The aim of this paper is to explain the economic causes and consequences of the sharp decline in Italy’s fertility rate, the most dramatic decline in the world together with that in Japan. The main cause is shown to originate in the mid-seventies: a sudden increase in the unemployment rate...

On the basis of a local household survey, this paper examines the economic and social conditions of families with children under fifteen. The analysis refers to a particular area, the province of Modena, one of the richest in Italy, with high female occupation rates and a good deal of public...

Assembling information from several sources and a drawing on specially designed new survey, this paper finds that the shortfall in the supply of child care facilities remains large with respect to potential demand but is less severe with respect to the effective demand by households in Italy....

The paper presents a model of the market for early child care services, where the preferences of households and local government are influenced by relative prices, disposable income and cost conditions, as well as «social norms» such as the attitude to working women and the value assigned to...

Italian Abstract: Rispetto a pandemie del passato, l’effetto della mortalità da Covid-19 sulla struttura demografica dovrebbe risultare più contenuto. Allo stesso tempo, potrebbero pesare in misura significativa gli effetti comportamentali della crisi economica associata alla pandemia, in...

Technical education and training is now interested by a reform process, trying to integrate the different paths that a student can follow to get a technical degree: the professional schools and training courses. Another challenge is that of integrating in the new system the lessons coming from...

The paper compares the quality of Italian Medical schools� freshmen on the basis of the scores obtained in the locally conducted entry exams which are using a common national test frame. The test is quite selective (partly because of the reduced size of the intake yearly allowed): winners...

Given the deep economic and social differences of the Italian territories, the aim of the paper is to examine if there is a relationship between the territorial features of the Italian provinces and the school participation of young immigrants. The analysis focuses on the education experiences...

This paper aims to analyze the Italian University’s physical and human cognitive assets. First we focus on the continuous reductions in public funding (CNVSU, 2011; OECD, 2010) that constrained the Italian university to develop 'entrepreneurial skills', in other words due to the lack of...

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