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...

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...

We estimate the private (individual) and social return to schooling in Italy and four macro-regions. Our estimates take into account the effects of schooling on employment and wages as well as the key features of the Italian tax and social insurance system. We find that the individual return to...

A long-standing economic tradition maintains that labour supply reacts to market tightness; its sensitivity to job quality has received less attention. If firms hire workers with both temporary and open-ended contracts, does participation increase when more permanent jobs are available? We...

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...