Search

The aim of this work is to combine the analysis of social classes in Europe on the basis of the functional distribution of incomes with a gender perspective at household level. Building on a Classical political economy approach, we aim to explore the link between households’ sources of income (rents, profits, wages and State transfers) and income changes during the crisis. Furthermore, we emphasize the role of gender with concern to the amount of income received. The empirical investigation is carried out on the European Union Statistics onIncome and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) database, covering 620,017 households in 27 EU countries for three years (2007, 2010, 2012). Over the period 2007-2012, at household level, incomes have been differently affected by the crisis. Labour incomes have been hit hardest than capital incomes, mostly in GIPSI countries. Men-headed households have benefited from capital growth more thanwomen-headed households, characterized by lower amounts of wages, capitals and State transfers.

Moneta e Credito, V. 68, N. 269 (2015): marzo

We define public administrations (PAs) as productive units, and analyze the recent trends in PAs’ productivity applying Sylos Labini’s productivity function model. At the microeconomic level, we propose a model of government action for the production of public goods. At the macroeconomic level, we underline the relevance of distinguishing the public and the private sectors in growth accounting exercises, and show that both sectors can fruitfully contribute to economic growth. A preliminary application of the model to the estimation of the impact of e-Government processes highlights a significant relationship between e-Government and PAs’ productivity growth in a number of OECD countries. JEL codes: H11, E12, O47, PSL Quarterly Review, V. 66, N. 267 (2013)

The aim of this paper is to offer a contribution to the analysis of the under-representation of women economists in academic positions in Italy, focusing on publications. In Italy women’s proportion of PhDs in Economics and Statistics has increased from 39 to 52 per cent in the last decade. Despite this progressive feminization of doctoral degrees in economics, the share of women working as academic staff in departments of Economics at Italian universities is still low: women constitute 28.1% of academic economists in Italy; in particular, women account for 16% of full professors and 27% of associate professors (data for 2010). The much-debated reform of the Italian university system (so called ‘Gelmini’ reform) is stressing the importance of ‘merit evaluation’ for academics and consequently it is supporting the use of bibliometric indicators for the purposes of selection. In this context, we aim to assess whether the systematic differences between Italian men and women in terms of academic career in economics, can be explained by their productivity in the last ten years. In order to do so, we first study, from a gender perspective, how the profile of economists who have become full professors in the last decade has changed in terms of individual characteristics and scientific productivity. Then, we study gender differences in the scientific output of academic economists since 2001, in order to find out about differences between men and women and completethe picture of the gender gap in career for economists in the Italian University., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

While we do not mean to imply that there are insurmountable or even clear distinctions between the social sciences, we claim that economists can still provide an original analysis of class, which should be regarded as complementary to those developed by sociologists. Following the tradition of British Classical economists, by a ‘economic approach’ we mean here the study of the production and distribution of income, that is of the conditions of societal survival and reproduction over time. From this perspective, a good deal of feminist literature has already shown the relevance of gender relations both at home and in the market.Thus, the aim of this work is to reopen the debate among economists (beyond the specific schools that already do) on the expediency of some form of joint class and gender analysis. We restrict the attention to the objective relations of production and distribution of income that is we abstract from individuals’ own understanding and representation of classes, or their identification within the class structure. Employing the EU-SILC database, we develop an example and tentative empirical application of our approach to the recent trends in the European Union. Amongour preliminary conclusions are the observations that the “99% vs. 1%” debate seriously risks misleading a well-founded class analysis, that within the household redistribution may matter more than usually expected, and that the on-going economic crisis is producing a loss of income mainly concentrated in the working class, though with some reduction of within-class inequality., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

It is in the direction of assessing how the crisis should be placed in the context of the relationship between civil development and economic development, which the author has enjoyed some of the ideas from the book edited by Ramazzotti et al., and in this article, it takes up the steps. È nella direzione di valutare come le crisi vadano collocate nelcontesto della relazione tra sviluppo civile e sviluppo economico, che l'autore ha apprezzato alcuni degli spunti provenienti dal volume curato daRamazzotti et al., e in questo articolo, ne riprende dei passaggi. JEL Codes: E0, Moneta e Credito, V. 66, N. 261 (2013)

Recent economic literature on poverty may be broadly divided into two strands. One strand investigates the multidimensional nature of poverty. The other strand, employing the large availability of household surveys, investigates the micro and macro determinants of monetary poverty, analyzing the role played by individual and household characteristics and macro socio-economic factors. In this framework, a gender approach has often been limited to the analysis of the coefficient “woman” in standard regression analyses of the determinants of poverty. By contrast, feminist research has consistently stressed the importance of a more holistic conceptual and empirical approach to encapsulate gender deprivation. This paper aims at building a bridge between the two mentioned streams, by analyzing the gendered nature of multidimensional of poverty. Although gender mainstreaming is specified in the European Union policy framework as a key element of active inclusion policies, this approach to policy design and monitoring is still underdeveloped., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Active ageing strategies have so far strongly focussed on increasing senior workers employment rates through pension reforms to develop incentives to retire later on the one hand, and labour market policies on the other hand. Most measures are based on the dominant male trajectory of work and retirement and they are not explicitly gender mainstreamed. By contrast, a gender approach would prove fundamental to the labour market inclusion of elderly people, because in old age women suffer from the accumulated impact of the barriers to employment they encountered during their lifetime (e.g. repeated career breaks, part-time work, low pay and gender pay gap). Moreover, it appears that some pension reforms, by mandating a higher postponement of retirement and by establishing tighter links between formal employment and pension benefits may negatively affect the already high risk of poverty for elderly women. Active ageing strategies have so far strongly focussed on increasing senior workers employment rates through pension reforms to develop incentives to retire later on the one hand, and labour market policies on the other hand. Most measures are based on the dominant male trajectory of work and retirement and they are not explicitly gender mainstreamed. By contrast, a gender approach would prove fundamental to the labour market inclusion of elderly people, because in old age women suffer from the accumulated impact of the barriers to employment they encountered during their lifetime (e.g. repeated career breaks, part-time work, low pay and gender pay gap). Moreover, it appears that some pension reforms, by mandating a higher postponement of retirement and by establishing tighter links between formal employment and pension benefits may negatively affect the already high risk of poverty for elderly women., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The Italian case can be considered as an internationally relevant example to suggest a critical reflection on the evaluation criteria adopted in research assessment exercises, pointing at the need of clear and shared guidelines based on transparency and accountability and aiming at preserving (or even encouraging) the pluralism of ideas. Our findings support the view that if research institutions are encouraged to engage only in those lines of research that are likely to receive the highest rating according to the adopted evaluation criteria, a convergence process is to be expected within Economics, resulting in a disregard of heterodox schools and historical methods in favour of mainstream approaches and quantitative methods. In our view, a proper fine-tuning of the assessment methodology is needed, before subsequent rankings can be used as a guide for the allocation of public financing among research institutions. In the case of Economics, this means overcoming the limits of commonly adopted peer review approaches, through the development of proper evaluation designs and the integration of qualitative appraisals with quantitative indicators. In order to preserve pluralism and originality of research, we propose a simple quantitative index based on field-normalization., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

By considering the case of Italy we show that despite much rhetoric and expectations about the fact that women have gradually overcome men in terms of educational attainments, they still lack behind in terms of the main skills and competencies that can profitably be used in the market. On the one hand, women lack both general and specific knowledge related to the labour market, on the other hand the skills and competencies they acquire by carrying on unpaid work do not seem to be positively valued by the market. However, women also appear to exhibit higher returns to knowledge, both in terms of returns to education and of returns to work-related knowledge. Women’s employment is more determined by the joint impact of care burdens and knowledge-determined opportunities, and their wages are more significantly affected by our indicators of knowledge. More than for men, while specialisation improves “insider” women’s wages, it reduces “outsider” women’s ability to obtain a job., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

We analyse Italy’s research evaluation exercise to discuss the issue of evaluating re-search in economics. We claim that evaluation and its criteria, together with its linkage to research institutions’ financing, are likely to affect the direction of research, in a problematic way. We claim that the ranking criteria adopted in Italy bring to a risk of disregarding histori-cal methods in favour of quantitative and econometric methods, and heterodox schools in favour of mainstream approaches. In order to preserve pluralism and originality of research, we propose a simple quantita-tive index based on field-normalisation., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The aim of this paper is to sum up the main issues at stake in the European Union, concerning gender equality in social inclusion and social protection policies. As is well known “Equality between women and men” is one of the founding principles of the Treaty of the European Union. However, despite progress made over past decades, gender inequalities are still persistent in a number of spheres. Poverty is increasingly feminised and especially affects single mothers and elderly women. Gender inequalities, however, are also persistent among other groups facing social exclusion, for example immigrants, ethnic minorities and the disabled. This means that there are differences in the causes, extent, and form of social exclusion experienced by women and men. The paper, introduced by an overview of primary gender gaps, focuses on specific issues in the three policy areas where the promotion of gender equality would be particularly important: social inclusion, pensions, health and long-term care. Special attention is devoted to empowerment policies, integrating several welfare domains and distinctive approaches., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

In his “Le prospettive dell’economia mondiale” (“Prospects for the world economy”) of 2003 Paolo Sylos Labini analyses the real and financial factors of the American economy and expresses pessimistic forebodings on the future economic trends in the USA and other parts of the world which, in the light of the events occurring as from 2007, can now be seen to have been justified. The aim of this paper is to provide his ideas with a place in the present debate on the American financial crisis and, to this end, the paper is divided into three parts. To begin with we will delineate the approach taken by Paolo Sylos Labini in examining the links between the financial system and economic system, highlighting the classical, Schumpeterian and Keynesian elements contained in it. We will then turn the focus on the four key elements of financial crisis according to Sylos: income distribution, innovation, market forms and debt sustainability. Finally, we will recall some considerations by Sylos on the three themes central to the present debate on the American crisis, namely the rate of interest in monetary policy, the role of the managers, and expectations.

This article aims at illustrating a theoretical approach to the analysis of the dynamics of productivity in the public sector, and at presenting a preliminary application of it to the estimation of the impact on productivity of the recent development of e-Government processes in a number of OECD countries. Our analysis serves a twofold purpose: at the microeconomic level, we set out to provide individual public administrations (PAs) with an instrument to evaluate the benefits, in terms of output, of alternative projects, particularly through a more efficient organisation of the relevant information. At the macroeconomic level, the aim is to highlight a significant relationship between e-Government and economic growth, as an indicator of social wellbeing.