Statistics and the Single Market

Abstract. At the end of 1992customs barriers will fall and the European Internal Market will be realized, as envisaged by the Single European Act signed in 1986 by the EEC's member countries. Statistical Offices are preparing to meet the new information requirements from all the economic and social forces of the new Europe. EUROSTAT planned a politically endorsed statistical programme and established the European Statistical Planning Committee, enlarging the tasks of the Conference of the Heads of National Statistical Institutes. Each National Statistical Institute is urgently required to improve the comparability of statistics and implement the harmonised projects of the European Statistical Programme. Official statistics will conform to the new requirements in order to supply the business world, national governments, the EEC authorities and public opinion with up-to-date information to face a wider, more open and competitive market. The business world will focus its attention on information on the flows by sectors and very small areas. Statistics on intra-community foreign trades will shift from customs bills to new tools more directly assigned to national statistical bodies. National governments and EEC countries will need more information on population behaviour as to employment, consumptions, use of leisure time, fruition of public facilities, and social security, as well as more precise estimates of GDP, now the basic contribution to EEC budget. Citizens and public opinion will ask for timely information on migrations, social mobility, income distribution. Demographic projections show the European population is progressively ageing, unemployment is bound to decrease and women are going to be more present within society and the labour market. Information on the home care of elderly people. health, environment, crime prevention and the status of women in general will have to be supplied. Presently Statistics Offices have greater experience in two essential domains: conceptual frameworks and the techniques for conceptual statistical representation of the investigated events. Moreover, the improving of computer technology will provide substantial help to survey methodologies and data processing.     

Social Confidence in Unions: A U.S.‐Canada Comparison

Cet article examine l’évolution des niveaux de confiance sociale envers les organisations syndicales au Canada et aux États‐Unis entre 1982 et 2006 en s'appuyant sur les données de la World Value Survey (WVS). Partant du constat que ces taux de confiance sont relativement similaires au sein de ces deux pays, nous appliquons un modèle de régression logistique sur les deux vagues de données les plus récentes du WVS (soit celle de 2000 et 2006) afin de mieux comprendre la propension des individus à faire confiance aux syndicats dans chaque contexte national en fonction de certaines de leurs caractéristiques sociales et politiques. Les résultats montrent des similitudes entre les deux pays (par exemple, les citoyens les plus progressistes et les plus jeunes ont généralement une plus grande confiance envers les syndicats), mais également des distinctions importantes (à titre d'exemple, seul au Canada les individus répondant à un profil de “classe ouvrière” manifestent une plus grande confiance envers les syndicats). This article examines changes in levels of social confidence in unions in Canada and the United States between 1982 and 2006 based on an analysis of the World Value Survey (WVS) data set. It considers why confidence rates are similar in the two countries, applying a logistic regression model to the two most recent WVS waves (i.e., 2000 and 2006) so as to bring out the effects of political and social differences on the propensity of individuals to trust unions in each national context. The results show similarities between the two countries (e.g., more progressive and younger citizens generally have greater confidence in unions), but also important distinctions (e.g., only in Canada do individuals with a working class profile appear to have greater confidence in unions).     

EVALUATING PENSION PORTABILITY REFORMS: THE TAX REFORM ACT OF 1986 AS A NATURAL EXPERIMENT ABSTRACT

This article exploits a change in the vesting rules for employer‐sponsored pension plans introduced by the Tax Reform Act of 1986 to identify the causal effect of pension portability legislation on workers' voluntary mobility decisions. We pool data from different years of the Survey of Income and Program Participation to estimate the impact of this reform using difference‐in‐differences methods. Our results suggest that the reform had a positive and significant impact on voluntary job mobility of the treatment group. (JEL J24, J44, J62, J63, J68)     

Nash Bargaining Theory,Nonconvex Problems and Social Welfare Orderings

In this paper we deal with the extension of Nash bargaining theory to nonconvex problems. By focussing on the Social Welfare Ordering associated with a bargaining solution, we characterize the symmetric Nash Bargaining Solution (NBS). Moreover, we obtain a unified method of proof of recent characterization results for the asymmetric single-valued NBS and the symmetric multivalued NBS, as well as their extensions to different domains.     

Aversion to inequality in Italy and its determinants

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 societys 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.     

The effectiveness of remedial courses in Italy: a fuzzy regression discontinuity design

Skills are important for many social and economic outcomes. Whereas interventions during childhood are considered crucial to increase the skills of disadvantaged individuals, in this paper, we try to understand whether interventions which take place later in life can also be effective. With this aim, we evaluate the effects on student achievement of a number of remedial courses provided by an Italian university. We use a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to identify the causal effect of remedial courses relying on the fact that students were assigned to the treatment if their performance in a placement test was below a certain cutoff point. We deal with partial compliance by using the assignment rule as an instrumental variable for the effective attendance to remedial courses. From our analysis, it emerges that students attending the remedial courses whose results were just below the cutoff point acquire a higher number of credits than students whose results were just above the cutoff. We also find that remedial courses reduce the probability of dropping out from an academic career.     

EXPERT OPINION AND PRODUCT QUALITY: EVIDENCE FROM NEW YORK CITY RESTAURANTS

We analyze whether consumers' quality perception and/or producer investment of New York City restaurants, measured by Zagat scores, responds to newly appearing expert opinion, measured by Michelin scores. Answering this question is of general economic interest as it applies to all markets with information asymmetries. Employing a difference‐in‐differences approach as well as a propensity score matching approach we find significant Michelin treatment effects on food and décor quality. Based on these changes, we find a Michelin‐induced price increase of approximately 30% per Michelin star. To examine whether the improved food and nonfood quality is based on restaurant investments or is merely imagined, we analyze nonfood investments by referring to Wine Spectator wine list awards. Our analysis suggests that Michelin‐reviewed restaurants are significantly more likely to invest in their wine list than others. As a result, Michelin reviewed restaurants are more likely to improve food and nonfood (esp. décor) quality leading to significant price increases. However, while restaurants that increase prices only due to décor and service improvements are more likely to go out of business, food improvements appear to secure a restaurant's survival. (JEL D11, L15, L66)     

Cooperation among competitors as status-seeking behavior: Network ties and status differentiation

Status-based affiliation represents a valuable resource in economic exchange. However, affiliation strategies introduce a status ordering paradox: whereas higher status actors seek to maintain status hierarchies, lower status actors strive to affiliate with more prestigious actors. In this paper, using original data on the network of social and professional ties among 72 hotel managers clustered in an Italian hotel district, we develop a theory of status-seeking behavior that involves the exchange of status for valued resources.