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Publication What workers and robots do: An activity-based analysis of the impact of robotization on changes in local employment(2025) Caselli, Mauro; Fracasso, Andrea; Scicchitano, Sergio; Traverso, Silvio; Tundis, EnricoThis work investigates the impact that changes in the local exposure to robots had on changes in Italian employment over the period 2011–2018. It contributes to the debate by providing novel and granular evidence on the impact of robot adoption on new activity-based groups of occupations and by focusing on the overlap between the functional similarities of robot applications and occupations. This framework, consistently centered on workers’ and robots’ activities, reveals highly heterogeneous effects of robotization, ranging from positive to negative across different groups of occupations, thereby supporting a nuanced and granular reading of this debated phenomenon. In particular, the local share of robot operators increases where the increase in robot adoption is larger, while the local share of workers using intensively their torso decreases.Publication The Effects of Overeducation on Wage Distribution in Trinidad and Tobago: An Unconditional Quantile Regression Analysis(Springer Nature, 2024) Doon, Roshnie; Scicchitano, SergioThere is a large literature on overeducation in developed countries, but the evidence in developing countries is still scant. Using data from the Continuous Sample Survey of Population for the period 1991–2015, we apply the Recentred Influence Function (RIF) method, to examine if and to what extent overeducation affects income inequality in Trinidad and Tobago. The results highlight that overeducation has a positive effect on mean income, while it reduces income inequality, measured by both Gini and Atkinson indexes. The results reveal that if the proportion of overeducated workers were to increase, then this would increase the returns of overeducated workers by 29.5% on average. Such a wage premium is higher for low deciles and lower in the middle of the income distribution. With the inclusion of skill and geographic location covariates, there is a substantial rise in their earnings. This shift in earnings tends to favor overeducated workers who are married, younger, i.e., in the 25–35 age group, and are highly skilled. The Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) approach reveals that our results are not significantly distorted by a selection bias, thus corroborating the evidence obtained through the RIF method.Publication Participation of farmers in market value chains: A tailored Antràs and Chor positioning indicator(2024) Gattone, TuliaThis study presents a micro-level indicator of farmers’ positioning in the market chain, based on the conceptual framework outlined by Antràs and Chor (2013, 2018). The indicator considers the selling location of a farming household and its crop buyers. Using panel data from the World Bank’s ‘Living Standards Measure-ment Study: Integrated Surveys on Agriculture’ for Ethiopia and Nigeria, this paper applies the proposed indicator empirically and showcases its superior performance in comparison to existing alternatives at the micro-level. Furthermore, by analyzing the dynamics of farmers’ food and total consumption over time and controlling for vari-ous household and production characteristics, as well as potential confounding factors, this study shows that moving towards a downstream position in the market chain has a positive impact on farmers’ food and total consumption levels. The results are validated through sensitivity analysis and robustness checks.Publication Do informal Networks Increase Migrants’ Over-Education? Comparing Over-Education for Natives, Migrants and Second Generations in Italy and Assessing the Role of Networks in Generating It(Springer Nature, 2023) Van Wolleghem, Pierre Georges; De Angelis, Marina; Scicchitano, SergioWhilst migration has become a structural feature of most European countries, the integration of foreigners in the labour market continues to raise concerns. Evidence across countries shows that migrants are more often over-educated than natives. Over the last few years, scholarship has intended to capture the effect of informal networks on migrants’ over-education. Interestingly, no study has looked into the Italian case, a country for which the effect of networks on education-occupation mismatch is well documented. This article has two objectives: it assesses the extent to which over-education affects migrants and it evaluates the role informal networks play in producing it. We find that migrants have a higher probability of being over-educated than natives and second-generation migrants. Likewise, we find little evidence of a differentiated effect of networks as they tend to increase migrants’ over-education whilst decreasing it for natives and second-generation migrants. Empirical evidence is drawn from the application of causal inference modelling to PLUS 2018—Participation, Labour, Unemployment Survey.Publication The reassuring effect of firms' technological innovations on workers' job insecurity(2024) Caselli, Mauro; Fracasso, Andrea; Marcolin, Arianna; Scicchitano, SergioPurpose This work analyses how the adoption of technological innovations correlates with workers' perceived levels of job insecurity, and what factors moderate such relationship. Design/methodology/approach The study makes use of the 2018 wave of the Participation, Labour, Unemployment Survey (PLUS) from Inapp. The richness of the survey and the representativeness of the underlying sample (including 13,837 employed workers) allow employing various empirical specifications where it is possible to control and moderate for many socio-demographic features of the worker, including her occupation and industry of employment, thereby accounting for various potential confounding factors. Findings The results of this ordered logit estimations show that workers' perception of job insecurity is affected by many subjective, firm-related and even macroeconomic factors. This study demonstrates that the adoption of technological innovations by companies is associated with lower levels of job insecurity perceived by their workers. In fact, the adoption of technological innovations by a company is perceived by surviving workers (those who remain in the same firm even after the introduction of such innovations) as a signal of the firm's health and its commitment to preserving the activity. Individual- and occupation-specific moderating factors play a limited role. Originality/value This study estimates how perceived job insecurity relates to the technological innovations adopted by the firms in which the interviewees are employed rather than analyzing their general concerns about job insecurity. In addition, this study identifies different types of innovations, such as product and process innovation, automation and other types of innovations.Publication Distributional effects of COVID-19(Springer Nature, 2023) Aina, Carmen; Brunetti, Irene; Mussida, Chiara; Scicchitano, SergioUsing Italian Labour Force Survey data for the period 2019Q1-2020Q4 and applying quantile regression model accounting for sample selection bias, the paper investigates the effects of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on the wage distribution of employees, exploiting differences across sectors and by working from home arrangement. The findings reveal that the pandemic seems to positively affect wages of the entire workforce. However, this short-term advantage might be temporary as potentially driven by occupational changes in employment composition, whereas teleworking arrangement entails a wage premium for all workers. Low paid workers, employed in hotel/restaurant sector and not teleworking during the outbreak, face a reduction in wages (− 13.7%), while employees of public administration and education sectors exhibit a wage premium. When considering the joint effect of COVID-19 and working from home arrangement, estimates show that, despite few exceptions, wages of teleworking employees have been not affected by the coronavirus. Finally, we also control for self-selection issue by implementing the inverse probability weighting estimator.Publication Drivers of skill mismatch among Italian graduates: the role of personality traits(2023) Esposito, Piero; Scicchitano, SergioIt is now well accepted that human capital is a heterogeneous aggregate and that noncognitive skills are at least as relevant as cognitive abilities. In spite of this growing interest in the labour market consequences of personality traits, the relationship between these and educational and skill mismatch is scant. In this paper, we investigate the impact of the five main personality traits (Big 5) on educational and skill mismatch in Italian graduates. To this aim, we use the 2018 wave of the INAPP-PLUS survey, which contains information on skill mismatch, on the Big 5 personality traits, and on a large number of other individual and job-specific characteristics. The empirical analysis takes into account both demand and supply variables mediating the effect of personality on skill mismatch and controls for non-random selection into employment and tertiary education. We find that some personality traits reduce the probability of overeducation, suggesting complementarity between cognitive and noncognitive skills. In addition, we find a positive effect of conscientiousness on both overeducation and overqualification. The evidence regarding job satisfaction suggests that individuals with high scores for conscientiousness voluntarily decide to be mismatched when this entails higher satisfaction in other dimensions of the job.Publication Britain and BrExit: Is the UK more attractive tosupervisors? An analysis of the wage premiumto supervision across the EU(2022) Leonida, Leone; Giangreco, Antonio; Scicchitano, Sergio; Biagetti, MarcoWe studied which European Union (EU) economy was more attractive prior to Brexit for employees in supervisory positions. We estimate the extra wage that supervisors earn relative to their subordinates—the wage premium to supervision (WPS)—at different quantiles of distribution of wages for 26 European economies. We find that the UK rewards supervisors more than other EU economies. Moreover, the WPS increases with wage and so increases wage inequality. Over 10% of the WPS depends on the national economic context. We discuss the implications for immigration and policymakers in relation to the post-Brexit process.Publication The call of nature. Three post-pandemic scenarios about remote working in Milan(Elsevier, 2024) Biagetti, Marco; Croce, Giuseppe; Mariotti, Ilaria; Rossi, Federica; Scicchitano, SergioIn recent years remote working (RW) arrangements have increased in many countries, mainly because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has also intensified the need for humans to live closer to nature. Within this context, the paper aims to discuss three possible future scenarios for the spread of RW by 2050, and how this could affect residential choices, people's relationship with the natural environment, and thus the renewed role of large cities, small towns, and areas close to nature. A specific focus is placed on the city of Milan in northwest Italy. To give empirical foundations to our scenarios, we analyzed data for the year 2021. The first scenario we consider (the Gentrified City) implies the risk that Milan will become a gentrified city, thus pushing social and economic inequality. However, on the contrary, our data suggest that in Italy a potential pool of workers would leave the city and move to a small town or closer to nature if allowed to work remotely. This trend could lead to the second scenario (the Doughnut City), but data for Milan show that the share of those willing to leave Milan is lower than the national average, which can be explained by the good quality of offered services; thus, the city center is unlikely to empty due to RW. The desirable option would be represented by the third scenario: some remote workers move to intermediary cities (the Intermediary Cities scenario), reducing territorial disparities.Publication Does Working from Home Increase the Gender Wage Gap? Insights from an Italian Survey of Occupations(2024) Bonacini, Luca; Gallo, Giovanni; Scicchitano, SergioThis article investigates to what extent the working from home (WFH) feasibility of occupations can influence the gender wag gap (GWG) at the mean and along the wage distribution. Based on Oaxaca–Blinder decompositions and unconditional quantile regressions, results show that the GWG is greater among women working in an occupation with a high level of WFH feasibility. We find evidence of both sticky floor and glass ceiling effects for employees with high WFH feasibility and only a sticky floor effect for the group with low WFH feasibility. The positive association revealed between the level of WFH feasibility and the GWG appears particularly strong among older and married women employees. These results underscore that the WFH feasibility may play an important role in exacerbating future gender gaps in wages, as WFH is expected to remain a normal practice beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.Publication On the emergence of cooperative industrial and labour relations(2024) Cardullo, Gabriele; Conti, Maurizio; Ricci, Andrea; Scicchitano, Sergio; Sulis, GiovanniWe explore the long-run determinants of current differences in the degree of co-operative labour relations at the local level. We do this by estimating the effect of the medieval communes –that were established in certain cities in Centre-Northern Italy towards the end of the 11th century – and that contributed to the emergence of a co-operative attitude in the population on various proxies for current co-operative labour relations. Conditional on a large set of firm and municipality level controls, as well as a full set of province fixed effects, we find that firms located in municipalities that had been a free medieval commune in the past have higher current probabilities to adopt two-tier bargaining structures and to be unionized. We also report instrumental variables (IV) and propensity score estimates that confirm our main results.Publication The role of natural resources, fintech, political stability, and social globalization in environmental sustainability: Evidence from the United Kingdom(Elsevier, 2024) Andlib, Zubaria; Scicchitano, Sergio; Padda, Ihtsham Ul HaqNumerous studies illustrate that natural resources, financial technologies, social globalization, and political stability are essential factors that influence environmental sustainability. Therefore, researchers in developed nations must explore these interconnections further, mainly when these nations focus on achieving net zero emissions targets. The present analysis illuminates the connotations among natural resources, political stability, fintech, social globalization, and CO2 emissions in the UK. The current analysis has taken the time frame, 2000Q1 to 2021Q4, and employed the latest approach, i.e., the bootstrap ARDL technique, for estimation. The empirical results revealed that natural resources and social globalization are escalating CO2 emissions. Nonetheless, political stability and fintech lead to decreased CO2 emissions in the specific case of the selected developed nation. The present analysis confabulates an uni-directional connotation between all the chosen economic indicators and environmental degradation in the UK. As per the observed empirical outcomes, developed nations must initiate policies and programs to utilize natural resources efficiently without compromising environmental sustainability. In addition, governments in developed nations should encourage financial technologies and political stability to promote ecological sustainability.Publication Even more discouraged? The NEET generation at the age of COVID-19(2024) Aina, Carmen; Brunetti, Irene; Mussida, Chiara; Scicchitano, SergioThe Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) status is a long-standing problem that occupies a priority role in the European policy agenda, even more during the post-COVID-19 outbreak. This paper investigates whether and how the COVID-19 pandemic and the quality of institutions affect the probability of being NEET in Italy. In treating the 15–34 unemployed and inactive cohort jointly, our hypothesis is that the COVID-19 exposure has increased the risk of being NEET during the second quarter of 2020 whereas the quality of institutions could mitigate it. Estimates on a unique dataset obtained by merging the Italian Labor Force Survey with the Institutional Quality Index dataset, confirms it. In addition, in dealing the 15–24 and 25–34 cohorts separately, our results show that individuals in the older age group are the most affected. Finally, “good deeds” implemented by institutions, such as active policies conducted at regional level, are a further educational investment that could protect from becoming NEET.Publication Family Management and Historical Origins: The Italian Experience(2024) Cardullo, Gabriele; Conti, Maurizio; Damiani, Mirella; Ricci, Andrea; Scicchitano, Sergio; Sulis, GiovanniResearch Question/Issue The purpose of this paper is to analyze the long-run determinants of the corporate structure of Italian firms to explain the persistent role of a long-run tradition of civic capital that has favored interpersonal trust, fostered cooperation outside of the narrow ties of family members and limited the diffusion of family businesses managed predominantly by family members. Research Findings/Insights We examined a large sample of Italian listed and not listed firms and identified those that operate in current municipalities that in the past used to be independent communes. Such firms featuring experiences of civic engagement are today less likely to be owned by a family and run by family management. Theoretical/Academic Implications Our findings highlight the role of institutions as drivers of corporate governance and signal that long forgotten institutions, by modifying local social capital, may interact with family social capital and have important persistent effects on current corporate governance arrangements. Therefore, significant elements of path dependency may explain current patterns of unbundling of ownership and management. Practitioner/Policy Implications Persistent corporate governance structures are difficult even for policymakers to modify. Our findings suggest that political measures should favor the accumulation of social capital at the local level when aiming to change ownership and management arrangements and limit the misallocation of resources due to family management.Publication On the Emergence of Cooperative Industrial and Labor Relations(2023) Cardullo, Gabriele; Conti, Maurizio; Ricci, Andrea; Scicchitano, Sergio; Sulis, GiovanniWe explore the long run determinants of current differences in the degree of cooperative labor relations at local level. We do this by estimating the causal effect of the medieval communes - that were established in certain cities in Centre-Northern Italy towards the end of the 11th century - and that contributed to the emergence of a cooperative attitude in the population on various proxies for current cooperative labor relations. Conditional on a large set of firm and municipality level controls, as well as a full set of province fixed effects, we find that firms located in municipalities that had been a free medieval commune in the past, have higher current probabilities to adopt two-tier bargaining structures and to be unionized. We also report IV and propensity score estimates that confirm our main results.Publication Do Classical Studies Open Your Mind?(2023) Brunello, Giorgio; Esposito, Piero; Rocco, Lorenzo; Scicchitano, SergioWe investigate whether classical studies in high school that emphasize in Italy the study of ancient languages such as Latin and Greek - affect personality traits. Using Italian survey data, we compare individuals who did classical studies in high school with similar individuals who completed a more scientific academic curriculum. We find that having done classical studies does not affect conscientiousness and openness but increases neuroticism and self-reported unhappiness.Publication Technological Innovations and Workers’ Job Insecurity: The Moderating Role of Firm Strategies(2023) Caselli, Mauro; Fracasso, Andrea; Marcolin, Arianna; Scicchitano, SergioIn this paper, we empirically assess whether the perceived implications of technological innovations on the probability of job loss vary according to the innovation-related strategies adopted by firms. We take advantage of a unique dataset based on a large and representative crosssectional survey covering several characteristics of Italian workers and their firms. We find that the relationship between technological innovations and job insecurity is moderated by firms’ technology-specific training programs, their dismissal plans, and the impact of innovations on the tasks and activities performed by workers. Thus, workers perceptions of job insecurity vary significantly across innovative firms and the adoption of technological innovations in the workplace has a multifaceted impact on the perceptions of job insecurity of the affected workers.Publication Navigating the Precarious Path: Understanding the Dualisation of the Italian Labour Market through the Lens of Involuntary Part-Time Employment(2024) Cuccu, Liliana; Royuela, Vicente; Scicchitano, SergioThis article investigates the surge in Involuntary Part-Time (IPT) employment in Italy from 2004 to 2019, exploring its impact on various socio-economic groups and adopting a spatial perspective. The study tests the hypothesis that technological shifts, specifically routine biased technological change (RBTC), and the expansion of household substitution services contribute to IPT growth. There is a widening negative gap in IPT prevalence among marginalized groups - women, young, and less skilled workers. After controlling for sector and occupation, the higher IPT propensity diminishes but remains significant, hinting at persistent discrimination. Additionally, segregation into more exposed occupations and sectors intensifies over time. Leveraging province-level indicators, and using a Partial Adjustment model, there is statistical support for RBTC’s correlation with IPT, especially among women. The impact of household substitution services is notably pronounced for women, highlighting sector segregation.Publication Intergenerational (im)mobility in Pakistan: Is the social elevator broken?(2024) Andlib, Zubaria; Sadiq, Maqsood; Scicchitano, SergioThere is a large literature on intergenerational social and educational mobility in developed countries, but the evidence in developing countries is still scant. In the current literature, household background has been predicted as a significant determinant of individuals' current and future social status because it influences almost every aspect of their lives. We examine various channels through which household socio-economic background and other household and individual characteristics affect individuals' educational and social opportunities in a developing economy, Pakistan. To accomplish the objectives, we have used a rich dataset: the Pakistan Standards of Living Measurement (PSLM) survey 2019-20, which contains information on individuals and their real parents. The empirical analysis highlights that the level of parents' education is more relevant than the level of parents' occupation skills in individuals' social and educational opportunities. In addition, household wealth, region and province of residence, migration status, and disabilities are also significant predictors of intergenerational mobilities in Pakistan. Our results narrate an unequal and dual labour market in Pakistan. Based on empirical outcomes, the study has offered suitable policy implications for developing economies and Pakistan in particular.Publication COVID 19 and Wage Polarization: A task based approach(2024) Schettino, Francesco; Scicchitano, Sergio; Suppa, DomenicoThe aim of this paper is to estimate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the wage polarization in Italy, combining individual characteristics with their task content in terms of physical proximity within the workplace. We use an innovative dataset which combines data from two sample surveys, the Italian Labor Force Survey and Italian Survey of Professions, which provides information on nature and content of the tasks. First, by employing a non-parametric method (the Relative Distribution) we detect a general increasing wage polarization in the sub-period 2020-2019, driven by lowest deciles, after a reduction in the previous one (2019-10). Different groups have been also isolated. Workers with low education, high proximity to customers job, such as the migrant, younger and female ones are the categories that more suffered the general downgrading of the Italian wages happened during the COVID-19 crisis.