Ownership and control in local public utilities: the Italian case

The paper discusses the ownership and control structures of local public utilities by showing evidence from the Italian case. In this discussion, the focus is on three main aspects: the ownership structure, the board composition and independence, and citizens’ involvement (service charters). The main results from this study reveal that there are controversial aspects, which need further investigation. The existence of a principal–principal conflict is clearly arising from an in-depth analysis of the ownership structures. In addition, the board of directors, because of the lack of actual independence, does not seem to be a useful arena to manage and solve these conflicts. Other governance mechanisms are thus needed, to increase accountability to citizens. Within this, service charters seem to be a useful tool to protect the “public interest”. However, service charters content analysis suggests that further implementation actions are due. The paper contributes to the debate on conflicts of interests and governance mechanisms in local public utilities suggesting possible developments of agency theory and discussing implications for further research.     

Motherhood,labor force behavior,and women’s careers: An empirical assessment of the wage penalty for motherhood in britain,germany, and the united states

Using harmonized longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), we trace career prospects after motherhood for five cohorts of American, British, and West German women around the 1960s. We establish wage penalties for motherhood between 9% and 18% per child, with wage losses among American and British mothers being lower than those experienced by mothers in Germany. Labor market mechanisms generating the observed wage penalty for motherhood differ markedly across countries, however. For British and American women, work interruptions and subsequent mobility into mother-friendly jobs fully account for mothers’ wage losses. In contrast, respective penalties are considerably smaller in Germany, yet we observe a substantial residual wage penalty that is unaccounted for by mothers’ observable labor market behavior. We interpret this finding as indicating a comparatively more pronounced role for statistical discrimination against mothers in the German labor market.     

In the wake of radical right electoral success: a cross-country comparative study of anti-immigration attitudes over time

This paper tests the theoretically assumed relationship between the parliamentary presence of radical right parties (RRPs) and anti-immigration attitudes over time. Data come from six rounds of the European Social Survey between 2002 and 2012. Using multi-level models with applications for repeated cross-sectional data, the study examines the implications of changes tied to the political advancements of the radical right with a focus on three possible scenarios: people's attitudes about immigration have generally become more negative, opposition towards immigration has become more dependent on immigrants' ethnicity, and attitudes towards immigration have become more polarised. Contrary to expectations, it is found that neither the presence, the representational strength, nor the nationalistic framing of an RRP affect opposition towards immigration over time. Thus, the conclusion is that the RRPs, so far, have not driven anti-immigration attitudes in Europe. Possible explanations for these results are discussed in the concluding section.     

Hispanic Immigrant Poverty: Does Ethnic Origin Matter?

Hispanic immigrant poverty is nearly double that of other immigrants. Furthermore, poverty rates among Hispanic families differ substantially by ethnicity. This paper analyzes poverty rates for Hispanic and non-Hispanic immigrants, and also for individual Hispanic ethnic groups, to determine the relative importance of different covariates of poverty. The general conclusion is that low levels of education and fluency in English contribute to high Hispanic poverty rates and are also contributing factors to differences in poverty among Hispanic ethnic groups. In particular, the high poverty rate of Mexican immigrant households is associated with the low educational attainments of household heads, along with a relatively large number of children, relatively low English fluency and a relatively short tenure in the U.S. Immigrants from Guatemala and El Salvador have substantially lower poverty rates than Mexican immigrants despite a similar constellation of observable traits. Immigrants from South America have low poverty rates, largely due to strong family work effort and high educational attainments. The relatively low family work effort and high incidence of single parent families among Puerto Ricans overpowers the beneficial effects of higher rates of citizenship and English fluency.

The role of dispersal and local environment in urban land snail assemblages: an example of three cities in Central Italy

Ecologists increasingly appreciate the central role that urban biodiversity plays in ecosystems, however much urban biodiversity is neglected, especially some very diverse groups of invertebrates. For the first time in southern Europe, land snail communities are analysed in four urban habitats along a geographical gradient of three cities, using quantitative methods and assessing the relative roles of local environmental conditions (“distance from sea”, “distance from city centre”, “vegetation cover”) and spatial effects by principal coordinate analysis of neighbour matrices, redundancy analysis and variation partitioning. A total of 53 species was recorded, a richness similar to that of natural areas. At habitat level, species richness did not show a clear increasing trend from more to less urbanized habitats, but rather a homogeneous pattern. At city level, study areas hosted rather heterogeneous species assemblages and biotic homogenization did not seem to have any impact; indeed, only three species could be considered alien. Variation partitioning showed that land snail communities were mostly structured by environmental factors, even when spatial structures independent of measured environmental variables were included: “vegetation cover” and “distance from city centre” were the environmental variables that explained most of the variation in species composition. The lack of strong spatial structure also unexpectedly suggested that transport by humans aids dispersal of organisms with low mobility, which are usually limited by spatial constraints in natural environments. These results provide ecological and conservation implications for other invertebrate groups, suggesting to set priorities in management strategies that include habitat conservation at local scale.     

Performance information use in public administration: an exploratory study of determinants and effects

The public sector performance movement has intensified during the past three decades, increasing formalized planning, control and reporting across all OECD countries. Notwithstanding the extant literature on performance management, empirical evidence on how and why performance information is used in day-to-day practice is still rare. Such research is relevant not only to advance theory but also to inform decision makers in designing the conditions that effectively contribute to performance and accountability improvements. We aim to contribute to a better understanding of the effects and determinants of use by considering the characteristics of performance management systems, the characteristics of users and context features. We selected two central government case studies from Italy, a country that has adopted several reforms on performance management since the early 1990s. In order to gain insights from both supply and demand side, for each ministry we interviewed people responsible for the design and functioning of the performance management system and top managers that are supposed to use performance information when taking decisions. Results show the prevalence of passive rather than purposeful use. Motivations and obstacles to the use of performance information are identified, drawing relevant practical and policy implications.     

Women’s land ownership and participation in decision-making about reproductive health in Malawi

Given the centrality of land to rural livelihoods and the high rates of fertility in Africa, there is a need for more research that explores the intersection between gendered patterns of land ownership and reproductive health outcomes. Drawing on a household bargaining framework, I hypothesize that women’s land ownership should be associated with increases in women’s decision-making in multiple domains in the household including financial decision-making (the focus of bargaining literature), but also decision-making about reproductive health. Using the 2010 Malawi Demographic Health Survey (DHS), I find women’s ownership of land (sole or joint) is associated with increases in women’s participation in financial decision-making in the household and women’s sole ownership of land is associated with increases in women’s participation in reproductive health decision-making. However, women’s joint ownership of land with spouses is negatively associated with participation in reproductive health decision-making, perhaps because of backlash or intra-household conflict.     

Women’s experiences of having had,and recovered from,eclampsia at a tertiary hospital in Tanzania

Background

Eclampsia is a major cause of maternal and perinatal mortality that requires advanced care and long hospital stays with uncertain outcomes for mother and baby. Care of eclamptic women is particularly challenging in low-income settings. Standards for medical care for eclampsia are established but the psychosocial needs of women are under-researched.