, analizamos el impacto de la aglomeración tanto en la producción como en el consumo. Postulamos que la valoración de la oferta de servicios urbanos puede variar entre grupos con un grado diferente de cualificación. Empíricamente, utilizamos los datos de la encuesta del Banco de Italia sobre ingresos familiares y patrimonio (SHIW, siglas en inglés), y mientras que encontramos pruebas de una prima de renta urbana sustancial no las encontramos para una prima salarial urbana. Concluimos que la aglomeración urbana es predominantemente una fuente de ventajas positivas para los residentes y, en particular, parece que a las personas con un alto nivel educativo les importa más los efectos de bienestar de la aglomeración que a quienes poseen un nivel educativo más bajo. Los resultados de la encuesta sugieren también que la mano de obra urbana cualificada disfruta tanto de mejores puestos de trabajo como de una mayor oferta al ir de compras y oferta cultural en cuanto a cines, teatros y museos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precautionary saving literature shows that income uncertainty increases savings and wealth. To estimate the magnitude of this effect, we need a measure of income uncertainty. This paper empirically analyzes subjective income uncertainty in The Netherlands. Data come from a large Dutch household survey. We measure income uncertainty by asking questions on expected household income in the next twelve months. First, we describe the data and investigate the relationship between the measure of income uncertainty and a number of household characteristics. Controlling for information on expected income changes, we find strong relationships between labor-market characteristics and the subjective income uncertainty as reported by the heads of the households. Second, we compare income uncertainty in The Netherlands with income uncertainty in the U.S. and Italy. It becomes evident that perceived income uncertainty is smaller in The Netherlands than it is in the U.S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we consider two panels of wage-earners, from 1974 to 1988, for Italy and France respectively. The international perspective and the availability of micro-data are particularly interesting for they allow us to address individual characteristics as well as national specificities. In the empirical analysis a partitioning of the earnings distribution by deciles is used and the overall hierarchical mobility of individuals is investigated. Transition matrices are corn in order to compare wage formation and mobility processes across countries, in the period under investigation. A rich battery of mobility indices is presented and the relations between them are studied. The paper addresses several different issues and compares the results across countries. First, the evolution of earnings and the relative wage profiles are compared across countries. Second, the heterogeneity issue is addressed and some structural characteristics of the sample are studied, namely: cohort and gender differences in earnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the evolution of inequality in income composition in terms of capital and labor income in Italy between 1989 and 2016. We document a rise in the share of capital income accruing to the bottom of the distribution, while the top of the distribution increases its share of labor income. This implies a falling degree of income composition inequality in the period considered and a weaker relationship between the functional and personal distribution of income in Italy. This result is robust to various specifications of self‐employment income; nonetheless, it hinges crucially on the treatment of rental incomes. While the dynamics of imputed rents has brought about a more equitable distribution of capital incomes across the income distribution, that of actual rents has led to higher concentration of capital incomes at the top in the decade preceding the outbreak of the financial crisis. Finally, we conceptualize a rule of thumb for policy makers seeking to reduce income inequality in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aim to provide an explanation for the combination of the relatively low female participation rates and lowest-low fertility levels in Italy. Starting from the assumption that childbearing decisions also depend on uncertainty about future employment, income, and wealth, we empirically assess how fertility intentions are affected by job instability, which may severely compromise the employment stability of workers, and economic disadvantages in terms of household income and wealth, which may imply insufficient means to deal with potential adverse future events, thereby generating in the household feelings of anxiety and economic insecurity. We show that the instability of women's work status (i.e., the holding of occasional and precarious jobs) significantly discourages the decision to attempt having a first child. Low levels of household wealth significantly and positively influence the decision to postpone attempting a first child. The chances of further childbirth are significantly and negatively influenced by household income insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers using a cross-country microsimulation tax-benefit model for Europe, EUROMOD, to simulate the distribution of replacement rates for six European countries, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK. In particular we show the important role of household composition and the presence of other household members' incomes in preserving the standard of living while out of work compared with the impact of the tax-benefit system. Given this strong influence of primary incomes, replacement rates are not necessarily the best indicator of the impact of the tax-benefit system in this respect. We therefore consider in addition an alternative measure, the participation tax rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In countries with so‐called ‘lowest‐low’ fertility, the lowest fertility levels are seen in the cities. The main reason for this is the difference in the cost of living, combined with income constraints in cities, compared with rural areas. If we focus our attention on the centre of an urban area, migration needs to be taken into account, since migrants may have particularly low fertility levels. In this paper we use the Turin Longitudinal Study, which has data on all people who have ever been residents of Turin (Italy) during the period 1971–2001. We study the interdependencies between fertility and out‐migration choices for a selected group from the 1956 birth cohort. Our findings underline the important role of economic resources and life‐cycle events which seem to guide both fertility and migration behaviours. Moreover, while having a child significantly hampers long‐distance migration, it has less impact on short‐distance moves. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents news relevant to economics. The University of Venice will host a conference on Advances in the Analysis of Economic Dynamic Systems in January 1986. The 1985 Annual Symposium of the College of Europe will focus on "The Community's Development Policy: The Strategic Ahead." The Panel Study of Income Dynamics' Board of Overseers will commission a paper evaluating the dynamic sample design of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The XII International Symposium on Mathematical Programming will be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on August 5-9, 1985.

This study investigated the association between perceived material deprivation, children's behavior problems, and parents' disciplinary practices. The sample included 1,418 8- to 12-year-old children and their parents in China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States. Multilevel mixed- and fixed-effects regression models found that, even when income remained stable, perceived material deprivation was associated with children's externalizing behavior problems and parents' psychological aggression. Parents' disciplinary practices mediated a small share of the association between perceived material deprivation and children's behavior problems. There were no differences in these associations between mothers and fathers or between high- and low- and middle-income countries. These results suggest that material deprivation likely influences children's outcomes at any income level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the developments concerning economic studies. The University of Venice will host a conference entitled "Advances in the Analysis of Economic Dynamic Systems," on January 1986. The board of overseers to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics will commission a paper evaluating the dynamic sample design of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, one of the many large-scale sample surveys that purposely selected its sample cases with known but differing selection probabilities. The 12th International Symposium on Mathematical Programming is scheduled on August 1985 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This article develops a unifying framework for analysing the effects of: (i) the changing distribution of individual incomes by main factor sources, (ii) the increasing participation of wives in the labour force, and (iii) the changing distribution of family types on the distinctive trends towards inequality in equivalent household income in Italy between 1977 and 2004. Changes in the distribution of work and pension incomes explain most of the trend. The higher average likelihood of wage-earning wives had an unequalizing effect on households on the left tail of the income distribution. Little is explained by the changing distribution of family types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article attempts to look for microfoundations that would imply, as a union's optimal choice, wage setting in terms of a unitary labor cost or a net real wage target in Italy. It shows that the parameters identifying the union's technical rate of substitution between the net real wage and employment are linked to the form of the macroeconomic wage equation. It then focuses on the relevance of the income and substitution effects and examine the wage effects of fiscal changes.