A new GLO Discussion Paper demonstrates that the Italian occupational structure is strongly hierarchical, with the locus of power distinct by the locus of knowledge generation.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
GLO Fellows Dario Guarascio & Maria Enrica Virgillito
Author Abstract: Which type of work do Italians perform? In this contribution we aim at detecting the anatomy of the Italian occupational structure by taking stock of a micro-level dataset registering the task content, the execution of procedures, the knowledge embedded in the work itself, called ICP (Indagine Campionaria sulle Professioni), the latter being comparable to the U.S. O*NET dataset. We perform an extensive empirical investigation moving from the micro to the macro level of aggregation. Our results show that the Italian occupational structure is strongly hierarchical, with the locus of power distinct by the locus of knowledge generation. It is also weak in terms of collaborative and worker involvement practices, and possibility to be creative. Our analysis allows to pinpoint the role exerted by hierarchical structures, decision making autonomy, and knowledge as the most relevant attributes characterizing the division of labour.
Contributions to school-to-work transitions: vocational training, skill mismatch and policy
The persistently high youth unemployment rates in many countries are of major concern in society and a challenge for researchers to provide evidence for policy-making (Francesco Pastore and Zimmermann, 2019; Zimmermann et al., 2013). Recent interest has concentrated on a better understanding of the role of specific institutional features of different school-to-work transition (SWT) regimes in affecting the youth labor market performance (Pastore, 2015a, b).
To foster this academic debate, the Global Labor Organization (GLO) had created in 2017 the GLO School-to-Work Transition Cluster under the leadership of Francesco Pastore. From this initiative, a first set of seven research papers were published in a special issue on “Advances on School-to-Work Transitions” (International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40, No. 3) edited by Francesco Pastore and Klaus F. Zimmermann. In a second round, seven additional contributions in this special issue, Part II, deal with the role of vocational training, overeducation and skill mismatch and labor market conditions and policy for the SWT. We provide a brief guide into the value added to our understanding of this important process.
Vocational training
A significant part of the literature expects from vocational education or training an important role in SWT. Is it more important than general education? This crucial question is addressed by Huzeyfe Torun and Semih Tumen (Do vocational high school graduates have better employment outcomes than general high school graduates?). They attempt to reveal causal effects of vocational high school education on employment relative to general high school education using Turkish census data. Initial OLS estimates support the superiority of vocational training for employment performance, but the findings get only qualified backing by instrumental-variable (IV) estimates. While the effects are still positive when IV methods are employed, they are only statistically significant for measures capturing the availability of vocational high school education but not for the inclusion of town-level controls or town fixed effects.
If vocational training is relevant, it should be the focus of
significant policy measures. An innovative study by Elena Cappellini,
Marialuisa Maitino, Valentina Patacchini, Nicola Sciclone (Are
traineeships stepping-stones for youth working careers in Italy?)
documents the role of traineeships as an active labor market policy in
Italy. The evaluation study relies on administrative data where a
counterfactual approach was used to compare trainees to unemployed young
people registered with Public Employment Services with respect to
employment success measured as hiring, job quality and persistence. The
paper concludes that traineeships may delay the transition to work, but
can open youngsters’ perspectives for a quality career in the long term.
To broaden and complete the picture, Irene Brunetti and Lorenzo Corsini (School-to-work transition and vocational education: a comparison across Europe) examine the impact of the types of vocational education across 11 European countries using the 2009 and 2014 European Union Labor Force Survey. Eichhorst et al. (2015) had classified vocational education and training strategies into school-based vocational education and training (as part of upper secondary education), formal apprenticeships, and dual vocational training: Which vocational systems show better results? Multinomial probit models provide indications that dual vocational training speeds up SWT and the vocational focus is particularly effective here.
Overeducation and skill mismatch
Skill mismatches including overeducation are important aspects of SWT
affecting labor market success in many ways. Two further studies
dealing with those issues in a more global country setting are involving
data from the Lebanon and Kyrgyzstan. Ghassan Dibeh, Ali Fakih and
Walid Marrouch (Employment and skill mismatch among youth in Lebanon)
were estimating a bivariate probit model where employment status and
skill mismatch perceptions for the labor market were jointly modeled.
Employability and skill mismatch were found jointly determined for males
and the core region only.
Kamalbek Karymshakov and Burulcha Sulaimanova (The school-to-work
transition, overeducation and wages of youth in Kyrgyzstan) study
overeducation and the impact on wages using Mincer type OLS regressions.
The propensity score matching method is applied to deal with potential
unobserved heterogeneity. Mismatch in the SWT process is studied
employing the Kaplan-Meier failure analysis. Tertiary education
correlates highly with being employed with a good match. Overeducated
workers reflecting the required level of education for a certain
position receive lower wages than those with suitable matches. However,
those individuals judging their education or qualifications to be larger
than necessary have higher wages.
Labor market conditions and policy
Are local labor market conditions an important driver of
post-compulsory schooling decisions and how this vary by gender? Elena
Francesca Meschi, Joanna Swaffield and Anna Vignoles (The role of local
labour market conditions and youth attainment on post-compulsory
schooling decisions) investigate this using the 2006/2007 wave of the
Longitudinal Study of Young People in England survey coupled with
individual-level attainment and school-based data available through
national administrative databases and local labor market data. Their
nested logit model shows that the most relevant factors behind
post-compulsory schooling decisions are expected wages, current
educational attainment and attitudes to school and parental aspirations.
How can labor policy foster the fast integration of young individuals
into the labor market? Stefan Sonke Speckesser, Francisco Jose Gonzalez
Carreras and Laura Kirchner Sala (Active labour market policies for
young people and youth unemployment: An analysis based on aggregate
data) provide a paper using European Union 27 countries Eurostat data
for 1996–2012. The findings suggest that wage subsidies and job creation
programs have reduced youth unemployment effectively. However, the
20–24-year-old unemployed benefit more than the very young.
References
Eichhorst, W., Rodríguez-Planas, N., Schmidl, R. and Zimmermann, K.F. (2015), “A roadmap to vocational education and training in industrialized countries”, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 68 No. 2, pp. 314-337.
Francesco Pastore, F. and Zimmermann, K.F. (2019), “Understanding school-to-work transitions”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 3, pp. 374-378.
Pastore, F. (2015a), The Youth Experience Gap: Explaining National Differences in the School-to- Work Transition, Springer International Publishing, Heidelberg.
Pastore, F. (2015b), “The European Youth Guarantee: labor market context, conditions and opportunities in Italy”, IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Vol. 4.
Zimmermann, K., Biavaschi, C., Eichhorst, W., Giulietti, C., Kendzia, M.J., Muravyev, A., Pieters, J., Rodrìguez-Planas, N. and Schmidl, R. (2013), “Youth unemployment and vocational training”, Foundations and Trends in Microeconomics, Vol. 9 Nos 1-2, pp. 1-157.
Pastore, F. and Zimmermann, K. (2019), “Contributions to school-to-work transitions: vocational training, skill mismatch and policy”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1361-1363. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-11-2019-420
Torun, H. and Tumen, S. (2019), “Do vocational high school graduates have better employment outcomes than general high school graduates?”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1364-1388. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-11-2017-0314
Cappellini, E., Maitino, M., Patacchini, V. and Sciclone, N. (2019), “Are traineeships stepping-stones for youth working careers in Italy?”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1389-1410. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-03-2018-0099
Brunetti, I. and Corsini, L. (2019), “School-to-work transition and vocational education: a comparison across Europe”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1411-1437. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-02-2018-0061
Dibeh, G., Fakih, A. and Marrouch, W. (2019), “Employment and skill mismatch among youth in Lebanon”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1438-1457. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-02-2018-0073
Karymshakov, K. and Sulaimanova, B. (2019), “The school-to-work transition, overeducation and wages of youth in Kyrgyzstan”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1458-1481. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-02-2018-0054
Meschi, E., Swaffield, J. and Vignoles, A. (2019), “The role of local labour market conditions and pupil attainment on post-compulsory schooling decisions”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1482-1509. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-11-2017-0303
Speckesser, S., Gonzalez Carreras, F. and Kirchner Sala, L. (2019), “Active labour market policies for young people and youth unemployment”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1510-1534. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-03-2018-0100
Francesco Pastore & Klaus F. Zimmermann discussing the project 2017 at the Transilvania University of Brasov/Romania
Posted inJournal Special Issue, News, Research|Comments Off on Special Issue Part II of the International Journal of Manpower on ‘Contributions to School-to-Work Transitions’ edited by Pastore & Zimmermann
GLO President Zimmerman visited the University of Nottingham Ningbo/China Globalisation and Economic Policy Centre (GEP) on November 1-2 for the 11th GEP China Conference on “Globalisation with Chinese Characteristics: The Belt and Road Initiative, International Trade and FDI”. See Report. He used the visit to explore local sightseeing highlights on November 3 in museums and libraries. On November 4-5, he moved to Sydney, Australia.
Posted inNews, Travel|Comments Off on Visiting Ningbo on November 3, 2019 after the Belt & Road Conference at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China.
A new GLO Discussion Paperreviews the growing body of research in economics which concentrates on the education gender gap and its evolution, over time and across countries.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: This paper reviews the growing body of research in economics which concentrates on the education gender gap and its evolution, over time and across countries. The survey first focuses on gender differentials in the historical period that roughly goes from 1850 to the 1940s and documents the deep determinants of the early phase of female education expansion, including pre-industrial conditions, religion, and family and kinship patterns. Next, the survey describes the stylized facts of contemporaneous gender gaps in education, from the 1950s to the present day, accounting for several alternative measures of attainment and achievement and for geographic and temporal differentiations. The determinants of the gaps are then summarized, while keeping a strong emphasis on an historical perspective and disentangling factors related to the labor market, family formation, psychological elements, and societal cultural norms. A discussion follows of the implications of the education gender gap for multiple realms, from economic growth to family life, taking into account the potential for reverse causation. Special attention is devoted to the persistency of gender gaps in the STEM and economics fields.
On October 31, 2019 GLO President Zimmermann terminated his visit at Lexin University in Shanghai (see Report 1 and Report 2) to travel by car to Ningbo. There, he visited the University of Nottingham Ningbo/ChinaGlobalisation and Economic Policy Centre(GEP) to participate on November 1-2 at the 11th GEP China Conference: “Globalisation with Chinese Characteristics: The Belt and Road Initiative, International Trade and FDI”. He investigated the upcoming B&R research, followed on November 1 the “World Economy China Lecture” of Justin Yifu Lin (Peking University) on “The Rise of China and the Belt and Road Initiative” and gave on November 2 his own “Distinguished GEP China Lecture” on “Global Labor Challenges and the B&R Initiative”. GLO Fellow Minghai Zhou of the University of Nottingham Ningbo had introduced Zimmermann and chaired his lecture and the following intensive discussions. Zimmermann also gave a longer interview to a team of student journalists from the Ningbo Economic Review. Full Conference Program.
Speaking: Justin Yifu Lin (Peking University)
With GLO Fellow Minghai Zhou (left)
Enjoying the event “after the hour” with friends at the river.
Posted inEvents, News, Travel|Comments Off on Globalization with Chinese Characteristics: The Belt and Road Initiative, International Trade and FDI. GLO President Zimmermann participated at the conference and provided a public keynote lecture on “Global Labor Challenges and the B&R Initiative”.
A new GLO Discussion Paper reveals a predominance of empirical results in the academic literature supporting a negative association between students’ frequency of smartphone use and their academic success.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: We present the first systematic review of the scientific literature on smartphone use and academic success. We synthesise the theoretical mechanisms, empirical approaches, and empirical findings described in the multidisciplinary literature to date. Our analysis of the literature reveals a predominance of empirical results supporting a negative association between students’ frequency of smartphone use and their academic success. However, the strength of this association is heterogeneous by (a) the method of data gathering, (b) the measures of academic performance used in the analysis, and (c) the measures of smartphone use adopted. The main limitation identified in the literature is that the reported associations cannot be given a causal interpretation. Based on the reviewed findings and limitations, directions for further research are discussed.
GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann (UNU-MERIT Maastricht and Bonn University) spoke on October 29 at theShanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance on the merits of global labor economics. The seminar was chaired by GLO FellowWenxuan Hou, Chair in Corporate Finance, University of Edinburgh Business School and Lixin University. China is the most mobile country of the world; it needs globalization to deal with the challenges of demographic change, the need of food and natural resources.
Klaus F. Zimmermann and Wenxuan Hou, Chair in Corporate Finance, University of Edinburgh Business School and Lixin University of Accounting and Finance
Posted inNews, Travel|Comments Off on GLO President spoke at Lixin University of Accounting and Finance in Shanghai/China on the merits of globalization
On his current trip to China, GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann has reached Shanghai/China. On October 28, he met his local hosts at theShanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance, Wenxuan Hou, Chair in Corporate Finance, University of Edinburgh Business School and Lixin University, and Yun Zhang, Associate Dean of the School of Finance, Lixin University. He was warmly welcomed by the President of the University, Li Shiping, who is also a Professor of Education. They discussed the perspectives of higher education and models of international collaboration. Zimmermann also enjoyed the city skyline after the long trip and will provide a public lecture at the University on October 29 on the merits of global labor economics.
President Li Shiping & Zimmermann
Wenxuan Hou, Zimmermann & Yun Zhang in front of the university library
The Annual Conference 2019 on “Bilding Bridges” of The Academy of Europe – Academia Europaea (AE), took place on October 23-25, 2019 in Barcelona. AE welcomed a large number of new members, including GLO Fellows Marco Vivarelli (Università Cattolica-Milano) and Douglas S. Massey (Princeton University), and saw a larger number of academic sessions of high quality and interest. Klaus F. Zimmermann, Professor Emeritus of Bonn University, UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University and President of the Global Labor Organization was also present in his role as Chair of the AE Section “Economics, Business and Management Sciences”. In a joint meeting of AE Classes A1 (Humanities) and A2 (Social and Related Sciences) chaired by AE Class Chairs Poul Holm (Trinity College Dublin, A1) and Björn Wittrock (Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, A2), Marilyn Strathern, University of Cambridge, provided a lecture on “Counting People”. Her contribution was debated by Kirsten Drotner (University of Southern Denmark) and through a very lively discussion of the members of both classes. More pictures.
GLO President & AE Section Chair Economics, Business & Management Sciences in Barcelona
Zimmermann and Class Chairs Björn Wittrock (A2) and Poul Holm (A1) (left to right)
Marilyn Strathern, University of Cambridge, speaks on “Counting People”
A new GLO Discussion Paperreviews challenges and perspectives of work policies affecting the well-being of trans people.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: For trans people (i.e. people whose gender is not the same as the sex they were assigned at birth) evidence suggests that transitioning (i.e. the steps a trans person may take to live in the gender with which they identify) positively affects positivity towards life, extraversion, ability to cope with stress, optimism about the future, self-reported health, social relations, self-esteem, body image, enjoyment of tasks, personal performance, job rewards and relations with colleagues. These relationships are found to be positively affected by gender affirmation and support from family members, peers, schools and workplaces, stigma prevention programs, coping intervention strategies, socioeconomic conditions, anti-discrimination policies, and positive actions. Also important are legislation including the ability to change one’s sex on government identification documents without having to undergo sex reassignment surgery, accessible and affordable transitioning resources, hormone therapy, surgical treatments, high-quality surgical techniques, adequate preparation and mental health support before and during transitioning, and proper follow-up care. Societal marginalization, family rejection, violations of human and political rights in health care, employment, housing and legal systems, gendered spaces, and internalization of stigma can negatively affect trans people’s well-being and integration in societies. The present study highlights that although transitioning itself can bring well-being adjustments, a transphobic environment may result in adverse well-being outcomes. Policy makers should aim to facilitate transitioning and create cultures of inclusion in different settings, such as schools, workplaces, health services and justice.
Posted inNews, Research|Comments Off on October 21, 2019. Trans People: Transitioning, Mental Health, and Life and Job Satisfaction. A New GLO Discussion Paper.
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