Search Results
Abstract
To study the behavior of Italian researchers living in Italy with a view to creating appropriate policies to tackle the brain drain and discourage academics from weight in driving emigrating, we constructed a survey based on a sample of 4,700 Italian researchers (assistant professors) in several universities in Italy. The outlook is far from rosy: Italian researchers are generally dissatisfied with the economic and social situation of the country. Strong family ties represent the element keeping them at home in Italy. In this regard, no particular differences were noted between the North and South of the country. In analyzing the Italian academic system we identified factors that have greater weight in driving Italian intellectual talent to emigrate: the country's higher education system leaves all dissatisfied. Furthermore, we discovered other factors that, albeit weak, keep Italian researchers in Italy. However, one wonders how much longer family and national ties will be able to keep Italian skilled agents in Italy, and whether such dissatisfaction may jeopardize the country's future economic development.
The relationship between education and country-risk is an almost neglected question in economic literature, despite the several reasons for which these two issues could be related. In a recent article by Sequeira — Ferraz (2009) a linear relationship is documented. The present article provides evidence that the strength of the relationship between country-risk and education decreases for higher levels of GDP. It also proves that this decrease consistently applies for secondary and tertiary education levels and for the three types of risk considered: economic, financial and political. The relationship obtained here is quite robust across the different subcomponents of country-risk.
Abstract
This paper investigates the use of redundancy procedures (RPs) by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Spain during the COVID-19 pandemic. The novelty of this study is that it goes beyond the direct influence of the determinants of RPs on RP use, and analyses how the interactions among them moderate the direct effect. In contexts of rising uncertainty, businesses need to adapt their operations and fixed costs, including staffing. While teleworking is an alternative to RPs, our results show that it was not enough to deal with the negative impact of a worsening crisis. Moreover, when the survival of the business is at stake, the use of RPs increases further when the company is simultaneously affected by changes in demand and liquidity issues. We argue that our results reveal the need for flexible tools along with the policies that take into account the fact that businesses' reactions are contingent on their exposure to risk.
Abstract
The main characteristics of intra-EU labour mobility are well documented. There is less focus, however, on the pattern of mobility of the East European (EU-13) EU-mobile citizens. This group constitutes more than half (57%) of all the EU movers and show, to some extent, other features than the rest of the EU mobile citizens (EU-15). The first part of this paper gives a brief overview of some key demographic and labour market characteristics of the East European mobile citizens in the most important destination countries. The perspectives of the sending countries are not analysed frequently enough, and thus the second part of the paper focuses on this issue in the case of Hungary, by asking to what extent the serious labour shortages, ensuing from the outflow of Hungarians, could be compensated by the recent increase of immigration of third country nationals. Using OECD data, the paper quantifies the balance of labour gains and losses for Hungary and compares this with Czechia, Poland, and Slovakia. The analysis concludes that despite the substantial recent inflow of third country nationals into Hungary, it remains to be seen whether this has a real substitution effect for the lost domestic labour force.
Abstract
After the devastation of the Second World War, the federal units of the former Yugoslavia were on their way to catching up with the Western Europe, with different degrees of success. In fact, Yugoslavia was considered a success story among the socialist economies due to its specific self-management system. Nevertheless, among the Federal units that later became independent states, regional differences in development level increased, in spite of the proclaimed policy to narrow them. Enough time has passed since the wars of the breakup and the economic transition to check if this divergence is continuing under a capitalist market system, now that all the countries are on the path to the European Union (EU) accession. The paper tests the convergence hypothesis among the states of the former Yugoslavia in terms of Human Development Index (HDI), as a more complex indicator of country development than GDP per capita. The results of two different approaches to test for the presence of β (beta) and σ (sigma) convergence suggest that the gap between the states of former Yugoslavia is closing, albeit at a slow rate. Given that convergence is slow, the active EU policies aimed at hastening the accession of the currently non-member states of the former Yugoslavia would accelerate the process.
The study uses a cross-sectional data set for 209 countries in order to test whether the regulation of social life by Islamic norms and values is related to gender inequality and whether the impacts differ for the MENA countries, as well as Arab- and Muslim-majority countries. The study finds that the impact of gender inequality differs for the MENA, Arab- and Muslim-majority countries only when control variables are excluded from the regressions. The paper obtains empirical evidence against the belief that religion and oil are culprits responsible for holding women back in Muslim countries.
Our paper seeks answers to the following questions: What are the determinants of permanent emigration from Poland and how do they vary for specific economic age groups (pre-working, working, and post-working age)? Do the causes of permanent emigration differ over space in these categories, and if so, how? We applied GIS and ESDA instruments, including geographically weighted regression, which allowed us to identify the variability of regression coefficients in the geographical space. Our research indicated socio-economic factors (among others: poviats budget income, feminisation rate, unemployment rate), which, with varying force and in varying directions, affected the studied variable in specific parts of the country. The analyses were performed on the basis of statistical data on the numbers of de-registrations for residence abroad in Poland’s NUTS-4 in three economic age groups (pre-working, working, and post-working age) for the time span from 2005 to 2013.
Abstract
The main purpose of this paper is to study the functional distribution of income in Portugal in the long run, considering the period between 1953 and 2017. The labour share in income or value added depends on two fundamental variables, labour productivity and the average labour compensation. The trends of these variables are quantified for the aggregate economy and for its main productive sectors. An interesting result emerges, namely the different dynamics across sectors, both for the (unadjusted) wage share (considering only the wages of employees) and for the adjusted labour share (considering also as labour compensation one fraction of mixed income). Moreover, a shift-share analysis is used, in order to distinguish the importance of each sector's wage share evolution (“within” effect) and the changes in each sector's weight (structural changes, or “between” effect). Finally, a first attempt to incorporate the effect of wage inequality on the functional distribution of income is made, subtracting the labour compensation of the highest paid workers (top 10%, 5% and 1%) in order to calculate the wage share of the (so-called) "typical" workers.
The paper presents how the Committee on Futures Research, within Section IX. of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS), sees the possible futures for Hungary for the year 2025, based on the expertise of Hungarian futurists and social scientists, including the opinions of younger generations. It offers insight to Hungarian society in 18 years from 2007, when the research began. In cooperation with experts coming from diverse scientific backgrounds and with those who feel responsibility for the future and are willing to act upon it, we need to continue discovering our horizon albeit in a different way and to embark on new roads. In summary, we need to change the HOW and the WHAT.
