DiSES Working Papers 2012

ELENCO DEI QUADERNI DI DIPARTIMENTO – WORKING PAPERS

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ISSN: 2279-9559 (dal n. 1 al n. 157), 2279-9567 (dal n. 158 al n. 363), 2279-9575 (dal n. 364 in poi)

386  Eralba CELA, Tineke FOKKEMA, Elena AMBROSETTI
Links Between Transnationalism Integration and Duration of Residence: The Case of eastern European Migrants in Italy [novembre 2012]
Keywords:
  integration, migration, transnationalism
JEL Classification:
  F22 International Economics – International Factor Movements and International Business – International Migration
  F24 International Economics – International Factor Movements and International Business – Remittances
Abstract:
  Transnationalism of first-generation migrants, usually considered as the core element of their migratory projects, is taken nowadays to some extent for granted. Several migration scholars have mainly focused their research on demonstrating the complementarity or dualism between integration and transnationalism and the degree of persistence of the latter over one's life course and generations. In line with this research, the aim of the present study is to examine empirically the relations of transnationalism with duration of residence and integration of Eastern Europe communities in the specific case of Italy. Data come from the Integrometro survey 2008-2009, encompassing more than 4500 Eastern European migrants, currently representing half of the foreign population in Italy, allowing us to study nationalities that have been overlooked by migration research in transnational topics. Our results clearly show a positive relationship between migrants' economic integration and transnationalism, suggesting that economic resources facilitate the maintenance and development of cross-border ties. Being more integrated socio-culturally, however, is accompanied with weaker transnational practices. Moreover, the level of transnational behaviour decreases the more years Eastern European migrants spend in Italy, which cannot be fully attributed to a higher level of socio-cultural integration.
Citations:   CitEc
 
385  Giulia BETTIN, Riccardo LUCCHETTI
Intertemporal remittance behaviour by immigrants in Germany [ottobre 2012]
Keywords:
  German Socio Economic Panel, Migration, Remittances
JEL Classification:
  F22 International Economics – International Factor Movements and International Business – International Migration
  F24 International Economics – International Factor Movements and International Business – Remittances
Abstract:
  In this paper, we use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) in the 1997-2009 period for a large sample of migrants from 84 countries in order to develop an empirical model for the propensity by migrants to remit. Our model takes into full account the intertemporal aspects of the problem, which has been ignored by a large part of the applied literature, despite its theoretical and empirical importance. We find that most results already established in the empirical literature are confirmed; however, the intertemporal nature of the remittance behaviour emerges very clearly, giving rise to individual patterns which are difficult to synthesize by a simple description. Building on our framework, we find also support for theoretical models which predict different remittance time paths between return and permanent migrants.
Citations:   CitEc
 
384  Alessia LO TURCO, Daniela MAGGIONI
Imports, exports and the firm product scope: evidence from Turkey [ottobre 2012]
Keywords:
  Firm trade, Multiple Propensity Score Matching, Single Propensity ScoreMatching, product innovation
JEL Classification:
  D22 Microeconomics – Production and Organizations – Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
  F14 International Economics – Trade – Country and Industry Studies of Trade
Abstract:
  Making use of an original firm-product level dataset for Turkish manufacturing, we dissect the role of importing, exporting and the joint involvement in both activities on the firm product scope and new product introduction. Within the bulk of overall exports, we identify and focus on foreign sales of own produced goods. From the comparison between a single and a multiple treatment approach, it emerges that the simultaneous entry in the import and export markets delivers the highest innovation rate. Even if we disclose the existence of important complementarities between the two trade activities, starting to export appears as the real driver of firm product innovation. On the contrary and differently from previous evidence, when moving to a multi-treatment setting, the impact of importing fades away.
Citations:   CitEc
 
383  Alessia LO TURCO, Daniela MAGGIONI
Does trade foster employment growth in emerging markets? Evidence from Turkey [ottobre 2012]
Keywords:
  Exporter, Importer, Turkey, Two-way traders, employment, firm growth
JEL Classification:
  C41 Mathematical and Quantitative Methods – Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics – Duration Analysis; Optimal Timing Strategies
  F14 International Economics – Trade – Country and Industry Studies of Trade
  F16 International Economics – Trade – Trade and Labor Market Interactions
  J62 Labor and Demographic Economics – Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies – Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility
Abstract:
  This work investigates the impact of importing, exporting and two-way trading on the firm labour demand in Turkish manufacturing. Adopting multiple propensity score matching techniques and Difference in Difference estimator, we support the positive internationalisation effects on the firm employment growth for an emergent country. Our evidence reveals the existence of complementarity effects between exports and imports, which is strengthened for high trade intensity firms. Furthermore, only high intensity exporting seems to promote the workforce skill upgrading, as measured by the R&D worker share. The disclosed employment effect reflects the large positive impact of firminternationalisation on its production scale.
Citations:   CitEc
 
382  Ruggero GRILLI, Gabriele TEDESCHI, Mauro GALLEGATI
Markets connectivity and financial contagion [ottobre 2012]
Keywords:
  Systemic risk, business cycle, giant component, network connectivity, volatility
Abstract:
  In this paper we investigate the sources of instability in credit and financial systems and the effect of credit linkages on the macroeconomic activity. By developing an agent-based model, we analyze the evolving dynamics of the economy as a complex, adaptive and interactive system, which allows us to explain some key elements occurred during the recent economic and financial crisis. In particular, we study the repercussions of inter-bank connectivity on agents' performances, bankruptcy waves and business cycle fluctuations. Interbank linkages, in fact, let participants share risk but also creates a potential for one bank's crisis to spread through the network. The purpose of the model is, therefore, to build up the dependence among agents at the micro-level and to estimate their impact on the macro stability.
Citations:   CitEc
 
381  Giuliano CONTI, Alessia LO TURCO, Daniela MAGGIONI
Rethinking the import-productivity nexus for Italian manufacturing [settembre 2012]
Keywords:
  Exports, Imports, Productivity
JEL Classification:
  D22 Microeconomics – Production and Organizations – Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
  F10 International Economics – Trade – General
  F14 International Economics – Trade – Country and Industry Studies of Trade
Abstract:
  We provide evidence on the firm-level productivity effects of imports of intermediates. Exploiting a large panel of Italian manufacturing firms we are able to separately test the role of offshoring to high and low income countries. Contrary to our expectations, no significant impact is found out for purchases from developed countries, while firmefficiency seems to be positively affected by imported inputs from developing countries. Anyway, we prove that this result may be driven by the omission of another important firm internationalisation strategy, the export activity. Due to the strict linkage existing between export and import activity at firm level, we investigate whether the significant role of offshoring still stay after controlling for the firms' sales in foreign markets. Positive effects of offshoring disappear, while we confirm the existence of learning-by-exporting, already displayed in literature for Italy.
Citations:   CitEc
 
380  Stefano STAFFOLANI, Claudia PIGINI
Enrolment Decision and University Choice of Italian Secondary School Graduates. [settembre 2012]
Keywords:
  Human capital, conditional logit, enrolment decision, university choice
JEL Classification:
  C25 Mathematical and Quantitative Methods – Single Equation Models; Single Variables – Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions
  I21 Health, Education, and Welfare – Education and Research Institutions – Analysis of Education
  I23 Health, Education, and Welfare – Education and Research Institutions – Higher Education and Research Institutions
  J24 Labor and Demographic Economics – Demand and Supply of Labor – Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
Abstract:
  This paper examines the enrolment decision and the university choice of Italian secondary school graduates. We extend previous analyses by means of a theoretical model where student's choices depend on both universities attributes and individual characteristics. Empirical evidence of theoretical predictions is provided by the estimation of a conditional logit model mainly using the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) survey of secondary school graduates in 2004. Results show that geographical distance, tuition fees and university quality play a major role in higher education choices. In addition, Italian students seem to self-sort by their own ability across di erent levels of university standards: high ability students tend to seek a higher quality. The sorting process is strongly in uenced by parents characteristics and previous fields of study.
Citations:   CitEc
 
379  Stefano STAFFOLANI
Prendere lucciole per lanterne? I test di ammissione all'Università come strumento di selezione degli studenti [luglio 2012]
Keywords:
  Capitale umano,, selezione
JEL Classification:
  I21 Health, Education, and Welfare – Education and Research Institutions – Analysis of Education
  I23 Health, Education, and Welfare – Education and Research Institutions – Higher Education and Research Institutions
  J24 Labor and Demographic Economics – Demand and Supply of Labor – Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
Abstract:
  [ENGLISH] The paper analyses the efficiency of entry tests as a tool to select students applying to Universities. It is based on data collected at the Faculty of Economics of "Università Politecnica delle Marche", where all the applicants are subject to a non-selecting entry test. For students enrolled in 2010, data on first-year course academic performances are available. Our empirical analyses show that the entry test does not add information on expected students performance compared to the information provided by students secondary school background. The more efficient selection method (expecially in term of drop-out rate reduction) is the one based on students career previous to enrolment, eventually beared out by the results of the entry test.
[ITALIANO] Il paper analizza l'efficienza del test di ingresso rispetto altre metodologie di selezione per l'ammissione all'Università. E' basato sui dati raccolti presso la Facoltà di Economia dell'Università politecnica delle Marche, dove tutti gli studenti sono sottoposti ad un test di ingresso non selettivo e dove si dispone di dati relativi alla performance nel primo anno di studio. I risultati delle analisi empiriche indicano che il solo test di ingresso non fornisce di fatto informazioni aggiuntive rispetto al voto di maturità e al tipo di diploma. Il modo più efficiente per selezionare gli studenti (specialmente in termini di riduzione del tasso di drop-out atteso) è basato sulle informazioni derivanti dalla carriera scolastica, eventualmente corroborate dall'utilizzo di un test.
Citations:   CitEc
 
378  Alessia LO TURCO, Daniela MAGGIONI, Matteo PICCHIO
Offshoring and Job Stability: Evidence from Italian Manufacturing [luglio 2012]
Keywords:
  Offshoring, duration analysis, job stability, manufacture, proportional hazard
JEL Classification:
  C41 Mathematical and Quantitative Methods – Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics – Duration Analysis; Optimal Timing Strategies
  F14 International Economics – Trade – Country and Industry Studies of Trade
  F16 International Economics – Trade – Trade and Labor Market Interactions
  J62 Labor and Demographic Economics – Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies – Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility
Abstract:
  We study the relationship between offshoring and job stability in Italy in the period 1995-2001 by using an administrative dataset on manufacturing workers. We find that the international fragmentation of production negatively affects job stability. Service offshoring and material purchases from developed countries foster job-to-job transitions within manufacturing of all workers and white collars, respectively. However, the most detrimental effects for job stability come from material offshoring to low income countries which drives blue collar workers out of manufacturing. Therefore, policy interventions should especially focus on this latter category of workers more exposed to fragmentation processes and foreign competition.
Citations:   CitEc
 
377  Claudia PIGINI
Of Butterflies and Caterpillars: Bivariate Normality in the Sample Selection Model [giugno 2012]
Keywords:
  Sample selection model, bivariate normality, copulae, maximum likelihood, semiparametric methods
JEL Classification:
  C14 Mathematical and Quantitative Methods – Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General – Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
  C18 Mathematical and Quantitative Methods – Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General – Methodological Issues: General
  C24 Mathematical and Quantitative Methods – Single Equation Models; Single Variables – Truncated and Censored Models; Switching Regression Models
  C46 Mathematical and Quantitative Methods – Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics – Specific Distributions; Specific Statistics
Abstract:
  Since the seminal paper by Heckman (1974), the sample selection model has been an essential tool for applied economists and arguably the most sensitive to sources of misspecification among the standard microeconometric models involving limited dependent variables. The need for alternative methods to get consistent estimates has led to a number of estimation proposals for the sample selection model under non-normality. There is a marked dichotomy in the literature that has developed in two conceptually different directions: the bivariate normality assumption can be either replaced, by using copulae, or relaxed/removed, relying on semi and nonparametric estimators. This paper surveys the more recent proposals on the estimation of sample selection model that deal with distributional misspecification giving the practitioner a unified framework of both parametric and semi-nonparametric options.
Citations:   CitEc
 
376  Alessia LO TURCO, Daniela MAGGIONI
The micro evolution of trade and turnover in Turkey under the global crisis [giugno 2012]
Keywords:
  Turkey, crisis, exports, imports, turnover
JEL Classification:
  D22 Microeconomics – Production and Organizations – Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
  F10 International Economics – Trade – General
  F14 International Economics – Trade – Country and Industry Studies of Trade
Abstract:
  We provide evidence on the effects of the recent financial and economic crisis on the Turkish manufacturing. We first decompose aggregate sales, exports and imports, dissecting the contribution of the extensive and intensive margins at the firmand firm-product level. Secondly, we investigate the determinants of both margins, inspecting the role of firm and product heterogeneity in the onset of the crisis, andwe support the demand shock explanation of the crisis. Our findings point at the prevalence of the intensive margin in the negative 2009 evolution of overall and exported sales. On the contrary, the drop in imports, which represents the most dramatic one, is importantly driven by the net exit of large and exporting firms and by the net dropping of products. More productive firms lead the slump in export sales and, among the products, capital and intermediate goods experience the sharpest demand decline. Also, importing favours exporting especially during the crisis. Finally, a stronger resilience emerges for exporters of own products compared to carry-along-trade exporters.
Citations:   CitEc
 
375  Simone LENZU, Gabriele TEDESCHI
Systemic risk on different interbank network topologies [aprile 2012]
Keywords:
  Interbank market, dynamic network, heterogeneity., network resilience
Abstract:
  In this paper we develop an interbank market with heterogeneous financial institutions that enter into lending agreements on different network structures. Credit relationships (links) evolves endogenously via a fitness mechanism based on agents performance. By changing the agent's trust on its neighbor's performance, interbank linkages self-organize themselves into very different network architectures, ranging from random to scale-free topologies. We study which network architecture can make the financial system more resilient to random attacks and how systemic risk spreads over the network. To perturb the system, we generate a random attack via a liquidity shock. The hit bank is not automatically eliminated, but its failure is endogenously driven by its incapacity to raise liquidity in the interbank network. Our analysis shows that a random financial network can be more resilient than a scale free one in case of agents' heterogeneity.
Citations:   CitEc
 
374  Alessandro STERLACCHINI
Patent Oppositions as Competitive Tools: An Analysis of the Major Players in the European Market of White Goods [aprile 2012]
Keywords:
  Patent oppositions, Strategic patenting, White good industry
JEL Classification:
  L68 Industrial Organization – Industry Studies: Manufacturing – Appliances; Other Consumer Durables
  O34 Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth – Technological Change; Research and Development – Intellectual Property Rights
Abstract:
  This paper examines the role and determinants of patent oppositions between the main competitors in a given industry. Differently from previous studies, it is not concerned with high-tech firms but considers the major players in the European market of white goods. Thus, we are dealing with a medium-tech, scale intensive industry which, during the last two decades, has been characterised by a stagnating demand and decreasing unit values. As a result, the level of competition has increased, especially in terms of product quality and innovations. Among the consequences of that, the leading companies in Europe have not only intensified their patenting activities but also the usage of oppositions against the patents of direct competitors. By considering 961 patents granted by the EPO to the above companies over the period 2000-2005, the paper shows, among other things, that the probability of receiving an opposition from industry rivals does not depend on the patent quality or value. Accordingly, it contends that, at least in the industries of this kind, the extent and direction of patent oppositions are mainly associated with idiosyncratic corporate characteristics and strategies.
Citations:   CitEc
 
373  Alberto RUSSO
A Stochastic Model of Wealth Accumulation with Class Division [gennaio 2012]
Keywords:
  power law, social classes, wealth distribution
JEL Classification:
  C63 Mathematical and Quantitative Methods – Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling – Computational Techniques; Simulation Modeling
  D31 Microeconomics – Distribution – Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
  P10 Economic Systems – Capitalist Systems – General
Abstract:
  In this paper we propose a stochastic model in which wealth accumulation depends on the role that agents play in the society: capitalists or workers. A random mechanism of class selection shapes the social structure of the economy based on wealth distribution dynamics. As a result, the society may evolve towards an unequal outcome with few rich and many poor individuals, even starting from perfect equality. We study the dynamic properties of the model by means of computer simulations. A maximum likelihood estimation procedure is applied to analyse the Pareto or power law tail of wealth distribution. We also provide a scenario analysis to explore the system's behaviour under alternative parameter settings.
Citations:   CitEc