Web-Based Accountability Practices in Non-profit Organizations: The Case of National Museums

Stakeholder theory posits that accountability systems depend on the strength and the number of their stakeholders. This paper aims to analyze the empirical validity of stakeholder theory, focusing on accountability systems in the museum sector. Based on Wikipedia resources, we have selected all of the “National Museums” (134 museums) in the major developed countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the US. After we control for type of activity (art or other), cost per visitor and country, the results of an OLS multivariate model show that size of the museum, which is assumed to represent the strength and number of stakeholders, and the amount of funds received, which represents the power of a particularly salient category of stakeholders (donors), are the two main determinants of the accountability level. We conclude that accountability, in the absence of shareholders, is driven by the number and the power of different stakeholders, validating the stakeholder theory.     

Are European social safety nets tight enough? Coverage and adequacy of Minimum Income schemes in 14 EU countries

Figari F, Matsaganis M, Sutherland H. Are European social safety nets tight enough? Coverage and adequacy of Minimum Income schemes in 14 EU countries This study explored and compared the effectiveness of Minimum Income (MI) schemes for persons of working age in the European Union (EU). Using the European microsimulation model EUROMOD, we estimated indicators of coverage and adequacy of MI schemes in 14 EU countries. In terms of coverage, we found that in several countries, some individuals are ineligible for MI even when they fall below a poverty line set at 40 per cent of median income. With respect to adequacy, we show that in certain countries, a large fraction of those entitled to MI remain at very low levels of income even when MI benefit is added. Overall, our findings suggest that MI schemes in Europe remain divergent, and that their clustering may be more complex than has hitherto been allowed for. Key Practitioner Message: ?The ability of European welfare states to fight poverty is a key policy question, especially at times of crisis;?Adequacy and coverage of Minimum Income schemes are crucial aspects of the answer;?Microsimulation allows us to separate the effectiveness of MI schemes ‘by design’, from issues of benefit administration, targeting errors and so forth.     

Self-esteem and earnings

Recent research in economics suggests a positive association between self-esteem and earnings. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), which administered the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale during its 1980 and 1987 interviews, I provide further evidence for the existence of a self-esteem premium by exploiting variation in these measures between the 2 years. I show that self-esteem in 1980 has a sizeable impact on wages 8 years later, controlling for a wide set of individual characteristics and addressing problems of omitted variable bias and reverse causality. The instrumental variables estimate of the effect of self-esteem in 1987 on earnings is about two times greater than previous OLS estimates would imply. The main explanation for this discrepancy is that the previous OLS estimates are biased downward as a result of measurement error in the reported self-esteem measure.     

Aggregate age-at-marriage patterns from individual mate-search heuristics

The distribution of age at first marriage shows well-known strong regularities across many countries and recent historical periods. We accounted for these patterns by developing agent-based models that simulate the aggregate behavior of individuals who are searching for marriage partners. Past models assumed fully rational agents with complete knowledge of the marriage market; our simulated agents used psychologically plausible simple heuristic mate search rules that adjust aspiration levels on the basis of a sequence of encounters with potential partners. Substantial individual variation must be included in the models to account for the demographically observed age-at-marriage patterns.     

Hierarchical clustering and matrix completion for the reconstruction of world input–output tables

Multi-regional input–output (I/O) matrices provide the networks of within- and cross-country economic relations. In the context of I/O analysis, the methodology adopted by national statistical offices in data collection raises the issue of obtaining reliable data in a timely fashion and it makes the reconstruction of (parts of) the I/O matrices of particular interest. In this work, we propose a method combining hierarchical clustering and matrix completion with a LASSO-like nuclear norm penalty, to predict missing entries of a partially unknown I/O matrix. Through analyses based on both real-world and synthetic I/O matrices, we study the effectiveness of the proposed method to predict missing values from both previous years data and current data related to countries similar to the one for which current data are obscured. To show the usefulness of our method, an application based on World Input–Output Database (WIOD) tables—which are an example of industry-by-industry I/O tables—is provided. Strong similarities in structure between WIOD and other I/O tables are also found, which make the proposed approach easily generalizable to them.

     

Emigration and Immigration in Italy: Recent Trends

ABSTRACT: During the eighties Italy has evolved into being a receiver of immigration. However, the existence of large Italian communities abroad, and the persistence of exit migratory flows (although amply compensated by re-entry flows) show that the connotation of Italy as a country of emigration still persists. This paper points out the differing composition of present immigration flows to Italy compared to those of Italian migratory flows towards the more industrially advanced European countries over the past decades. The labour forces that constitute these present day immigration flows often possess medium to high educational qualifications, and are more frequently absorbed into the tertiary and agricultural markets, rather than the industrial sector. These immigrants rarely have regular, unionized occupations, and satisfy a demand for precarious, unstable labour which is in expansion in Italy, as in other countries. Furthermore, these immigration flows are directed not only towards those regions with high employment rates, but also to those with high unemployment rates. Thus, the implications are that the character of present day emigration can only be clearly understood by taking into account the highly segmented aspect of the labour market.     

Human Resources and Labour Incomes. Demand for Education,Supply of Labour and a Comparison between the Private and Public Sector

ABSTRACT: The present paper, starting from a few theoretical reflections and examining some empirical evidence referring to the Italian context and to the Emilia-Romagna region, suggests a more circumstantial approach, compared to that prevailing in the economic literature, to the analysis of reproduction of cognitive characteristics of human resources. Specification of upstream and downstream relationships with respect to demand for skills and supply of qualifications, and differentiation of segments comparable to commercial markets from segments comparable to industrial markets, allow us to outline an analysis framework within which human resources reproduction is the outcome of an unbalanced development process.