Tindara Addabbo

Gender wage differentials by education in Italy

In this article we evaluate wage differentials in Italy combining gender and education perspectives. The main goal of this article is to verify whether the extent of the gender pay gap varies between highly- and low-educated workers, and whether or not the role played by gender differences in characteristics and in market rewards is similar in the two groups. We apply quantile regression analysis and an adaptation of the procedure suggested by Machado and Mata (2005) to evaluate the predicted wage gap at different points of the female wage distribution scale. The analysis is carried out on the Italian sample of the last available year of the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). We show that the extent and the trend of the gap predicted across the female distribution is sharply different between groups with diverse educational levels. In the case of low-educated workers, although the predicted gap is largely explained by differences in rewards, lower levels of education or experience are responsible for the gap, especially on the right-hand side of the distribution. On the contrary, highly-educated females have better characteristics than highly-educated men that partially compensate the rather high difference in returns, in particular at the extremes of the distribution.

Gender Differences in Italian Children's Capabilities

This paper analyzes childrens well-being using the capability approach, with a special focus on gender differences. The two areas analyzed are the capability of senses, imagination, and thought; and the capability of play. Using data from the 2008 Multipurpose Survey on Daily Life released by the Italian National Institute of Statistics, a structural equation model is estimated in which the capabilities are defined as latent variables that are intrinsically interrelated. For each capability, a set of indicators of functionings is utilized and the effects of individual and social conversion factors – including parents’ unpaid work, their level of education, and employment status – are analyzed. The model is applied to Italian girls and boys ages 6–10 in 2008. The analysis confirms that the two capabilities are interrelated. Policies aimed at improving childrens achievements in education also improve the capability of play and vice versa. Differences by gender occur in the factors’ effects.

Poverty Dynamics: Analysis of Household Incomes in Italy

Poverty increased in Italy during 1993, both in incidence and intensity. This study focuses on the changes which have taken place after the crisis. The data set used is the Bank of Italy Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW), and poverty is defined in terms of disposable income. A descriptive analysis which uses intensity and incidence indices is provided and probit models are estimated on the poverty probability faced by households of the 1993-95 SHIW panel. The latter microeconometric analysis shows that households living in the South of Italy, with an unemployed husband and whose income was further below the poverty line in 1993, are more likely to have remained poor in 1995. Households whose head has a higher level of education and where the number of employed members is higher were more likely to escape from poverty in 1995. On the whole, it can be stated that poverty did not decrease after the 1993 recession and the poverty status of households living in the South of Italy did worsen after the crisis. Copyright Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2000.

Poverty and Unemployment: The Cases of Italy and Spain

This paper sets out to detect the costs of joblessness in Italy and Spain, two countries that show major differences in labour market structure and in their reaction to the crisis. We describe the different unemployment insurance systems in the two countries and how the crisis has hit the two labour markets. A multivariate analysis is then carried out to provide an initial estimate of the possible effects of the current crisis on Spanish and Italian households’ well-being by using the European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Surveys for Italy and Spain. Our results indicate that the unemployed experience a higher degree of income poverty and costs in terms of people’s reduced likelihood of being able to access medical or dental treatment and their being able to afford a week’s holiday in both countries. These costs also change on the basis of people’s employment status prior to unemployment.

Children’s Capabilities and Family Characteristics in Italy: Measuring Imagination and Play

In the capability literature, there has been increasing concern about how to choose and define capabilities (Nussbaum, 1999; Robeyns, 2003) and specifically children’s capabilities (Phipps, 2002; Saito, 2003; see also Chapters 3, 4 and 9, this book). Phipps (2002), for instance, compares the wellbeing of children in the USA, Canada and Norway by measuring ten specific functionings (low birth-weighting, asthma, accidents, activity limitation, trouble concentrating, disobedience at school, bullying, anxiety, lying, hyperactivity). She utilizes some descriptive statistics and shows that Norwegian children have better outcomes than US and Canadian children. The paper of Saito (2003) explores the possible relation between capabilities and education; she mentions Sen’s interview on the application of the CA to children. If a child does not want to be inoculated, and you nevertheless think it is a good idea for him/her to be inoculated, then the argument may be connected with the freedom that this person will have in the future by having the measles shot now. The child when it grows up must have more freedom. So when you are considering a child, you have to consider not only the child’s freedom now, but also the child’s freedom in the future1.

Gender Budgets: A Capability Approach

Abstract Feminist studies have developed several tools to assess the gender impact of public policy and of budgets in particular. In this paper we introduce an innovative approach to the gender auditing of public budgets inspired by the capability approach. First, we expand the scope of the assessment of the policy impact taking into account women’s multidimensional well‐being and the contribution of their unpaid work to other people’s well‐being. Second, we use a macro‐economic feminist perspective to make the capability approach operational in the policy space. Within this extended reproductive approach, gender budgets could become a tool for advancing a reflection on social and individual well‐being and for greater transparency on the gender division of labor, the distribution of resources and the share of individual and public responsibilities.

A Fuzzy Way to Measure Quality of Work in a Multidimensional Perspective

This paper focuses on the definition and measurement of quality of work (QL) by using a multidimensional approach, based on fuzzy logic. The multidimensional nature of quality of work has been widely acknowledged in economic and sociological literature and attempts at measuring its different dimensions can be found at European level in the work carried out by the European Foundation for the Improvement of living and working conditions. The European Commission and the International Labour Office have also identified different dimensions for quality of work and proposed new indicators to measure them. In this paper an attempt is made to maintain the complexity of the quality of work concept by using a technique that allows measurement without introducing too strong assumptions and makes the rules for judging the different dimensions of QL and their interactions explicit.

Poverty dynamics and social transfers in Italy in the early 1990s

Poverty dynamics and the ability of the Italian welfare system to reduce poverty are investigated by using the 1991‐1995 panel of the Bank of Italy’s Survey of Household Income and Wealth. Households most exposed to poverty live in the South, have a larger size, a young or female head, with a low educational level or a discontinuous work profile. The dynamic and static effectiveness (in terms of poverty reduction) of social transfers is analysed, as well as the factors affecting exclusion from the safety net. A closer look is taken at the effects of a minimum income guarantee in the experimental phase in Italy.

Disability and Work: Empirical Evidence from Italy

This essay is an empirical study of the working conditions of people with disability using Italian microdata collected through a survey carried out by ISTAT in 2004. Our analysis is guided by the theoretical framework of the capability approach, allowing us to consider various conversion factors including those associated with different types of disability for explaining the capability of work. Our results are also relevant from a policy point of view, as they focus on a country (Italy) which is considered a flagship model in the international context given its specific legislation in favour of the job placement of disabled people. We find that the impact of disability is different according to the type of disability. Among the other personal and environmental characteristics, age, gender, education and place of residence are significant determinants of being in the labour force.

Capability and Functionings: A Fuzzy Way to Measure Interaction between Father and Child

This paper aims at analyzing the building of social interaction a relevant dimension in the description and conceptualization of child well being by using the capability approach. In this paper we deal with a special dimension of this capability that involves the capability of interaction between father and child. We will try to put in relation and to come to a measure of different factors that can affect its development. We propose a fuzzy expert system to measure this capability both at a theoretical and empirical level. In the applied part of the paper we use a data set based on a ISTAT (Italian National Statistical Office) multipurpose survey on family and on children condition in Italy to recover information on children’s education, the socio-demographic structure of their families, child care provided by relatives and parents according to the type of activities in which the children are involved.