Jonathan Pratschke | Center for Studies of Economics and Finance (CSEF) - University of Naples "Federico II" (original) (raw)
Papers by Jonathan Pratschke
Il censimento della popolazione rappresenta una fonte preziosa per l'analisi dei flussi pendo... more Il censimento della popolazione rappresenta una fonte preziosa per l'analisi dei flussi pendolari, garantendo una copertura relativamente omogenea del territorio e offrendo una serie di informazioni utili per definire le dimensioni e la natura degli spostamenti quotidiani. In questo contributo, si descrivono i dati sui flussi che vengono da questa fonte e si presentano i risultati dell'analisi di questi dati attraverso gli strumenti GIS, in modo da comprendere meglio le criticità degli spostamenti quotidiani che interessano la Provincia di Salern
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, 2020
In the social sciences, the term “peer effects” has been widely used to describe the various ways... more In the social sciences, the term “peer effects” has been widely used to describe the various ways in which individual behaviors and attitudes can be influenced by friends, acquaintances, and the wider social environment. Due to the crucial role of social interactions within the school context, the role of peers in shaping academic outcomes has been under scrutiny for decades. Following seminal work by Manski, we distinguish between three different components of peer influence: endogenous (where the behavior of an individual varies in accordance with the behavior of the peer group), exogenous (where the behavior of an individual varies with the characteristics of the members of the peer group), and correlated (where the behavior of individuals is shaped by shared environmental or institutional factors). By estimating a simultaneous autoregressive model, we assess the relative strength of these three forms of peer influence in relation to secondary school exam results in a large sampl...
La tecnología y la gestión moderna del talento humano
This publication addresses the issue of religious community uptake of available funding and the c... more This publication addresses the issue of religious community uptake of available funding and the complex relationship between religious community background, deprivation, funding applications and approved funding. Whilst a previous publication examined only a small proportion of total funding, this report extends this analysis to the full budget of the SSPPR. The paper examines the number of project applications made and approved as well as their aggregate financial value, before going on to look at the religious community and relative deprivation profiles of the 1991 Census Enumeration Districts (EDs) in which these projects originated. The final part of the study reports on a statistical analysis of the effects of factors such as population size, religious community background, deprivation and the propensity to apply for funding on the distribution of funding
This report is an evaluation of the National Early Years Access Initiative (NEYAI), a three-year ... more This report is an evaluation of the National Early Years Access Initiative (NEYAI), a three-year programme (2011-2014) to improve quality and outcomes in the early years sector. NEYAI comprises 11 projects mainly located in disadvantaged areas of Dublin, Cork and Limerick and two rural locations in Longford/Westmeath and Donegal. It was officially launched by the Minister for Children & Youth Affairs in June 2011 who referred to NEYAI as being made up of local demonstration projects with ‘a focus on evidence-based practice and ongoing project evaluation for the purpose of advising future policy and the mainstream provision’. The fact that this study is based entirely on children who participated in the 2012/13 Free Pre-School Year provides an opportunity to consider some aspects of this programme even if the study is not based on a representative sample of children in the Free Pre-School Year and was not specifically designed as an evaluation of this programme. Nevertheless the sample provides some of the first evidence available on the Free Pre-School Year particularly on the factors which influenced child outcomes during that year. From the perspective of the wider education system, the sample provides a basis for exploring the extent to which Ireland may have a successful pre-school system which we define as a system to improve outcomes for all pre-school children while simultaneously narrowing the gap in outcomes between children
Journal of Urban Affairs, 2021
After the 2018 general election, several scholars remarked on the failure of the 5 Star Movement ... more After the 2018 general election, several scholars remarked on the failure of the 5 Star Movement (5SM) to increase its vote in Milan. While the role of demographic and socioeconomic factors has bee...
Considering Class: Theory, Culture and the Media in the 21st Century, 2017
education, training, employment initiatives, and environmental maintenance. This strategy is init... more education, training, employment initiatives, and environmental maintenance. This strategy is initially led by Respond!'s community development and family support workers whose task, in turn, is to identify, train and support a small number of local residents to become volunteer 'community enablers' so that they can continue to articulate the needs of their estate and other estates in their regional 'cluster' to the different service providers. This process of capacity building occurs over a five-year period, and is informed by the ethos of reducing dependency and empowering communities to be self-sustaining. At the end of this period, Respond! will continue to support community enablers in each estate to take primary responsibility for community development, but the input from Respond! will be significantly reduced. Respond! contributes to the broader agenda of improving the management of social housing in Ireland by running tenant participation courses for local authority tenants, at the request of a number of local authorities. In 1997, Respond! developed a 3rd-level Certificate and then a Diploma programme, with both academic and professional accreditation, in line with the recommendations of the Housing Managers' Review Group Report in 1996. In time, Respond! further developed this programme to Degree standard and currently offers a Bachelor of Social Studies in Housing & Community Studies (B.S.S) in partnership with University College Dublin. The BSS in Housing & Community Studies is the first degree in housing in Ireland. It is open to mature students (aged 23 years and older), and is a 4-year, part-time, modular programme, comprising a Certificate (for those who successfully complete Year 1), a Diploma (for those who successfully complete Year 2), and a Degree (for those who successfully complete Years 3 and 4). As such, it offers the requisite academic and professional training required to establish a career pathway for housing professionals in Ireland, in line with the need for same identified by the Department of Environment, Heritage & Local Government and the City and County Managers' Association. Against this background, the present study can be seen as playing a twofold role in the overall strategy of Respond!. First, it measures the well-being of parents, children and neighbourhoods with a view to identifying need and setting appropriate targets in line with those needs. Second, it identifies the factors associated with each aspect of well-being and, in this way, may help in designing forms of intervention which are evidence-based. 5. For example, a recent comprehensive review of research on early childhood development-entitled 'From Neurons to Neighbourhoods' (Shonkoff and Phillips, 2000)-highlighted the multiple influences on children's needs. Similarly, the bioecological model of Bronfenbrenner (1979; 2001) sees the child's development as the outcome of influences within the family, school and local community as well as government policies and societal attitudes.
World Review of Political Economy, 2015
IntroductionFour recent books on competition and crisis in the 20th century have contributed to r... more IntroductionFour recent books on competition and crisis in the 20th century have contributed to renewed interest in Marxist theory and stimulated wide-ranging and vigorous debate. Harvey (2003) and Callinicos (2009) review and seek to reformulate Marxist approaches to imperialism, while Brenner (2006) and Desai (2013) provide detailed accounts of global capital accumulation, competition and crisis during the post-war period. While central to all four books, the nature and role of the capitalist state is not theorised systematically, partly because, as Callinicos (2009) observes, "[t]he Marxist theory of the state is a minefield in which many unresolved problems and unfinished debates lurk" (73). These four authors nevertheless identify mechanisms relating to accumulation, competition and the interstate system which are of central importance to state theory.Marxists must arguably return to this "minefield," as the development of a satisfactory theory of the state is essential to the wider development of Marxist theory. The question of the capitalist state cuts across numerous debates, from economic crisis and welfare systems to political corruption and industrial struggle. The aporias of Marxist state theory have left a trail of unresolved issues; conversely, a renewed effort to clarify these can make a valuable contribution to ongoing debates about capitalism, international relations and geopolitical economy.One of the principal challenges when theorising the state is that the latter must be situated within a complex set of relationships involving accumulation and competition that are articulated across different levels of the social order. As Harvey (2006, xxix) observes, "It is both a virtue and difficulty in Marx that everything relates to everything else. It is impossible to work on one 'empty box' without simultaneously working on all other aspects of the theory." I argue that the state should be theorised in relation to multiple determinations within a stratified social ontology, characterised by emergence and complexity (Bhaskar 1998; Callinicos 2009, 32; Marx 1973, 100-101). This implies that it is not possible to theorise the state in relation to a single mechanism, process or relationship. The challenge is thus to integrate these determinations within broader Marxist theory, maintaining a coherent account of competition, crisis and the state at the national and international levels.The four books discussed here were chosen for a number of reasons. Firstly, while each author accords a central role to the capitalist state, there are striking gaps in their theoretical treatment of this topic. Two of the books provide concrete historical analyses (Brenner and Desai), while the other two (Harvey and Callinicos) provide a more abstract theoretical treatment of Marxist theories of competition, crisis and imperialism. As I will show, all four offer a strategic vantage point for theorising the state, as they emphasise the dimension of the international, which has often been ignored in Marxist state theory (Barker 1978), but is arguably of crucial importance.I will begin by outlining how the authors approach the state and theorise its role, highlighting any difficulties or lacunae in relation to this aspect of their analysis. I will then describe three determinations which together can make a useful contribution to explaining state decision making and help to define the limits to this process. Once developed in an appropriate manner, I believe that these determinations can yield a powerful account, grounding a distinctively Marxist theoretical approach to the capitalist state.Competition and the State: Brenner and the Long DownturnRobert Brenner's work on the causes and consequences of economic crisis during the post-war period has been widely discussed (Clarke 1999; Dumenil, Glick, and Levy 2001). This discussion has centred on his approach to economics and the role he assigns to overproduction in explaining the "long downturn" in capital accumulation since the 1960s, while his treatment of the capitalist state has not been analysed in detail. …
ABSTRACT One of the characteristics of the Italian peninsula is a sharp North-South gradient on m... more ABSTRACT One of the characteristics of the Italian peninsula is a sharp North-South gradient on many economic and labour market variables. This gradient is particularly marked in relation to female employment, making Italy a particularly useful ‘laboratory’ for studying changes in gender roles. Esping-Andersen’s (2009) description of the decline of the ‘male breadwinner’ model and the search for a ‘new equilibrium’ in gender roles is suggestive, but the assumption that current processes will inevitably converge towards a relatively homogeneous social configuration (exemplified by the Scandinavian countries) is rather unconvincing. We will show in this article that the Italian case comprises macro-regions with very different female employment rates and highly-differentiated welfare systems. Furthermore, one of the effects of the economic crisis has been to obstruct the entry of women into paid work, particularly in the South where employment rates are already at a very low level. When discussing trends and changes in women’s roles, it is important to remember that the resulting transformations are plural, contingent and discontinuous and strongly shaped by prevailing socio-economic conditions. In the context of a prolonged and severe crisis, the differences between Northern and Southern Italy have been further accentuated, impeding the development of coherent policy responses and obstructing change in gender roles.
... Mr. Brendan Walker, Department of Social & Family Affairs F... more ... Mr. Brendan Walker, Department of Social & Family Affairs Fr. Ger Nash, ClareCare Dr. John O'Brien, ACCORD/ Vice-President University of Limerick Ms. Mary McCarthy, ACCORD Ms. Mary Fitzgerald, ACCORD Clare Haven Mr. Tim McGillicuddy, ACCORD ...
This paper reviews the recent peer effects literature and showcases the simultaneous autoregressi... more This paper reviews the recent peer effects literature and showcases the simultaneous autoregressive model, which integrates aspects of multiple regression modelling, instrumental variables, social network analysis and longitudinal analysis. It describes state of the art techniques for making inferences using survey data, clarifies the assumptions made by statistical models and provides further evidence on the impact of peers in education. The paper includes a case study using data from an Italian survey to study peer effects in relation to university enrollment. The model includes components that control for endogenous, exogenous and correlated peer effects as well as different forms of selection. The evidence presented in the paper suggests that endogenous peer effects have a statistically and substantively significant influence on the probability of enrolling at university, measured over one year. Sensitivity tests suggest that the results of the estimation are robust to confoundi...
My aim in this paper is to question the scepticism of critical realist philosophers of science in... more My aim in this paper is to question the scepticism of critical realist philosophers of science in relation to the use of statistical methods in social science research. By arguing that statistical analysis is inevitably 'deductivist' in nature (Bhaskar, 1998a; Lawson, 1997, 1998, 2001; Pratten, 1999), I believe that critical realists merely reinforce the influence of empiricism!. Moreover, by confining their criticism of statistics to the social sciences, these writers ·adopt an unwarranted antinaturalist stance. In contrast, I will argue that critical realism can help to resolve a number of 'philosophical problems in relation to the specification, assessment and interpretation of statistical models. Social scientists are increasingly aware of these issues (Cliff, 1983; Hayduk, 1987, 1996; Hedstrom & Swedberg, 1998; McKim & Turner, 1997; Mulaik, 2001), and it is therefore timely to reconsider how their concerns might be addressed from within the framework of critical rea...
Il censimento della popolazione rappresenta una fonte preziosa per l'analisi dei flussi pendo... more Il censimento della popolazione rappresenta una fonte preziosa per l'analisi dei flussi pendolari, garantendo una copertura relativamente omogenea del territorio e offrendo una serie di informazioni utili per definire le dimensioni e la natura degli spostamenti quotidiani. In questo contributo, si descrivono i dati sui flussi che vengono da questa fonte e si presentano i risultati dell'analisi di questi dati attraverso gli strumenti GIS, in modo da comprendere meglio le criticità degli spostamenti quotidiani che interessano la Provincia di Salern
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, 2020
In the social sciences, the term “peer effects” has been widely used to describe the various ways... more In the social sciences, the term “peer effects” has been widely used to describe the various ways in which individual behaviors and attitudes can be influenced by friends, acquaintances, and the wider social environment. Due to the crucial role of social interactions within the school context, the role of peers in shaping academic outcomes has been under scrutiny for decades. Following seminal work by Manski, we distinguish between three different components of peer influence: endogenous (where the behavior of an individual varies in accordance with the behavior of the peer group), exogenous (where the behavior of an individual varies with the characteristics of the members of the peer group), and correlated (where the behavior of individuals is shaped by shared environmental or institutional factors). By estimating a simultaneous autoregressive model, we assess the relative strength of these three forms of peer influence in relation to secondary school exam results in a large sampl...
La tecnología y la gestión moderna del talento humano
This publication addresses the issue of religious community uptake of available funding and the c... more This publication addresses the issue of religious community uptake of available funding and the complex relationship between religious community background, deprivation, funding applications and approved funding. Whilst a previous publication examined only a small proportion of total funding, this report extends this analysis to the full budget of the SSPPR. The paper examines the number of project applications made and approved as well as their aggregate financial value, before going on to look at the religious community and relative deprivation profiles of the 1991 Census Enumeration Districts (EDs) in which these projects originated. The final part of the study reports on a statistical analysis of the effects of factors such as population size, religious community background, deprivation and the propensity to apply for funding on the distribution of funding
This report is an evaluation of the National Early Years Access Initiative (NEYAI), a three-year ... more This report is an evaluation of the National Early Years Access Initiative (NEYAI), a three-year programme (2011-2014) to improve quality and outcomes in the early years sector. NEYAI comprises 11 projects mainly located in disadvantaged areas of Dublin, Cork and Limerick and two rural locations in Longford/Westmeath and Donegal. It was officially launched by the Minister for Children & Youth Affairs in June 2011 who referred to NEYAI as being made up of local demonstration projects with ‘a focus on evidence-based practice and ongoing project evaluation for the purpose of advising future policy and the mainstream provision’. The fact that this study is based entirely on children who participated in the 2012/13 Free Pre-School Year provides an opportunity to consider some aspects of this programme even if the study is not based on a representative sample of children in the Free Pre-School Year and was not specifically designed as an evaluation of this programme. Nevertheless the sample provides some of the first evidence available on the Free Pre-School Year particularly on the factors which influenced child outcomes during that year. From the perspective of the wider education system, the sample provides a basis for exploring the extent to which Ireland may have a successful pre-school system which we define as a system to improve outcomes for all pre-school children while simultaneously narrowing the gap in outcomes between children
Journal of Urban Affairs, 2021
After the 2018 general election, several scholars remarked on the failure of the 5 Star Movement ... more After the 2018 general election, several scholars remarked on the failure of the 5 Star Movement (5SM) to increase its vote in Milan. While the role of demographic and socioeconomic factors has bee...
Considering Class: Theory, Culture and the Media in the 21st Century, 2017
education, training, employment initiatives, and environmental maintenance. This strategy is init... more education, training, employment initiatives, and environmental maintenance. This strategy is initially led by Respond!'s community development and family support workers whose task, in turn, is to identify, train and support a small number of local residents to become volunteer 'community enablers' so that they can continue to articulate the needs of their estate and other estates in their regional 'cluster' to the different service providers. This process of capacity building occurs over a five-year period, and is informed by the ethos of reducing dependency and empowering communities to be self-sustaining. At the end of this period, Respond! will continue to support community enablers in each estate to take primary responsibility for community development, but the input from Respond! will be significantly reduced. Respond! contributes to the broader agenda of improving the management of social housing in Ireland by running tenant participation courses for local authority tenants, at the request of a number of local authorities. In 1997, Respond! developed a 3rd-level Certificate and then a Diploma programme, with both academic and professional accreditation, in line with the recommendations of the Housing Managers' Review Group Report in 1996. In time, Respond! further developed this programme to Degree standard and currently offers a Bachelor of Social Studies in Housing & Community Studies (B.S.S) in partnership with University College Dublin. The BSS in Housing & Community Studies is the first degree in housing in Ireland. It is open to mature students (aged 23 years and older), and is a 4-year, part-time, modular programme, comprising a Certificate (for those who successfully complete Year 1), a Diploma (for those who successfully complete Year 2), and a Degree (for those who successfully complete Years 3 and 4). As such, it offers the requisite academic and professional training required to establish a career pathway for housing professionals in Ireland, in line with the need for same identified by the Department of Environment, Heritage & Local Government and the City and County Managers' Association. Against this background, the present study can be seen as playing a twofold role in the overall strategy of Respond!. First, it measures the well-being of parents, children and neighbourhoods with a view to identifying need and setting appropriate targets in line with those needs. Second, it identifies the factors associated with each aspect of well-being and, in this way, may help in designing forms of intervention which are evidence-based. 5. For example, a recent comprehensive review of research on early childhood development-entitled 'From Neurons to Neighbourhoods' (Shonkoff and Phillips, 2000)-highlighted the multiple influences on children's needs. Similarly, the bioecological model of Bronfenbrenner (1979; 2001) sees the child's development as the outcome of influences within the family, school and local community as well as government policies and societal attitudes.
World Review of Political Economy, 2015
IntroductionFour recent books on competition and crisis in the 20th century have contributed to r... more IntroductionFour recent books on competition and crisis in the 20th century have contributed to renewed interest in Marxist theory and stimulated wide-ranging and vigorous debate. Harvey (2003) and Callinicos (2009) review and seek to reformulate Marxist approaches to imperialism, while Brenner (2006) and Desai (2013) provide detailed accounts of global capital accumulation, competition and crisis during the post-war period. While central to all four books, the nature and role of the capitalist state is not theorised systematically, partly because, as Callinicos (2009) observes, "[t]he Marxist theory of the state is a minefield in which many unresolved problems and unfinished debates lurk" (73). These four authors nevertheless identify mechanisms relating to accumulation, competition and the interstate system which are of central importance to state theory.Marxists must arguably return to this "minefield," as the development of a satisfactory theory of the state is essential to the wider development of Marxist theory. The question of the capitalist state cuts across numerous debates, from economic crisis and welfare systems to political corruption and industrial struggle. The aporias of Marxist state theory have left a trail of unresolved issues; conversely, a renewed effort to clarify these can make a valuable contribution to ongoing debates about capitalism, international relations and geopolitical economy.One of the principal challenges when theorising the state is that the latter must be situated within a complex set of relationships involving accumulation and competition that are articulated across different levels of the social order. As Harvey (2006, xxix) observes, "It is both a virtue and difficulty in Marx that everything relates to everything else. It is impossible to work on one 'empty box' without simultaneously working on all other aspects of the theory." I argue that the state should be theorised in relation to multiple determinations within a stratified social ontology, characterised by emergence and complexity (Bhaskar 1998; Callinicos 2009, 32; Marx 1973, 100-101). This implies that it is not possible to theorise the state in relation to a single mechanism, process or relationship. The challenge is thus to integrate these determinations within broader Marxist theory, maintaining a coherent account of competition, crisis and the state at the national and international levels.The four books discussed here were chosen for a number of reasons. Firstly, while each author accords a central role to the capitalist state, there are striking gaps in their theoretical treatment of this topic. Two of the books provide concrete historical analyses (Brenner and Desai), while the other two (Harvey and Callinicos) provide a more abstract theoretical treatment of Marxist theories of competition, crisis and imperialism. As I will show, all four offer a strategic vantage point for theorising the state, as they emphasise the dimension of the international, which has often been ignored in Marxist state theory (Barker 1978), but is arguably of crucial importance.I will begin by outlining how the authors approach the state and theorise its role, highlighting any difficulties or lacunae in relation to this aspect of their analysis. I will then describe three determinations which together can make a useful contribution to explaining state decision making and help to define the limits to this process. Once developed in an appropriate manner, I believe that these determinations can yield a powerful account, grounding a distinctively Marxist theoretical approach to the capitalist state.Competition and the State: Brenner and the Long DownturnRobert Brenner's work on the causes and consequences of economic crisis during the post-war period has been widely discussed (Clarke 1999; Dumenil, Glick, and Levy 2001). This discussion has centred on his approach to economics and the role he assigns to overproduction in explaining the "long downturn" in capital accumulation since the 1960s, while his treatment of the capitalist state has not been analysed in detail. …
ABSTRACT One of the characteristics of the Italian peninsula is a sharp North-South gradient on m... more ABSTRACT One of the characteristics of the Italian peninsula is a sharp North-South gradient on many economic and labour market variables. This gradient is particularly marked in relation to female employment, making Italy a particularly useful ‘laboratory’ for studying changes in gender roles. Esping-Andersen’s (2009) description of the decline of the ‘male breadwinner’ model and the search for a ‘new equilibrium’ in gender roles is suggestive, but the assumption that current processes will inevitably converge towards a relatively homogeneous social configuration (exemplified by the Scandinavian countries) is rather unconvincing. We will show in this article that the Italian case comprises macro-regions with very different female employment rates and highly-differentiated welfare systems. Furthermore, one of the effects of the economic crisis has been to obstruct the entry of women into paid work, particularly in the South where employment rates are already at a very low level. When discussing trends and changes in women’s roles, it is important to remember that the resulting transformations are plural, contingent and discontinuous and strongly shaped by prevailing socio-economic conditions. In the context of a prolonged and severe crisis, the differences between Northern and Southern Italy have been further accentuated, impeding the development of coherent policy responses and obstructing change in gender roles.
... Mr. Brendan Walker, Department of Social & Family Affairs F... more ... Mr. Brendan Walker, Department of Social & Family Affairs Fr. Ger Nash, ClareCare Dr. John O'Brien, ACCORD/ Vice-President University of Limerick Ms. Mary McCarthy, ACCORD Ms. Mary Fitzgerald, ACCORD Clare Haven Mr. Tim McGillicuddy, ACCORD ...
This paper reviews the recent peer effects literature and showcases the simultaneous autoregressi... more This paper reviews the recent peer effects literature and showcases the simultaneous autoregressive model, which integrates aspects of multiple regression modelling, instrumental variables, social network analysis and longitudinal analysis. It describes state of the art techniques for making inferences using survey data, clarifies the assumptions made by statistical models and provides further evidence on the impact of peers in education. The paper includes a case study using data from an Italian survey to study peer effects in relation to university enrollment. The model includes components that control for endogenous, exogenous and correlated peer effects as well as different forms of selection. The evidence presented in the paper suggests that endogenous peer effects have a statistically and substantively significant influence on the probability of enrolling at university, measured over one year. Sensitivity tests suggest that the results of the estimation are robust to confoundi...
My aim in this paper is to question the scepticism of critical realist philosophers of science in... more My aim in this paper is to question the scepticism of critical realist philosophers of science in relation to the use of statistical methods in social science research. By arguing that statistical analysis is inevitably 'deductivist' in nature (Bhaskar, 1998a; Lawson, 1997, 1998, 2001; Pratten, 1999), I believe that critical realists merely reinforce the influence of empiricism!. Moreover, by confining their criticism of statistics to the social sciences, these writers ·adopt an unwarranted antinaturalist stance. In contrast, I will argue that critical realism can help to resolve a number of 'philosophical problems in relation to the specification, assessment and interpretation of statistical models. Social scientists are increasingly aware of these issues (Cliff, 1983; Hayduk, 1987, 1996; Hedstrom & Swedberg, 1998; McKim & Turner, 1997; Mulaik, 2001), and it is therefore timely to reconsider how their concerns might be addressed from within the framework of critical rea...