This paper analyses the business cycle properties of 183 time series relevant to the Italian economy. We propose new monthly coincident and leading composite indicators for the Italian business cycle. On the methodological side, the study follows a schema for constructing cyclical indicators on...

This study investigates inflation perceptions, and their relationship with factors likely to affect them, through a survey of a representative sample of Italian consumers. The results show that reported inflation is, on average, much higher than measured by official statistics. Inflation...

This paper investigates the microeconomic behaviour of consumer prices in Italy using the individual price records collected by Istat. We discuss how to analyse price stickiness and we compute a quantitative measure of the unconditional degree of price rigidity. Prices are found to be rather...

Students’ competencies are influenced by a host of factors, including individual school’s effectiveness. Measuring this contribution is extremely difficult. One way of circumventing the problem is by focusing on changes in students’ competencies, i.e. value-added measures. Using the...

This paper examines teachers’ labour market in Italy. Quality and motivation of teachers are receiving large attention as crucial determinants of pupils’ achievement. These characteristics are difficult to measure as testified by the lack of data. To overcome these difficulties we look at...

Local public services have been the object of a significant reform process since the beginning of the 1990s. The effects of the measures are uniformly considered unsatisfactory. In the paper we provide some evidence – partly based on new ad-hoc surveys – on the degree of implementation of...