Assessing the effect of the amount of financial aids to Piedmont firms using the generalized propensity score

Regional and national development policies play an important role to support local enterprises in Italy. The amount of financial aid may be a key feature for firms’ employment policies. We study the impact on employment of the amount of financial aid attributed to enterprises located in Piedmont, a region in northern Italy, analysing small-sized firms and medium- or large-sized firms separately. We apply generalized propensity score methods under the unconfoundedness assumption that adjusting for differences in a set of observed pre-treatment variables removes all biases in comparisons by different amounts of financial aid. We find that the estimated effects are increasing with amount of financial aid for both small-sized and medium- or large-sized firms, whereas the marginal effects of additional incentives are decreasing with amount of financial aid for small-sized firms, and have an inverse J-shape for medium- or large-sized firms.     

Restricted likelihood inference for generalized linear mixed models

We aim to promote the use of the modified profile likelihood function for estimating the variance parameters of a GLMM in analogy to the REML criterion for linear mixed models. Our approach is based on both quasi-Monte Carlo integration and numerical quadrature, obtaining in either case simulation-free inferential results. We will illustrate our idea by applying it to regression models with binary responses or count data and independent clusters, covering also the case of two-part models. Two real data examples and three simulation studies support the use of the proposed solution as a natural extension of REML for GLMMs. An R package implementing the methodology is available online.     

The heterogeneous effects of COVID-19 on labor market flows: evidence from administrative data

The Journal of Economic Inequality - We investigate the short-term effects of COVID-19 on labor market flows and how they are mediated by labor market policy. Using Italian administrative data on a...     

So Close,So Far. The Cultural Distance of Foreigners in Italy

Social Indicators Research - The presence of foreigners in a host country is a contentious issue: opponents claim, among other things, that the cultural distance between them and natives is too...     

A qualitative viewpoint on the Southern eurozone highly skilled labour mobility in the metropolitan area of Copenhagen in times of crisis and austerity

The paper explores patterns of skilled labour mobility from the Southern eurozone to the metropolitan area of Copenhagen by means of a qualitative micro-study. The key hypothesis is that in/outflows may not only be a consequence of the present economic crisis but may also rely on the deep-rooted, democratic-socio-cultural aspects or dissimilar policy choices of sending/hosting countries. These same aspects are expected to influence return/circular migration. In contrast to mainstream theories of international migration, this viewpoint is supported by findings which illustrate how non-economic factors can be also crucial and why enhancing beneficial return/circular migration in the Southern eurozone can be incompatible with the application of austerity.     

Quality Assessment of the Oncology Health Service in a Public Hospital

Quality assessment is a crucial issue in the strategic management of the public health sector. The objective of this study is to investigate the patients’ perception of the health system quality and explore the relationships between doctors and long-term cancer patients. The data under study have been collected during a survey conducted with long-term cancer patients who follow an oncological therapy in a Public Hospital. In the study, exploratory factorial analysis is developed and two structural equation models are proposed. The first model describes the service quality as perceived by the patients, which is influenced by four important factors, namely tangible aspects, reliability, empathy (doctor–patient human relations) and hospital organization. The second model describes the relationship between doctors and long-term cancer patients, which is influenced by three factors, that is reliability, empathy and hospital organization. The discussion highlights the contribution that the results of the study may make to the investigation of the possible strategies for improving health care service quality.

     

Increasingly heterogeneous ages at first birth by education in Southern European and Anglo-American family-policy regimes: A seven-country comparison by birth cohort

According to the 'reproductive polarization' hypothesis, family-policy regimes unfavourable to the combination of employment with motherhood generate greater socio-economic differentials in fertility than other regimes. This hypothesis has been tested mainly for 'liberal' Anglo-American regimes. To investigate the effects elsewhere, we compared education differentials in age at first birth among native-born women of 1950s and 1960s birth cohorts in seven countries representing three regime types. Women with low educational attainment have continued to have first births early, not only in Britain and the USA but also in Greece, Italy, and Spain. Women at all other levels of education have experienced a shift towards later first births, a shift that has been largest in Southern Europe. Unlike the educationally heterogeneous changes in age pattern at first birth seen under the Southern European and Anglo-American family-policy regimes, the changes across birth cohorts in the study's two 'universalistic' countries, Norway and France, have been educationally homogeneous.     

Elderly-technology interaction: accessibility and acceptability of technological devices promoting motor and cognitive training

As the world population is ageing, studies on the socio-economic and health consequences are proliferating. Little has been done on the effectiveness and impact elderly may benefit from the use of technology in their everyday life. The pilot study, implemented within a funded project aimed at identifying sustainable actions to promote Seniors' quality of life, intended to investigate this kind of interaction in terms of accessibility and acceptability that senior citizen experience with technological devices promoting motor and cognitive training. In the hypothesis, interfaces and technological artifacts, that still take in little account the seniors' physical characteristics (e.g. physiological limitations in sight, hearing, movement) and cognitive processes (selective memory often driven by practical needs), can cause elderly to mistrust technology. Study participants were twenty over seventy-year-old people, who were observed and interviewed in context in a two-hour training session regarding the technological devices user experience. The results are presented with scenario-based techniques that help represent typologies of users in different use situations. Findings confirm the hypothesis, highlighting that elderly may accept technological artifacts when they perceive them as bringing benefits in terms of well-being and health.     

Objectified conformity: working self-objectification increases conforming behavior*

The present work explores whether self-objectification triggered by doing peculiar work activities would increase people’s conforming behavior. We conducted an experimental study in which participants (N = 140) were asked to perform a high objectifying activity (vs. low objectifying activity vs. baseline condition) simulating a real computer job. Afterwards, their levels of self-objectification and conforming behavior were assessed. Results revealed that participants who performed the high objectifying activity self-objectified (i.e., perceived themselves as lacking human mental states) more than the other conditions and, in turn, conformed more to the judgments of unknown similar others. Crucially, increased self-objectification mediated the effects of the high objectifying activity on enhancing conforming behavior. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.     

Education and the Transition to Fatherhood: The Role of Selection Into Union

Although advanced education has been found to be consistently associated with a later transition to parenthood for women, findings about education and the transition to parenthood have been much less consistent for men, and no stylized fact has emerged from the literature. We argue that the inconsistency of findings for men is due to the fact that the selection process involved in union formation has been disregarded in earlier studies. We hypothesize that men’s educational attainment consistently and positively affects the transition to fatherhood via higher rates of union formation. We apply multiprocess event-history analysis to data from the Generations and Gender Surveys for 10 European countries. Our results show indeed a consistent positive effect of education on the transition to fatherhood, but it operates chiefly through selection into union. Failing to account for this selection process leads to a major underestimation of the salience of education for the transition to fatherhood.