Giuseppe Lucio Gaeta

Was it worth it? An empirical analysis of over-education among Ph.D. recipients in Italy

This paper aims to provide an empirical examination of factors associated with overeducation among Ph.D. graduates in Italy. Our investigation is based on recently released data collected by the Italian National Institute of Statistics by means of interviews with a large sample of Ph.D. recipients, carried out a few years after they obtained their Ph.D. degree. We measured the mismatch between their current job and previous Ph.D. studies using two direct subjective evaluations of over-education, which distinguish between the usefulness of the Ph.D. title to get the current job position and to perform the current work activities. Even if the incidence of over-education varies according to the measurement applied, we found that it is highly widespread among Ph.D. recipients. Our econometric analyses are aimed at identifying factors associated with over-education and are based on the standard probit model and the bivariate probit model with sample selection which allows to control for self selection into employment. Our results show that over-education is significantly correlated with: i) a number of Ph-D. related variables, such as the scientific field of study, having attended courses or visiting periods abroad; ii) some job-related characteristics, such as working in the academia or being mainly involved in research related activities; iii) the channel of access to the job; iv) residential location. This paper contributes to the literature focusing on job-education mismatch by providing, to the best of our knowledge, the first empirical analysis of over-education among Ph.D. recipients in Italy; moreover, it provides some useful insights to evaluate the professional doctoral graduates in Italy.

Cross-Country Heterogeneity in Government Transparency and Citizens’ Political Efficacy. A Multilevel Empirical Analysis

Using cross-country data from the Citizenship database of the 2004 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) and relying on multilevel mixed-effects modeling, we investigate the link between government transparency and citizens’ external political efficacy. Results indicate that transparency enhances the perception of institutions’ responsiveness to citizens’ actions, but also highlight that this effect is mediated by citizens’ level of education. In particular, while for better educated people the magnitude of government transparency’s effect on citizens’ external efficacy is substantial, the same effect is negligible for less educated citizens who appear to be “lost in transparency.”

In or Out of Love with Europe? An Empirical Analysis of the Determinants of National Political Parties’ Orientation Toward the European Union

Abstract This chapter focuses on the impact of national economic conditions and voters’ attitudes on the positioning of European national political parties with regard to the European Union (EU). We provide an empirical analysis based on data gathered through the Chapel Hill Expert Survey (CHES) covering parties from 14 European countries observed over the 1999–2010 time span. We perform a regression analysis where the dependent variable measures the position of political parties vis-a-vis EU integration and explanatory variables include a number of measures of national economic conditions, features of the national political and institutional framework and voters’ Euroscepticism. Fixed effect, ordered logit and fractional logit estimates provide the following main results. Compared with other parties, non-mainstream political parties and those acting in established economies are more prone to mirror citizens’ Eurosceptic sentiments. National economic conditions such as inflation as well as gross domestic product (GDP) growth affect mainstream party support for the EU. Smaller and ideologically extreme parties are, on average, less supportive of European integration.

Anti-poverty competences in a multilevel government: an empirical analysis of citizens’ preferences in Europe

ABSTRACT This article aims to investigate individuals’ perceptions about institutions that should be primarily responsible for reducing or preventing poverty, which is a dramatic phenomenon that became a crucial issue in European countries over recent years. We propose an empirical analysis based on European survey data and investigate some citizens’-level and country-level variables that potentially affect individuals’ attitudes. Our results suggest that country-level economic and institutional characteristics do significantly affect individual preferences for the governance of anti-poverty policies.

ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGE IN THE EU: A CROSS-COUNTRY EMPIRICAL STUDY ON THE CONTEXTUAL DETERMINANTS OF NPM REFORM RHETORIC

Framed within the paradigm of New Public Management (NPM), structural reforms in the EU aimed at modernizing the public administrations of Member States (MSs) have long since been a priority area of the EU’s economic policy. Since the 1990s, these reforms have been sharply intensified across European countries with the declared purpose of enhancing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in their national public sectors organizations. In line with the European Commissions recent research initiatives in search for novel quantitative data on NPM in the EU, this paper studies European parties NPM reform rhetoric. More specifically, it investigates the MSs institutional, economic and political context within which parties have declared their intention of reforming national administrative systems. Thus, it sheds light on the MSs domestic factors that are associated with the diffusion of the NPM values across the political discourse of EUs national parties.

Post high school education choices in Italy: an empirical analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze individual level determinants of Italian secondary school graduates’ educational choices. Design/methodology/approach – The authors rely on data provided by a large survey carried out by the Italian National Institute of Statistics. While previous contributions specifically focus on individual determinants of university enrollment, the authors model graduates’ choice as emerging from a comparison of three alternative options: stop studying in order to enter the job market, continue studying at University and attend a post-secondary professional course. Therefore the multinomial logit estimates enable to define the profiles of high school graduates making different post-secondary educational choices. Findings – On the one hand, the authors find that having a good family background, with highly educated parents who hold prestigious professional positions, is associated to a preference for enrollment at university rather than stopping studying. Th...