The bulk of literature finding support for the Skill-Biased Technological Change (SBTC) hypothesis has focused on the US and the UK, while evidence on other countries is "mixed". We use firm-level data to test for the presence of SBTC in Italian manufacturing. This is interesting since, as well...

This paper uses data from the 1993 Survey of Household Income and Wealth;conducted by the Bank of Italy in order to estimate a reduced form purist model;of female marital fertility and labour force participation. It focuses in particular on;the effect of formal education on both fertility and...

Tra i fatti stilizzati osservati da Kuznets nelle fasi avanzate dello sviluppo economico vi sono la riduzione dei divari settoriali di valore aggiunto per addetto e quella del rapporto tra valore aggiunto per addetto nei servizi e nell'industria (S/M). Nel paper abbiamo mostrato come...

In this paper we aim to remedy some shortcomings in the economic literature on university student absenteeism and academic performance. We start by introducing a simple theoretical model in which students decide the optimal allocation of their time between lecture attendance, self-study and...

[ITALIANO] In questo paper viene analizzata la decisione di proseguire gli studi dopo il completamente della "scuola dell'obbligo" in Italia. Utilizzando i dati dell'Indagine sui Bilanci delle Famiglie Italiane (Banca d'Italia) sono stati stimati dei modelli di scelta binaria (probit e logit) al...

In 2001 a '3+2' (unitary two-tier) university system was introduced in Italy where a 3-year First Level degree followed by a 2-year Second Level degree replaced a one-tier system where the 'old' degree (Laurea) duration varied between a minimum of four (e.g. economics) and a maximum of six...

After the "3+2" University reform in Italy there has been a fast increase in the number of students. A common wisdom is that this result was partly achieved by reducing the standard of Higher Education (HE). In this paper we first build a theoretical model in which individuals decide whether to...

In questo articolo vengono analizzati i fattori che influenzano l’impegno di studio, e conseguentemente la performance degli studenti iscritti all’universit` a e quelli che spingono gli studenti a indirizzarsi verso uno specifico corso di laurea (facolt`a). In particolare, un modello teorico...

This paper investigates the differences in early occupational earnings of UK male graduates by degree subject during the period 1980-1993. We match administrative student-level data from the Universities' Statistical Record (USR) and occupational earnings information from the New Earnings Survey...