Gennaro Punzo

Income inequality between overlapping and stratification: a longitudinal analysis of personal earnings in France and Italy

Abstract The aim of this paper is to gain new insights into the generation process of personal income in France and Italy, two countries that are in close geographical proximity but have a large disparity in terms of income growth and distribution. In the first step, the potential of EU-SILC balanced panel (2004–2007) is exploited by random effects models, which also make it possible to explore the primary factors that are likely to explain differences in generating personal labour earnings. In the second step, the ANOGI (Analysis of Gini) decomposition enables one to assess the contribution of each sub-population to overall income inequality and the degree to which each subgroup is stratified. A joint evaluation of income determinants gives evidence of the high complexity of inequality process and throws light on the role of gender, skill levels and job characteristics in determining different degrees of income stratification. Indeed, although the high heterogeneity among members of a same subgroup (within-group inequality) explains a large share of overall income inequality, the between-group inequality becomes significant in explaining the income differentials between employment status and occupation types.

Patterns of earnings differentials across three conservative European welfare regimes with alternative education systems

The aim of this paper is to investigate, from a generational perspective, the effect of human capital on individual earnings and earnings differences in Germany, France and Italy, three developed countries in Western Europe with similar conservative welfare regimes but with important differences in their education systems. Income inequalities between and within education levels are explored using a two-stage probit model with quantile regressions in the second stage. More precisely, drawing upon 2005 EU-SILC data, returns on schooling and experience are estimated separately for employees and self-employed full-time workers by means of Mincerian earnings equations with sample selection; the sample selection correction accounts for the potential individual self-selection into the two labour force types. Although some determinants appear to be relatively similar across countries, state-specific differentials are drawn in light of the institutional features of each national context. The study reveals how each dimension of human capital differently affects individuals’ earnings and earnings inequality and, most of all, how their impacts differ along the conditional earnings distribution and across countries. In the comparative perspective, the countrys leading position in terms of the highest rewards on education also depends on which earnings distribution (employee vs. self-employed) is analysed.

Generational Determinants on the Employment Choice in Italy

Aim of the paper is to explore some crucial factors playing a significant role in employment decision-making in Italy. In particular, we aim at investigating the influence of family background on the choice to be self-employed rather than salaried; for this end, a series of regression models for categorical data is tested both on sampled workers, taken as a whole, and by gender separation. In this light, to test if the employment choice is context-dependent, environmental attributes are also modeled. In addition to a diversity of determinants, our results shed light on some differences between self-employed workers by first and second generation.

Measuring poverty and living conditions in Italy through a combined analysis at a sub-national level 1

Aim of this paper is to explore poverty patterns and differentials across Italian provinces for several objective dimensions of life-style deprivation according to a multidimensional and fuzzy approach. We propose a joint analysis of monetary and supplementary deprivation to point out the extent to which the two aspects of poverty overlap for the population concerned, to look into their potential background determinants and to sketch a territorial poverty profile. Since traditional direct estimators, based on ECHP data, cannot provide adequate precision due to smallness of domain-specific sub-sample, we test Rao-Yu models, as extension of Fay-Herriot estimator, to handle time-series data. In addition to a diversity of deficiencies found throughout Italy, empirical evidence clearly emphasize higher degrees of overlap in “poorer” southern provinces and lower degrees in “richer” northern ones, justifying the implementation of different approaches to poverty measurement to identify those areas which, more than others, need structural interventions.

The generational perspective of gender gap in wages and education in southern Europe

Abstract This paper aims at investigating gender differentials in wages and education from an intergenerational perspective across four developed countries of southern Europe, considering the generational transmission of preferences and the gender equality systems and policies. Measures of gender inequality in wages and education permit exploring the different extent to which gender gaps depend on unobserved factors, such as discrimination. A first set of discrimination indexes is computed starting from the estimation of extended Mincerian log-earnings equations, whereas a second set is based on the estimation of ordered logistic regressions on a range of personal characteristics considered to be linked to education, controlling for family background. The main results show that family background affects the degree of gender inequality more than the gender equality policies do. Gender disparities in professional outcomes can be partly due to women’s preferences vs. lower-paid jobs because of the incomplete efficacy of national systems.

Female Labour Force Participation and Selection Effect: Southern vs Eastern European Countries

The aim of this paper is to explore the main determinants of women’s job search propensity as well as the mechanism underlying the selection effect across the four European countries (Italy, Greece, Hungary and Poland) with the lowest female labour force participation. The potential bias due to the overlap in some unobserved characteristics is addressed via a bivariate probit model. Significant selection effects of opposite signs are found for the Greek and Polish labour markets.