Beyond Bias and Barriers : Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering

I estimate the effect of retirement on housework by exploiting the discontinuity in pension eligibility generated by the Italian social security rules. Using microdata from the 2007 wave of the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC), I show that women increase their time spent on home production by more than 400 minutes per week. For men, there is on average no evidence of a significant change, which differs from the results of studies in other countries. However, estimates are heterogeneous by marital status, suggesting that married men do not increase time spent on household production because they can rely on their spouses. I also discuss other possible explanations, in particular men dedicating their time to ‘semi-leisure chores’ that do not fall under the definition of housework used in SILC. Overall, results suggest that retirement does not lead to a more equal distribution of ‘core’ household chores between genders.

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Retirement, Pension Eligibility and Home Production

Globalization implies changes that createboth threats and opportunities. The challenge for Europe is to become flexible in order to avail of the opportunities this brings and surmount the threats. This requires reforming labour market and social policies. When thinking about such reforms the notion of a single 'European social model' is largely irrelevant. There are four different European social models, each with its own performance in terms of efficiency and equity. The Nordic and the Anglo-Saxon models are both efficient, but only the former manages to combine equity and efficiency. The Continental and Mediterranean models are inefficient and unsustainable; they must therefore be reformed. © 2000 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Globalization and the reform of European social models

This research examines how a focus on time versus money can lead to two distinct mindsets that impact consumers' willingness to donate to charitable causes. The results of three experiments, conducted both in the lab and in the field, reveal that asking individuals to think about "how much time they would like to donate" (versus "how much money they would like to donate") to a charity increases the amount that they ultimately donate to the charity. Fueling this effect are differential mindsets activated by time versus money. Implications for the research on time, money and emotional well-being are discussed.

The Happiness of Giving: the “Time-Ask” Effect

This study used principal component analysis (PCA) to develop composite indexes for economic growth, environmental degradation, and social well-being. The mutual relationship between these indexes was empirically tested using a panel vector autoregressive model based on a generalized method of moment approach (PVAR-GMM), and robustness was determined with Driscoll and Kraay regression. To this end, we gathered the data for 36 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries over the period 1995-2016. Using a multivariate framework, the empirical results showed that environmental degradation and social well-being have a significant positive impact on the economic growth index. The social well-being index and economic growth are contributors to environmental degradation. Similarly, economic growth, in the long run, improves social well-being. The results confirm bidirectional causality between economic growth and environmental degradation. Another bidirectional causal relationship was found between economic growth and social well-being. Further, causality exists from social well-being to environmental degradation, but not vice versa. The analysis of the impulse response function exhibited the presence of the environmental Kuznets curve phenomenon in BRI countries. Moreover, the results of variance decomposition suggested that a shock in one index spills over to other indexes simultaneously. The study suggests that policymakers should consider social well-being and environmental degradation in economic activity to achieve sustainable development goals.

The empirical relationship between environmental degradation, economic growth, and social well-being in Belt and Road Initiative countries.

The objectives of this paper are twofold. First, it reviews the empirical evidence showing the existence of linkage between wellbeing and possible co-benefits, investigating in particular the positive effect that happiness and life satisfaction can have on health, social outcomes, employment, education and environmental behaviours. Second, it presents the valuation methods that have been proposed in the literature to place a monetary value on these outcomes. With wellbeing having become more and more relevant for individuals and policy makers, the full understanding of the co-benefits of wellbeing is central for the design and development of wellbeing interventions. As a consequence, the evaluation of the co-benefits of wellbeing is of crucial importance for the appropriate allocation of resources towards such strategies.

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Wellbeing and Society: Towards Quantification of the Co-benefits of Wellbeing

We analysed the relationship between drug use and wellbeing using data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales. We focused on cannabis use, the most commonly used drug, but also controlled for use of other drugs, alcohol consumption and a range of potential confounds. Measuring life satisfaction on a 0–10 scale, linear models found that people who had never used cannabis had significantly higher scores than current users (0.54). Never having used other types of drugs was also associated with 0.37 extra life satisfaction points. Moderate alcohol use (1–2 days per week) was associated with higher life satisfaction than abstainers or more regular drinkers. Following the “life satisfaction approach”, we estimated the extra income that would be needed to compensate for the wellbeing loss associated with cannabis use. Accounting for income endogeneity, our results suggested that being a current cannabis user may cost an individual over £5600 per year, in terms of lost wellbeing, while being a current user of other drugs may cost approximately £4000 per year. While acknowledging possible reverse causality, we estimated the annual population cost of drug use may be as high as £10.7bn in terms of lost wellbeing.

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Valuing the Relationship Between Drug and Alcohol Use and Life Satisfaction: Findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales

This paper sets out to understand the unequal allocation of time by gender in Italian households, trying to account for the simultaneity of partners' decisions as well as the issue of censored observations. For these purposes, we estimate a simultaneous equation model on the partners' allocation of time based on the 2007 Italian Statistics on Income and Living Conditions microdata. This survey allows us to analyze the contribution of institutional factors (such as the heterogeneous distribution of childcare services in Italy and labour market differences), which are particularly relevant in a country like Italy where the female labour supply differs from region to region, and the gender gap in time distribution can be affected by the heterogeneous availability of childcare services. We note that the availability of childcare services represents the most relevant factor after regional unemployment, affecting women's participatory decisions as well as their hours of paid work. This effect is tangibly higher than the effect of their own wages: consistent with the literature on the female labour supply, this is positive, yet tangibly lower than the impact of the availability of kindergartens. In the light of the negative effect on mothers' working hours of the number of children of any age group, this phenomenon leads to calls for an increase in the availability of childcare services and better synchronization between working times and school opening times in order to increase the female labour supply.

The Allocation of Time within Italian Couples: Exploring its Unequal Gender Distribution and the Effect of Childcare Services

Purpose – The current economic crisis has significantly increased unemployment, showing higher persistence than expected. However, since microdata from household surveys are issued with delay, they do not allow a prompt analysis of the impact of the economic cycle on households’ living conditions. The purpose of this paper is to propose a microsimulation methodology to achieve an evaluation of the impact of economic shocks in terms of household’s living conditions to guide policy makers. Design/methodology/approach – The microsimulation technique developed in this paper is based on a nowcasting approach by using different sources of data and by taking into account a whole set of potential transitions across the different statuses of the labour market and the related changes in income. To validate this microsimulation method, the authors apply it to Italy, a country that has been deeply affected by the crisis. Findings – Data have been drawn from the European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Surv...

A microsimulation model to measure the impact of the economic crisis on household income

In this paper we theoretically and empirically analyse the capability to social interaction between parents and children in Italy, within a capability approach framework. For this purpose, after having identified the functionings and conversion factors related to this capability, we have built an integrated dataset for year 2008 with a procedure inspired to the propensity score matching. This allows us to work on a wide set of information, both on the realized functionings, ands on the personal and familiar factors that are likely to affect childrens attainments. We have analysed this data using descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling. Our results suggest lower levels of interaction for fathers that for mothers. Further, childrens capability to interact with the parents is negatively affected by the number of siblings in the household, by childs increasing age and by living in the South of Italy. Also parents characteristics are crucial: highly educated fathers tend to perform better in their interaction with the child and father-child relationship, furthermore, is positively affected by the fact that the mother is employed, while motherchild interaction does not significantly change.

Anna Maccagnan

Papers

Wellbeing and Society: Towards Quantification of the Co-benefits of Wellbeing

Valuing the Relationship Between Drug and Alcohol Use and Life Satisfaction: Findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales

The Allocation of Time within Italian Couples: Exploring its Unequal Gender Distribution and the Effect of Childcare Services

A microsimulation model to measure the impact of the economic crisis on household income

Measuring the interaction between parents and children in Italian families: a structural equation approach