Suchergebnisse

Today, Mediterranean marginal territories are facing tremendous challenges but at the same time they have relevant endogenous resources, which are often underutilized and unexploited and that could be pivotal for the strategic recovery and economic and social development of the whole European territory. In the last decades, they have been characterised by a progressive abandonment in favour to urban areas, with consequent high social costs such as the hydrogeological instability, degradation and soil erosion. This research investigates the potential active role of Mediterranean "marginal territories" with respect to the re-formulation, adaptation, interpretation and implementation of the European development policies. The paper aims to verify the idea that Mediterranean marginal territories, in the sense of weak, mountainous and inland, could take part at the construction of their own development trajectories and actively contribute to the harmonious development of Europe, creating new jobs opportunities and stable development patterns. Moreover, the paper aims to formulate policy implications and strategies for the studied areas and for Mediterranean marginal territories more in general. The structure of this paper starts from general theoretical arguments and a short description of European policies for development; it follows with the diagnostic analysis of three local territorial contexts - i.e. Casentino (Italy), Algarve (Portugal) and Corse (France) - and then it comes back on the general European issues proposing implications and lessons learnt in the analysis of the development processes at the local level.

AbstractWe analyse the role that the liberalization of temporary contracts plays in labour share in some EU countries. The empirical analysis mainly relies on the EUKLEMS database and applies a difference-in-difference approach. Our results, focused on periods of different length (1996–2007 and 1996–2013), show that legislative innovations that favour the extensive use of temporary contracts negatively affect the labour share, likely because they lower employees' average compensations. We hypothesize that these labour reforms, which lead to enduring skill deficits, thus failing to halt the erosion of the labour share of previous decades.

RésuméLes auteurs examinent les différences de productivité totale des facteurs, ou efficience, entre dix branches d'activité et quatorze pays d'Europe, sur la période 1995–2007. L'objectif est de voir, par la méthode des doubles différences, si la législation protectrice de l'emploi temporaire conditionne cette productivité. Les résultats montrent que la déréglementation de l'emploi temporaire limite les gains de productivité dans les pays d'Europe et que cette libéralisation intéresse les branches d'activité qui recourent le plus intensément au travail temporaire. En outre, les auteurs observent que cette déréglementation affecte les activités de formation et l'acquisition de qualifications spécifiques à l'entreprise.

ResumenEl objetivo principal de este artículo es determinar en qué medida la legislación de protección del empleo temporal afectó a la productividad total de los factores (TFP) en 14 países europeos y diez sectores de 1995 a 2007, mediante estimaciones de diferencias en diferencias. Según los resultados, la desreglamentación del empleo temporal afectó negativamente al crecimiento de la TFP en estas economías, así como en los sectores con mayor propensión al empleo temporal. Además, se observa que la desreglamentación del empleo temporal desalienta la formación y la adquisición de competencias específicas de la empresa, lo cual afecta a su vez a la productividad.

AbstractThis article examines national and industry‐level differences in total factor productivity (TFP), or efficiency, for 14 European countries and ten industries for the period 1995–2007. The main aim is to ascertain the extent to which employment protection legislation (EPL) for workers with temporary contracts affects TFP, based on difference‐in‐difference estimations. The results show that the deregulation of temporary employment negatively affects TFP growth in European economies and that, at industry level, this liberalization affects industries with a higher propensity to use temporary workers. Furthermore, the authors find that the deregulation of temporary employment discourages training and the acquisition of firm‐specific skills.

In this paper we apply quantile regressions to investigate the evolution of Educational Wage Premia (EWP) in Italy from 1993 to 2004. Using the Survey of the Household Income and Wealth (SHIW - Bank of Italy) and different classifications for educational attainments, we show that in the private sector EWP have generally decreased over time, considering both continuous and categorical specifications for education, at all quantiles of the wage distribution. Different patterns are observed in the public sector, where EWP remain basically stable over time. A number of robustness checks and various econometric specifications are also applied in order to address sample selection issues. Our findings provide additional evidence in favour of the thesis that the increasing patterns in inequality and EWP, and the related interpretations concerning skill-biased changes, are much less pronounced in continental Europe than in Anglo Saxon countries.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Italy imposed lockdown measures, which also affected places of worship that had to suspend group religious celebrations. This study focuses on the dematerialization of the sacred space, achieved through the creation of the "digital mosque." The author interviewed imams and participated in online worship during the lockdown. The analysis of the data explored various facets, including the reactions of Muslim communities to the impact of the lockdown and government directives guidelines. The study then delved into the transition of certain communities from offline Islam to online Islam, culminating in the establishment of the "digital mosque." The lat-ter serves as both a virtual gathering place for the faithful and a tool for social control and the definition of authority in the interpretation of the online inter-pretation of the sacred. However, it should be noted that different Muslim communities reacted in various ways to the use of the internet.