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Finora, la mancanza di dati coerenti e affidabili sulla microfinanza in Europa ha impedito di condurre un'analisi completa delle prestazioni degli istituti di microfinanza (IFM), in particolare la loro capacità di soddisfare le aspettative politiche in termini di obiettivi sociali e sostenibilità finanziaria a lungo termine. Abbiamo costruito un set di dati longitudinale originale di 357 IFM europee osservate tra il 2006 e il 2015, sulla base di dati grezzi provenienti dall'indagine generale della rete europea di microfinanza (EMN). Utilizziamo questi dati per effettuare la prima analisi approfondita delle tendenze della microfinanza europea e l'interazione tra prestazioni sociali e finanziarie nel periodo 2006-2013. Emerge che la microfinanza in Europa è un'industria altamente segmentata ed eterogenea, sia in termini di caratteristiche istituzionali dei fornitori che di modelli di business regionali. So far, the lack of consistent and reliable data on microfinance in Europe prevented the conduct a comprehensive analysis of the performance of Microfinance institutions (MFIs), especially their capacity to meet policy expectation in terms of social objectives and financial sustainability in the long term. We constructed an original longitudinal dataset of 357 European MFIs observed between 2006 and 2015, based on raw data from the European Microfinance Network (EMN) overview survey. We use this data to carry out the first in-depth analysis of trends in European microfinance and the interaction between social and financial performance during the period 2006-2013. It emerges that microfinance in Europe is a highly segmented and heterogeneous industry, both in terms of providers’ institutional characteristics and regional business models. JEL codes: G21, A13, Moneta e Credito, V. 70, N. 278 (2017): giugno

This study attempts to empirically investigate the determinants of the supply side of sex work beyond the dichotomy between coerced and freewill participation. It does so by focusing on a very stigmatized and discriminated-against population: transsexual and transgender people. We collected original data on trans people through nonrandom sampling within a study aimed at assessing gender-identity discrimination in Italy. A multivariate analysis of the determinants of falling into sex work confirms that within the trans population, “pull” factors – specifically, prospective income – positively affect the decision to supply sex services. Even more relevant are “push” factors, such as low employability and past experiences of discrimination. The resulting sex-work trap calls for policy initiatives to enhance the employability of marginalized individuals as well as an effective fight against stigma and discrimination in the labor market.

Some recent papers have studied data from TV game shows to examine the behaviour of individuals towards risk. It is generally agreed that data from these shows are useful in detecting individual risk aversion in the field, with both “real life” subjects and incentives. Field experiments also include some interesting reality features that could affect individuals’ behaviour and possibly lead to different findings. This paper aims at investigating lab versus field evidence in risk taking attitudes, especially controlling for framing effects. To assess whether the behaviour of subjects in the field is consistent with that of experimental subjects, we designed an experiment to mimic (with experimental rewards and subjects) the rules of a well-known Italian TV game show, Affari Tuoi, in two different settings: a traditional lab setting, where the game was played individually (109 subjects) (Treatment 1); and a framed lab, in which the experiment was replicated in the Italian public television (RAI) studio where the show was actually recorded, with a smaller sample of undergraduate students (33) and in the presence of an audience (Treatment 2). Our comparison between the two different settings aims at establishing whether the presence of an audience, or of a situation that reproduces the stress that contestants must experience in the TV studio, can affect experimental subjects’ choices. We did not find any significant evidence of framing effects: students behave in a similar way in the two lab settings, responding essentially to incentives. Comparing the risk attitudes shown by experimental subjects in the two lab treatments with those exhibited by the contestants in the field, we found that contestants in the TV show are generally more risk averse than students in the lab.

Due to the adoption of the household as a unit of analysis, researchers have failed to identify accurate measures of women's income poverty. This study proposes an individualized measure of European poverty to highlight gender differences in the economic crisis. Employing data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) for the period 2007–12, it compares the household-based at-risk-of-poverty rate (ARPR) and the individualized financial dependency rate (FDR). The study shows that the gender gap in poverty in Europe is considerably higher when computed through FDR. Indeed, since the ARPR constitutes a proxy of the household's average conditions, it levels down gender inequalities within the household and also variations in individuals’ incomes over time. Only more detailed data collection on intrahousehold resource sharing will possibly allow the development of more precise and realistic indicators of women's and men's risks of poverty and financial dependency.

Italian Abstract: Analizziamo il ruolo dello Stato negli investimenti sociali (istruzione, servizi sanitari, ecc.), diversi da quelli delle infrastrutture. Lo facciamo perche, nell'attuale situazione economica e sociale, questo tipo di investimento, oltre a rafforzare il modello sociale europeo, potrebbe essere particolarmente efficace nella creazione di nuovi posti di lavoro. Per testare il legame tra investimento sociale e occupazione modifichiamo il modello dell'equazione occupazionale di Paolo Sylos Labini (MOSYL), inserendo nel modello l'investimento sociale anziche quelli nelle infrastrutture. L'implementazione quantitativa si basa sui dati Eurostat per i 28 paesi dell'UE, ei risultati sono incoraggianti: il tasso di occupazione e fortemente influenzato da fattori esterni al mercato del lavoro, che influenzano non solo il contesto economico generale (rappresentato dal PIL), ma anche da elementi legati al contesto sociale, riguardanti le nuove forme di benessere. Testo del discorso tenuto alla conferenza "Paolo Sylos Labini e la politica delle riforme", tenutasi all'Universita La Sapienza di Roma il 4 dicembre 2015, organizzata dall'Accademia dei Lincei con Economia Civile. English Abstract: We analyze the role of the State in social investment (education, health services, etc.), different from those in infrastructures. We do so because, in the current economic and social situation, this type of investment, in addition to strengthening the European social model, could be particularly effective in creating new jobs. To test the link between social investment and employment we modify the Paolo Sylos Labini’s employment equation model (MOSYL), inserting in the model social investment instead of those in infrastructures. The quantitative implementation is based on Eurostat data for the 28 EU countries, and the results are encouraging: the employment rate is strongly influenced by factors outside the labor market, which affect not only the general economic environment (represented by GDP), but also by elements linked to the social context, concerning the new forms of welfare. Text of the speech given at the conference "Paolo Sylos Labini e la politica delle riforme", held at Sapienza University of Rome on 04 December 2015, organized by the Accademia dei Lincei with Economia Civile.

The role and extent of sexual orientation discrimination is the focus of a growing body of literature in economics and in other social sciences, across a wide range of social domains. This work aims at providing a holistic approach to the assessment of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people's life experience by developing a synthetic index of social inclusion. This is obtained by aggregating several variables pertaining to the following domains: monetary poverty, labour market attachment, housing conditions, subjective well-being, and education. We focus on the case of Italy due to the availability of a peculiar dataset that allows us to distinguish LGB people who are open about their sexuality and those who choose not to declare it. The empirical analysis highlights a lower level of inclusion of individuals in same-sex couples that cannot be explained by other observable characteristics. Thus, it may denote a lack of equal opportunities and a need for adequate inclusion policies. Being publicly open about one's sexuality is found as a crucial correlate of the welfare of LGB people, to an extent so far neglected by the literature.

Economic and social implications of the access to financial services both in developed and in developing countries have increasingly promoted the debate around the issue of considering “financial inclusion” as a public good, according to potential positive externalities associated to greater financial participation. If the role of financial inclusion as a public good, and the enhanced efficiency of public policy following a greater participation in the financial markets are established in an abstract way, a numerical estimate of the potential costs of incomplete participation in the financial system is still not explicitly addressed in the literature. The study designs a simplified approach for the calculation of the cost of financial exclusion through the identification of a general functional form representing the cost of incomplete participation encountered by financial actors or by the public policy aimed at alleviating financial exclusion. Such a cost is estimated parametrically according to alternative subgroups of financial institutions with different levels of depth of outreach corresponding to distinct orientation toward individuals excluded from the mainstream financial sector. Calculations show the role of financial exclusion in generating inefficiencies that raise the cost of accessing to financial transactions for all the participating individuals, or, in a policy perspective, the cost to tackle incomplete participation.

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.

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.

Microfinance promise to serve low-income or disadvantaged beneficiaries excluded from the formal banking sector in a financially sustainable way (thus to achieve the so called “double bottom line” of financial and social performance) built excitement around the development of a global industry. However, for a long time an anti-subsidy position embedded in the international key donor community have shown little concern of social performance data and information on beneficiaries profiles in terms of various dimension of social and financial exclusion. Until recently, most of the emphasis of microfinance advocates has been devoted to MFIs financial performance following the “win-win” proposition, according to which financial viability should be sufficient to show social impact, a view that is supported by a controversial evidence and is based on a selective understanding of conceptual facts. Nevertheless, several initiatives recently translated into the Social Performance Task Force (SPTF) attempt to explore social aspects of microfinance providing a new definition of social performance more focused on the whole process leading to a social impact. Aim of this paper is to measure European MFIs social performance according to a core set of common indicators developed by the SPTF but using data collected in 2010 by the European Microfinance Network (EMN) on a sample of 170 microfinance actors operating in 21 countries out of 27 European Union (EU) member countries, current EU candidate countries and countries belonging to the European Free Trade Area (EFTA). The reference framework followed in the current social performance analysis examines the whole process of translating MFIs mission into social impact and includes the analysis of three connected dimensions of the social performance process corresponding to different set of indicators: the intent of the MFI, the effectiveness of the internal system and activities in achieving its targets, MFI outputs and eventually its capacity to positively affect clients life and achieve social goals., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Demographic ageing and its social and economic implications have increasingly become a key policy issue at both national and international level over the past 20 years. Despite an early emphasis on mature workers employability, there is a growing awareness about the multidimensional nature of the active ageing issue. In order to thoroughly examine the effectiveness of active ageing policies in Italy, we have identified five different dimensions corresponding to the main policy sphere of intervention (employability, lifelong learning, active citizenship, health and quality of life, and transportation/mobility) and designed an ad hoc integrated evaluation methodology. In the framework of a research project carried out by Fondazione G. Brodolini, the identified integrated methodological approach has been applied to three regional cases: Campania, Liguria and Marche. Main results point to the absence of a comprehensive strategy for ageing people and a fragmentation of policy interventions, a lack of an explicit targeting to over 45 workers and a prevailing focus on non self-sufficient elderly people.

This paper aims to analyse Italian MFIs social performance according to the core set of common indicators and framework developed by the Social Performance Task Force using data collected by Fondazione Giordano Dell’Amore and Fondazione Risorsa Donna in 2008 for the European Microfinance Network (EMN) Survey 2006-2007. Key features and client profiles of Italian leading MFIs are also identified with respect to their social performance indicators. The methodology adopted in the current social performance analysis follows the reference framework specified in Social Performance Standard Reports. It examines the whole process of translating MFIs mission into social impact and includes the analysis of several connected dimensions of the social performance pathway corresponding to areas covered by the indicators: the intent of the MFI, the effectiveness of the internal system and activities in achieving its targets, MFI outputs and eventually its capacity to positively affect clients life and achieve social goals., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Data on contestantsÕ choices in Italian Game Show Affari Tuoi are analysed in a way that separates the effect of risk attitude from that of beliefs concerning the amount of money that will be offered to contestants in future rounds. The importance of belief-formation is confirmed by the estimation of a mixture model which establishes that the vast majority of contestants are forward-looking as opposed to myopic. The most important issue addressed in the paper is what belief function is actually being used by contestants. This function is estimated in an unconstrained way as a component of the choice model, which is estimated using maximum simulated likelihood. Separate identification of the belief function and preferences is possible by virtue of the fact that at a certain stage of the game, beliefs are not relevant, and risk attitude is the sole determinant of choice. The rational expectations hypothesis is tested by comparing the estimated belief function with the ÒtrueÓ offer function which is estimated using data on offers actually made to contestants. We find that there is a significant difference between these two functions, and hence we reject the rational expectations hypothesis. However, when a simpler Òrule-of-thumbÓ structure is assumed for the belief function, we find a correspondence to the function obtained from data on actual offers. Our overall conclusion is that contestants are rational to the extent that they make use of all available relevant information, but are not fully rational because they are not processing the information in an optimal way. The importance of allowing the choice data to convey the belief function without prejudice is emphasised.

Marcella Corsi and her co-workers analyze the social and economic impact that microfinance programmes have on participant's lives, particularly on women in the Mediterranean countries. They identify the changes of the women who took part in the microcredit programme. They examine the consumption levels, savings, housing conditions and investigate using an index of the changes whether the microcredit programme did indeed bring about women empowerment. Development (2006) 49, 67–74. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100247

Lo studio teorico ed empirico delle determinanti delle scelte individuali in condizione di incertezza uno dei temi pi affascinanti e pi irrisolti in economia e le sue implicazioni sono assai rilevanti in quanto riguardano la maggioranza delle nostre decisioni. Assai numerose sono nella realtˆ le violazioni degli assiomi della teoria dellÕutilitˆ attesa e numerosi sono i tentativi a livello teorico di formulare una pi generale teoria dellÕincertezza che le includa. Le verifiche sperimentali offrono un valido supporto al tentativo di individuare il modello teorico pi adatto a descrivere ed interpretare il comportamento effettivo degli individui, il loro grado di avversione al rischio, le eventuali differenze di genere o gli effetti di apprendimento in contesti statici e dinamici, in presenza di scelte rischiose. Gli esperimenti creano in effetti il contesto ceteris paribus che permette agli studiosi di controllare se le suddette violazioni sono connesse alle complicazioni di calcolo, di valutazione e di contesto che caratterizzano il mondo reale o se invece vanno imputate a processi decisionali diversi da quelli tradizionalmente ipotizzati dalla teoria. Una delle maggiori critiche che sono state sollevate riguardo alla capacitˆ del metodo sperimentale di offrire indicazioni per lÕanalisi teorica, ed ai risultati con esso ottenuti, che anche se gli esperimenti creano contesti decisionali reali in un ambiente controllato, e quindi non influenzato da altri elementi non attinenti al processo decisionale oggetto di indagine, essi utilizzano incentivi inadeguati rispetto a quelli cui si riferiscono analoghe scelte nella realtˆ e pertanto sono percepiti dai soggetti partecipanti come artificiali. Ci˜ inficia senza dubbio la portata euristica che da tali indagini deriva. EÕ per ovviare a questo limite che negli ultimi anni gli sperimentalisti hanno dedicato sempre maggiore attenzione allÕanalisi dei risultati derivanti dai cosiddetti esperimenti ÒnaturaliÓ. Tali esperimenti infatti creano nella realtˆ situazioni ÒvicineÓ, anche se non controllate e replicabili come quelle sperimentali, a quelle considerate dalla teoria ma, a differenza di esse, caratterizzate da incentivi realistici. I giochi televisivi rientrano appunto in questÕultima categoria in quanto offrono ai concorrenti che vi partecipano la possibilitˆ di incorrere in vincite anche molto sostanziose che rappresentano un valido incentivo allÕeffettuazione di scelte ottimizzanti. Inoltre i giochi televisivi sono strutturati in modo tale che i concorrenti fronteggiano ben definiti problemi decisionali spesso presentati in forma di giochi strategici. Essi possono dunque contribuire allÕinterpretazione teorica dei processi di scelta che stigmatizzano. Negli Stati Uniti esiste ormai una vasta e consolidata letteratura che analizza le informazioni derivanti dai giochi televisivi (i cui format sono spesso utilizzati anche nel nostro Paese, si pensi per esempio ad OK il prezzo giusto, LÕanello debole, ecc.) per studiare lÕattitudine al rischio, il comportamento collusivo, le strategie individuali e di gruppo. LÕanalisi che segue nasce da tutte queste suggestioni e si propone di offrire un esempio di quanto questo tipo di approccio possa essere utile per meglio comprendere il comportamento individuale in contesti rischiosi statici, sequenziali e di interazione strategica. In essa sono riportati i risultati ottenuti utilizzando la banca dati costruita sulla trasmissione televisiva ÒAffari tuoiÓ condotta in Italia per circa un anno e mezzo da Paolo Bonolis e trasmessa da RAI UNO. I risultati ottenuti mediante lÕelaborazione statistica ed econometrica di tale banca dati sono interessanti e di stimolo non solo da un punto di vista strettamente teorico, ma anche metodologico ed evidenziano il contributo che tale tipo di approccio pu˜ offrire a tutti coloro che studiano con occhio curioso la realtˆ.