Disentangling factors behind training partecipation in Italy (original) (raw)
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Disentangling Factors behind Training Participation in Italy
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
This paper analyses the pattern of training participation in Italy. Employing a new survey conducted on a large sample of individuals, we develop a model of bilateral training choices. In order to distinguish between workers and employers choices, we estimate a structural bivariate probit model whose identification relies on some mild assumptions on sample selection. With this approach we attempt to overcome the informative limitations of training participation probability estimates referred to reduced form models. The training participation probability depends on individual, job-specific and firm's characteristics. Among the most relevant results, we find that females demand as much training as males and suffer from poorer chances of firm-provided training. Similarly, employees with a temporary contract are rationed even if their demand is in line with that of their permanent colleagues. Conversely, the lower participation of parttimers is explained by lower demand. A stance for more targeted training public policies is derived.
Firms'Training Decisions and Unemployment in Italian Labour Markets
2002
Some recent theories of human capital investments show that firms could be interested in paying for the general training of their workers. However, when search costs are low because there is a large availability of skilled workers on the market (that is, when the skilled unemployment/vacancy ratio is high), firms might find it optimal to hire skilled workers on the market rather than provide training to inexperienced workers. In this paper, these aspects are studied through a model with search and matching frictions. In order to empirically verify the relationship between training and labour market tightness across Italian regions, we use, as exogenous determinants of unemployment, the regional differences in separation rates and in labour productivity (in face of a centralised wage bargaining system). Consistently with theoretical predictions, the evidence shows that training is negatively influenced by unemployment and turnover while labour productivity has a positive effect on it.
Training, productivity and wages in Italy
Labour Economics, 2005
This paper presents for the first time panel evidence on the productivity and wage effects of training in Italy. It is based on an original dataset which has been created aggregating individual-level data on training with firm-level data on productivity and wages into an industry panel covering all sectors of the Italian economy for the years 1996-1999. I use several modelling specifications and a variety of panel data techniques to argue that training significantly boosts productivity. However, no such effect is uncovered for wages. This seems to suggest that firms do actually reap more of the returns.
Training and the Density of Economic Activity : Evidence from Italy
Training and the Density of Economic Activity: Evidence from Italy * We use a search and matching model to investigate the economic relationship between training and local economic conditions. We identify two aspects of this relationship going in opposite directions: on the one hand, the complementarity between local knowledge spillovers and training generates a positive correlation with local density; on the other hand, the negative influence of higher wages in denser areas reduces training. Overall the relationship can be either positive or negative, depending on the relative strength of the two effects. Our empirical analysis, based on a sample of Italian firms, shows that training is lower in provinces with higher labor market density, measured as the number of employees per squared kilometer. This empirical result confirms previous evidence by Brunello and Gambarotto (2004) based on UK data.
Training and Economic Density: Some Evidence from Italian Provinces
2006
In this paper we use a search and matching model to investigate the economic relationship between training and local economic conditions. We identify two aspects of this relationship going in opposite directions: on the one hand, the complementarity between local knowledge spillovers and training generates a positive correlation between training and local density; on the other hand, higher wages and labor turnover in denser areas reduce training. Overall the relationship can be either positive or negative, depending on the relative strength of these two effects. Our empirical analysis, based on a sample of Italian firms, shows that training is lower in provinces with higher labor market density, measured as the number of employees per squared kilometer.
Identifying Demand and Supply of Part-time Jobs Using Personnel Data. An Application to Italy
Labour, 2000
The percentage of part-time workers in Italy is very low compared with most European countries. In this paper we try to contribute to an explanation. We use data on the employees of a large Italian company operating in the service sector, and apply a particular econometric framework that allows identification of potential demand and supply. We find that demand and supply are potentially very large on average, but they are difficult to match at the individual workerajob level. The firm might observe a relevant employee's characteristics that are positively correlated with the employee's propensity to a part-time job but are negatively correlated with the profitability of that employee on that job. The firm might also use the revealed willingness to switch to a parttime job as a sign that the employee is likely to be unprofitable for the company.
Labour Economics, 2008
, two anonymous referees and seminar participants in Aix, Evry, Lyon (Journées AFSE), Marseille (GREQAM), Milan (Cattolica), Munich (CESifo), Orléans (T2M), Novara, Padova, Paris (CEPN, ESPE and EUREQUA), Pisa (Sant'Anna) and Tokyo (Keio) for comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies. The data used in this paper are from the December 2001 release (contract 14/99).
Hiring Incentives and Labour Force Participation in Italy
Labour Supply and Incentives to Work in Europe, 2005
A long-standing economic tradition maintains that labour supply is sensitive to the tightness of the labour market. Increases in labour demand are not immediately reflected into declines of the unemployment rate because of a positive elasticity of supply to labour demand. Less attention has been devoted to the reaction of labour supply to changes in the quality composition of labour demand. In a labour market where firms can hire workers with both temporary and open-end contracts, do more people enter the market when the existing chances to get a permanent contract become higher? In this paper we investigate this relationship within a framework of policy evaluation. In particular we look at how labour supply reacts to subsidies, which tend to reduce firms' labour costs. To this aim we examine a recent program passed in Italy at the end of the year 2000, which provided a large subsidy to firms hiring workers with an open-end contract. This program, called "Credito d'Imposta", was started in October 2000 and originally granted firms a tax credit of about 400 euros per month for each worker, at least 25 years old, hired with an open-end contract from the moment of the hiring until December 2003. The question we ask in the present paper is whether the subsidy encouraged more people to enter the labour force because of these more favourable conditions on the labour market. Our results suggest the subsidy did have a non-trivial effect on the participation rate. Compared with the year 2000, the tax credit appears to have increased labour force participation of eligible inactive people by about 1.4% in 2001 and 2.1% in 2002 with respect to non-eligible individuals. This increase was rather heterogeneous across people. It seems indeed to have been mostly concentrated among persons (especially males) aged 35-54, with a low or at most secondary schooling level.
Training and economic density: Some evidence form Italian provinces
Labour Economics, 2008
In this paper we use a search and matching model to investigate the economic relationship between training and local economic conditions. We identify two aspects of this relationship going in opposite directions: on the one hand, the complementarity between local knowledge spillovers and training generates a positive correlation between training and local density; on the other hand, higher wages and labor turnover in denser areas reduce training. Overall the relationship can be either positive or negative, depending on the relative strength of these two effects. Our empirical analysis, based on a sample of Italian firms, shows that training is lower in provinces with higher labor market density, measured as the number of employees per squared kilometer. ☆ We are grateful to Juan Dolado, two anonymous referees, Giovanni Costa, Francesca Gambarotto, Vincenzo Scoppa, and the audiences at seminars in Modena, Rome and San Francisco (EALE-SOLE 2005) for comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies. the world. One source identified by the literature is the positive spatial externalities associated to the physical proximity of workers and firms, which more than offset the negative congestion effects originated by the intense use of capital and labor . An additional channel linking density to productivity operates via training and its positive influence on productivity: 1 on the one hand, denser areas encourage firms to invest in human capital, because knowledge spillovers are better exploited by skilled workers, and trained employees are more productive. On the other hand, density increases wages and turnover, which discourage training investments and reduce productivity. If the former effect prevails on the latter, higher density is associated to more training, and thus to higher productivity.