Sandro Trento

Crescita della produttività, progresso tecnico e impiego del lavoro nelle imprese manifatturiere italiane: 1996-2006

The article analyses the productivity dynamics of a sample of Italian manufacturing firms in the period 1996-2006. The first part computes Malmquist measures of productivity using non parametric techniques. Our measures show that the low rate of growth in productivity is due to the different models used to adapt to the changes in the competitive environment. Up to 2000, all the firms attempted to improve efficiency, whereas technical progress is absent. After 2000, there is evidence that a group of firms advance the technical frontier, while many firms lag behind and increase the frontier gap. The second part of the article correlates the observed measures of productivity to some characteristics of the employed labor. The hypothesis that productive performances could be put in relation to the two tiers of the labor markets resulting from the reforms adopted at the end of the century is supported. Highly productive firms use a higher share of skilled labor and fewer part-time workers. The reverse is true for less efficient firms. Jel classification:

Does Work Flexibility Help Firm Flexibility? Case-study Evidence

Introduzione. - Lo schema di analisi. - Disegno e metodologia della ricerca. - Flessibilita e adattamento al mercato dei prodotti. - Non Standard Forms of Employment e incontro tra domanda e offerta di lavoro. - Conclusioni

The Impact of Middle Manager Training on Productivity: A Test on Italian Companies

This paper presents panel evidence on the productivity effects of middle managers’ off-the-job formal training in Italy. It is based on a rich and reliable panel dataset covering all sectors of the Italian economy over the period 2006–2011. We employ panel data techniques and self-selection models to show that off-the-job formal training for middle management has a significant nonlinear exogenous effect on total factor productivity. Moreover, results indicate that middle managers’ off-the-job formal training is more effective in larger firms and that different training methods have heterogeneous effects on productivity.

Il ruolo della dimensione e dell’età nella crescita occupazionale delle PMI italiane

The paper empirically investigates gross job flows and the growth patterns of limited liability companies in Italy in 1996-2004, using original data on workforces and other company traits. The analysis shows that the phenomenon of regression to the mean only partially explains the tendency of small firms to grow at a faster pace than large organizations. The analysis of gross job flow indicates that the extent of job creation and job destruction shrunk in the aftermath of the economic downturn in 2001 and that the labour market was less efficient in allocating job opportunities. The econometric analysis shows that size has a negative impact on the net employment growth of a company, even though the negative correlation disappears among units with more than twenty-four employees. Firms with a history of maximum fourteen years outperform the average firm in the sample, while, conversely, the growth of companies is not influenced by their age if these have been in business for fifteen years or more, in fact it can even be a burden among the oldest firms in the sample.

Innovazione e commercializzazione nei settori tradizionali: alcuni spunti di politica industriale

Innovation and marketing in traditional sectors: some industrial policy implications - In an environment with increasing competition, the importance of taking care of customers through marketing, high quality service and after sale support has been shown to be crucial for getting competitive advantage. In spite of the clear evidence that technical innovations are not, by themselves, a guarantee of business success, a high number of firms in Italy seem not to pay attention to those factors affecting the level of perceived quality and still invest only in technical change and new equipment. In this paper, taking into account the Swedish experience in terms of industrial policy, we develop an analytical framework useful for a policy toward marketing innovation. Keywords: two-sided market, innovation, industrial policy Parole chiave: innovazione, effetti incrociati di rete, politica industriale Jel Classification: L29 - L93