Italian Labour Force Survey Research Articles

A 'Glass-Ceiling' Effect for Immigrants in the Italian Labour Market?

This paper investigates earnings differentials betw een immigrants and natives. We focus on returns and on the (imperfect) transferabi lity of human capital. Data are drawn from the 2009 Italian Labour Force Survey. We show that returns to human capital are considerably lower for immigrants as co mpared to natives and that there is no return to pre-immigration work experien ce, suggesting imperfect transferability of human capital. We also show that the small returns to immigrants’ human capital are mainly driven by intr a-occupational earnings differentials and that, contrary to what is observe d for natives, immigrants’ human capital does not help to get access to high-level o ccupations. We detect a “glassceiling” effect for immigrants workers, who appear to face a large penalty in accessing high paying occupations.

Work-related health problems among immigrant workers in Italy and Spain

ObjectivesIn both Spain and Italy the number of immigrants has strongly increased in the last 20 years, currently representing more than the 10% of workforce in each country. The segregation...

Reservation Wages: Explaining Some Puzzling Regional Patterns

We use the Italian Labour Force Survey and the European Household Panel Survey to analyse the distribution of the reservation wages reported by job-seekers. In Italy, reservation wages appear to be higher in the South — the low-income and high-unemployment area of the country — than in the North and Centre. A similar, rather counterintuitive, pattern can also be found in Finland, France, and Spain. First, we show that the way in which these data are commonly collected generates double- selection bias. Second, we show that this bias has a strong effect on the estimation of the geographical pattern of reservation wages in many countries. The size of this bias is substantial in Italy. When controlling for it, reservation wages are at least 10 per cent higher in the North and Centre than in the South.

Job search in thick markets

I analyze empirically the effects of urban and industrial agglomeration on both search behavior and the efficiency of matching. The analysis is based on a unique panel data set from the Italian Labor Force Survey micro-data, covering 520 randomly drawn Local Labor Market Areas (66% of the total) over the four quarters of 2002. I compute transition probabilities from non-employment to employment by jointly estimating the probability of searching and the probability of finding a job conditional on having searched. I then test whether these are affected by market size, industrial variety and/or industry specialization. The main results indicate that market size and industry-specialization raise job seekers’ chances of finding employment (conditional on having searched), while industrial variety is not significantly different from zero. Finally, the effect of agglomeration on non-employed individuals’ search behavior cannot be significantly distinguished from zero.

Low Unemployment and Bad Jobs for New Immigrants in Italy

AbstractThe article analyses the incorporation of immigrants into the Italian labour market and the difficulties they encounter in accessing both employment and qualified occupations. The analysis is based on the Italian Labour Force Survey and highlights the fact that the great majority of immigrants entering Italy are hardly disadvantaged in comparison to Italians as regards the risk of unemployment, but, in contrast, they are highly disfavoured as regards the socio‐professional status of their jobs. Unlike what would happen with the old European immigration, nowadays the segregation of immigrant workers in the lowest ranks of the occupational ladder is not due to their poor education. On the contrary, their disadvantage increases if educational attainment is taken into account. The leading role of low‐skilled labour demand and underground economy in shaping immigrants’ integration in the Italian labour market is confirmed by the fact that they have fairly easy access to unskilled and semi‐skilled manual jobs, whereas they experience serious difficulties in entering self‐employment and in obtaining non‐manual jobs.

The Crisis and Employment in Italy

The fall in employment and the increase in unemployment rates in Italy in 2009 were fairly modest, given the sharp drop in GDP and compared with the recession of the early 1990s. This work shows that these data should be interpreted with caution, however. Firstly, employment trends as measured by Italian labour force survey may understate the decline in total employment if, as seems plausible, a lag exists between the entry of immigrants into the country and their registration. Secondly, the rise in the unemployment rate has been curbed by extensive recourse to temporary income support schemes to reduce working hours (such as the Cassa integrazione guadagni or Wage Supplementation Fund) in the northern regions, and by the sharp drop in participation in the South (the discouragement effect). The results of the Bank of Italy’s Survey of Industrial and Service Firms conducted in September 2009 show that the largest employment cuts occurred in the firms most exposed to international markets. Based on estimated labour input elasticity and on the available GDP forecast for 2010-11, we calculate that Italian employment is likely to remain well below its pre-crisis level in the coming quarters.

The Italian Labour Force Survey to estimate fertility

The own-children method (OCM) applied to the Italian Labour Force Survey (ILFS) is an alternative way to give information on fertility for the years before the survey. By deriving children information and the population at risk on the basis of parents’ characteristics, a large-scale dataset for fertility analysis in Italy becomes available, also to reconstruct event histories. The quality assessment provided by comparing the total fertility rate (TFR) calculated on ILFS with the official regional and national TFRs by ISTAT gives us usable outcomes.

Reservation Wages: Explaining Some Puzzling Regional Patterns

We use the Italian Labour Force Survey and the European Household Panel Survey to analyse the distribution of the reservation wages reported by job-seekers. In Italy, reservation wages appear to be higher in the South the low-income and high-unemployment area of the country than in the North and Centre. A similar, rather counterintuitive, pattern can also be found in Finland, France, and Spain. First, we show that the way in which these data are commonly collected generates double-selection bias. Second, we show that this bias has a strong effect on the estimation of the geographical pattern of reservation wages in many countries. The size of this bias is substantial in Italy. When controlling for it, reservation wages are at least 10 percent higher in the North and Centre than in the South.

Hierarchical Bayesian models for the estimation of unemployment rates in small domains of the italian labour force survey

In this paper we introduce shrinkage estimators for the estimation of the Unemployment rate in small domains of the Italian Labour Force Survey. The proposed estimators are based on Hierarchical Linear Mixed Models and on the borrowing strength on both time series and cross section. Auxiliary information from source external to the Labour Force Survey is not considered. A Hierarchical Bayesian approach is adopted, in which models are solved by means of MCMC sampling algorithms. This allows to measure variability associated to estimators accounting, in a simple way, for all e uncertainty sources. Results highlight how, simple hierarchical models allows for remarkable gain in efficiency with respect to published estimates, and that models with a time series component perform better than those based exclusively on data from the same repetition of the survey.

Job Search in Thick Markets: Evidence from Italy

I analyze empirically the effects of both urban and industrial agglomeration on men's and women's search behavior and on the efficiency of matching. The analysis is based on the Italian Labor Force Survey micro-data, which covers 520 randomly drawn Local Labor Market Areas (66 per cent of the total) over the four quarters of 2002. I compute transition probabilities from non-employment to employment by jointly estimating the probability of searching and the probability of finding a job conditional on having searched, and I test whether these are affected by urbanization, industry localization, labor pooling and family network quality. In general, the main results indicate that urbanization and labor pooling raise job seekers' chances of finding employment (conditional on having searched), while industry localization and family network quality increase only men's. Moreover, neither urban nor industrial agglomeration affect non-employed individuals' search behavior; although men with thicker family networks search more intensively.

Choosing between Alternative Classification Criteria to Measure the Labour Force State

SummaryLabour force counting relies on general guidelines that are set by the International Labour Office to classify individuals into three labour force states: employment, unemployment and inactivity. However, the resulting statistics are known to be sensitive to slight variations in operational definitions which are prima facie consistent with the general guidelines. We consider two interpretations of the general guidelines, operationalized by the criterion that is currently followed by Eurostat and a criterion that was followed by the Italian Statistical Office up to 1992. After showing that the labour force statistics resulting from the two criteria differ considerably, we compare individuals whose classification depends on the criterion that is adopted with individuals whose classification is common between criteria to study the boundary between unemployment and inactivity. An application of our strategy is presented using data from the Italian Labour Force Survey, painting a picture neatly against the criterion that is currently followed by Eurostat.

A multidimensional approach in the measurement of underemployment

Within the quality of the work framework a particularly important aspect is underemployment, since it identifies a portion of persons employed inadequately, below their availability and skills, affecting their capacities and well-being. Two main forms of underemployment can be distinguished: a) time related underemployment, which can be measured directly and reflects insufficiency in the volume of work; b) misallocation of labour resources, in particular the mismatch of occupation and education. The aim of this paper is to present a new approach in the measurement of underemployment, showing what information is available from the Italian labour force survey, and what other information is needed in order to reach a better understanding of the multiple facets and to produce a better measure of underemployment, especially concerning skill-related and other forms ,such as income-related underemployment.

Does the Ilo Definition Capture All Unemployment?

The labour market status of many nonworking persons is at the boundary between unemployment and inactivity. Like the unemployed, they seek and are available for work; unlike them, their last search action was not recent enough to meet the International Labour Office definition of unemployment. In this paper we examine by nonparametric tests how the transition probabilities of these out-of-the-labour-force job seekers differ from those of the unemployed as well as the other nonparticipants. First, using data from the European Community Household Panel, we show that in most EU countries these job seekers constitute a distinct labour market state. Second, we rely on information available only in the Italian Labour Force Survey to derive a measure of search intensity that we use to break down the out-of-the-labour-force job seekers. On the basis of their transition probabilities, the most active are indistinguishable from the unemployed.

Does the ILO Definition Capture All Unemployment?

The labour market status of many non-working persons is at the boundary between unemployment and inactivity. Like the unemployed, they seek and are available for work; unlike them, their last search action was not recent enough to meet the ILO definition of unemployment. In this paper we examine by non-parametric tests how the transition probabilities of these out-of-the-labour-force job seekers differ from those of the unemployed as well as the other non-participants. First, using data from the European Community Household Panel, we show that in most EU countries these job seekers constitute a distinct labour market state. Second, we rely on information only available in the Italian Labour Force Survey to derive a measure of search intensity which we use to break down the out-of-the-labour-force job seekers. On the basis of their transition probabilities, the most active are indistinguishable from the unemployed.

Still With Us After All of These Years: Trends in Youth Labour Market Entry, Home-Leaving and Human Capital Accumulation in Italy 1993-2003

In this paper I examine a number of issues related to the Italian youth labour market and, in particular, youth labour market entry, over the last decade or so. The Italian youth labour market has a number of characteristics, present to a degree in other countries, but which by their pronounced character mark it apart from other European Countries. The analysis presented here is essentially motivated by concern with two of these: a) the very high youth unemployment rate, and, above-all high ratio of youth to adult unemployment rates; and b) the strong and increasing tendency for youngish Italians to remain in the parental home. The paper takes a broad approach to the analysis of these questions looking first at time trends in labour market entry, human capital accumulation, home leaving and family formation on the basis of information contained in the Italian Labour Force Survey using also the Bank of Italy's Survey on Household Income and Wealth. The analysis also employs a broad definition of young people which is extended to include young people up to 34 years old rather than the conventional definition using only 15-24-year-olds. Reduced form panel estimates of the determinants of the behavioural variables are derived. The approach adopted is close in spirit and methodology to the work undertaken by Card & Lemieux (2000) in the North American context, O'Higgins (2003) on global trends and O'Higgins (2005) in the Italian context. It is complementary to the recent studies of home leaving and labour market entry in Italy which tend to concentrate on single specific determinants of, for example, home-leaving such as in Becker at al. (2004) on the impact of job uncertainty or Mannacorda & Moretti (2004) on the impact of parental income. The analysis identifies a substantial impact of labour market conditions in shaping young people's choices. The results also highlight the importance of distinguishing the effects of these aggregates by age and throw some light on the interrelationship between the phenomena under study. It may be seen as a first step in a broader research programme aimed at identifying the central factors driving young people's transition choices in recent years.

Job Search in Thick Markets: Evidence from Italy

I analyze empirically the effects of both urban and industrial agglomeration on men`s and women`s search behavior and on the efficiency of matching. The analysis is based on the Italian Labor Force Survey micro-data, which covers 520 randomly drawn Local Labor Market Areas (66 per cent of the total) over the four quarters of 2002. I compute transition probabilities from non-employment to employment by jointly estimating the probability of searching and the probability of finding a job conditional on having searched, and I test whether these are affected by urbanization, industry localization, labor pooling and family network quality. In general, the main results indicate that urbanization and labor pooling raise job seekers` chances of finding employment (conditional on having searched), while industry localization and family network quality increase only men`s. Moreover, neither urban nor industrial agglomeration affect non-employed indvidiual`s search behavior; although men with thicker family networks search more intensively.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Job Search in Thick Markets: Evidence from Italy

I analyze empirically the effects of both urban and industrial agglomeration on men’s and women’s search behavior and on the efficiency of matching. The analysis is based on the Italian Labor Force Survey micro-data, which covers 520 randomly drawn Local Labor Market Areas (66 per cent of the total) over the four quarters of 2002. I compute transition probabilities from non-employment to employment by jointly estimating the probability of searching and the probability of finding a job conditional on having searched, and I test whether these are affected by urbanization, industry localization, labor pooling and family network quality. In general, the main results indicate that urbanization and labor pooling raise job seekers’ chances of finding employment (conditional on having searched), while industry localization and family network quality increase only men’s. Moreover, neither urban nor industrial agglomeration affect nonemployed individuals’ search behavior; although men with thicker family networks search more intensively.

Small area estimation for longitudinal surveys

Over the last few years many studies have been carried out in Italy to identify reliable small area labour force indicators. Considering the rotated sample design of the Italian Labour Force Survey, the aim of this work is to derive a small area estimator which “borrows strength” from individual temporal correlation, as well as from related areas. Two small area estimators are derived as extensions of an estimation strategies proposed by Fuller (1990) for partial overlap samples. A simulation study is carried out to evaluate the gain in efficiency provided by our solutions. Results obtained for different levels of autocorrelation between repeated measurements on the same outcome and different population settings show that these estimators are always more reliable than the traditional composite one, and in some circumstances they are extremely advantageous.

Un modello di misura per l'analisi della disoccupazione di lunga durata

In recent years, specifically in western European countries, it has been observed a notable increase in the number of people showing long duration of job search spells, and this aspect seems to concern mostly some specific groups of the population. Significantly, it has become very common to report besides the unemployment rate the level of long-term unemployment as an important index on the situation of labour markets. In this work a class of mixture models is developed, in order to allow for the coexistence of different distributions of unemployment in the population. These models make possible an interpretation of long-term unemployment allowing for: (a) the estimation of the duration model referred only to individuals with some opportunity of transition to employment, thus eliminating the bias due to the joint estimation of the mixture of two different populations; (b) pointing out the distinctive features (as age, gender, education) related to the disadvantaged side of the population. An empirical application of mixture models on a longitudinal sample coming from the rotating sample structure of the Italian labour force survey is presented, also considering the correction to take into account problems related to length bias.

Use of indicators from data editing for monitoring the quality of the survey process: the Italian information system for survey documentation (SIDI)

Information about the presence of non-sampling errors affecting survey data is of importance both for final users and for survey managers. Besides the direct methods for evaluating the effects of non-sampling errors on survey estimates, the analysis of data obtained from each phase of the production process represents an easy and inexpensive way to obtain information about quality. In particular in this work we would like to focus the attention on the editing phase and its relationships with the other phases of the production process. In fact, the amount of errors detected during the editing and imputation phase can provide information about the non-sampling errors affecting the previous phases of the production process. On the other hand, the editing and imputation procedures should be carefully defined and tested before their application on actual data in order to avoid overediting or other unpleasant “side-effects”. Given the relationship between non-sampling errors, it is important to jointly analyse quality indicators coming from the different phases of the survey production process. To this purpose, ISTAT has developed an information system devoted to embody survey metadata and quality indicators for each of the process phases. This information system enables both to monitor quality indicators over time for a single survey and to compare quality indicators among homogeneous surveys. A set of these quality indicators related to editing and imputation activity are described in this work and a strategy for their interpretation is also presented. Finally an application of these indicators to the Italian Labour Force survey is shown.