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AbstractThis article investigates the determinants of remittance behaviours among foreigners in Italy and intends to gain a better understanding of the temporal pattern of remittances. The analysis is based on data from the 2009 "Italian Statistics on Income and Living Conditions of Households with Foreigners". The decisions on whether to remit and how much to remit are separately yet simultaneously estimated using a zero‐inflated beta regression model. The findings reveal that remittances are driven by a mix of altruistic and self‐interest motives that may persist for many years. Many covariates included in the model have a different effect on the propensity to remit and on the relative amount of remittances. We find some evidence that the average propensity to remit follows an M‐shaped trajectory over time. However, the model specification including only time and time squared proves that the inverted‐U shape trajectory, well‐established in the literature, still remains a better choice in terms of parsimoniousness and flexibility. Among those who remit, time since migration does not have any significant effect on the normalized amount remitted.

Previous studies suggest that Scandinavian countries are the ones with the highest rates of youth poverty in Europe. This somewhat unexpected finding prompts the question whether the incidence of poverty is an appropriate measure of youth disadvantage. Instead of considering poverty rates we define here youth disadvantage in terms of the number of periods an individual is recorded to be below the poverty line. Using the European Community Household Panel, individuals are classified into different groups of poverty permanence, each reflecting severity of social disadvantage. Based on these categories we implement a generalized ordinal logit model to assess the various factors associated with social disadvantage among youth. In contrast to previous research, we find little evidence to suggest that young individuals in Scandinavian countries suffer higher levels of social disadvantage. Moreover there is no significant gender difference in Conservative and Social Democratic welfare regimes, but significant difference in Mediterranean and Liberal countries. As previous studies suggests, young individuals living arrangements matter.

Population trends in Italy are strongly spatially differentiated, with some munic- ipalities showing a systematic loss of population, and others showing an equally continuous demographic increase. Here, we focus our attention on the spatial dimension of population change, looking at how different socio-economic and demographic dimensions affect population changes, as well as their spatial effects. After performing a preliminary descriptive analysis of the trends of population growth and decline in Italy over the last 40 years and the relevant demographic components, we used a spatial Durbin model (SDM) to investigate the potential existence of a diffusion process and the determinants of the average annual growth rate between 2011 and 2019 at the municipal level. The spatial dimension and local heterogeneities in Italy were found to be highly relevant in the analysis of population decline. Moreover, we examined the relationship between demographic, social and economic factors and the demographic growth/decline of municipalities in the subsequent 10 years. Among the different covariates included in the model, the demographic composition of the population, the female activity rate, the youth employment rate and the presence/absence of a school proved to be strongly related to population growth and decline in Italian municipalities.