Socioeconomic inequality in health-related behaviors: a lifestyle approach

The adoption of certain behaviors—like smoking or physical activity—is recognized as a major factor affecting health. Analyzing the social determinants of these behaviors, then, should be considered an important goal, since it may improve our understanding of the more general phenomenon of health inequalities. In this paper we analyze the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and health-related behaviors among the Italian population aged 18–74 in 2004/2005. Using large-scale sample survey data and a Weberian lifestyle approach, we first identify an ordered multidimensional space of health-related behaviors, and partition this space into a meaningful set of discrete regions representing a fine-grained taxonomy of health lifestyles. Then, we use regression analysis to determine if, and to what extent, the identified lifestyles are associated with SES. Using level of education as an indicator of SES, we find that the propensity to adopt healthier lifestyles exhibits a positive educational gradient, whereas the probability of following less healthy lifestyles is inversely associated with the level of education. We conclude that, in general, focusing on health lifestyles—i.e., on combinations of multiple health-related behaviors—instead of single behaviors may lead to a better understanding of health-related practices and their relationship with socioeconomic status.     

Technological content of exports

A large body of literature argues that the characteristics of exports matter for economic growth and development because some goods trigger positive externalities or are subject to increasing returns. Thus, for policy purposes, it is important to know whether a country’s export basket enjoys these productive opportunities. They have been associated with technological content of exports. However, measuring them is not easy. Previous methodologies to account for exports’ technological content used either R&;D data or trade data. The former is used to account for knowledge-intensive activities during the production phase and the latter to identify levels of ‘sophistication’ of exports based on exporting countries’ characteristics. Building on these contributions, this paper combines industry-based and product-based indicators to circumvent some of the shortcomings of the received literature, including the product-industry controversy (i.e. are the actual activities during the production process or the product characteristics what better accounts exports’ technological content?). We use data from Uruguay on direct and indirect R&;D spending from public and private sources and also trade data to build the sophistication index corrected by quality. We contrast our findings with existing methodologies to highlight our contribution.     

Improving Group Attention: An Experiment with Synchronous Brainstorming

In this paper we address the problem of information overload in synchronous group work: the large quantity of information, multiple information sources, and the need to sustain reciprocal interdependence have a negative impact on the capacity to attend to the group. We propose a group attention model characterizing the dynamic coupling between the group members and the mediating technology. Based on that model, we developed a compensation mechanism capable to estimate the most adequate time to raise the users?? attention to the group. We describe how this compensation mechanism was applied to synchronous brainstorming and present results from a laboratory experiment. The obtained results indicate that groups using the compensation mechanism produced 9.6% more ideas when compared to the control groups. A detailed post-hoc analysis of the data obtained in the experiment also indicates that users using the compensation mechanism had 7.5 s of extra uninterrupted time to think about and type an idea, which they began to write 6.4 s sooner, and completed in 4.2 s less time.     

Dissipation of Knowledge and the Boundaries of the Multinational Enterprise

This paper provides a theoretical formalization of the joint-venture contract, as an alternative to foreign direct investment (FDI), within a Dissipation of Intangible Assets (DIA) framework. In a two-period model, we discuss how the threat of knowledge spillover shapes the boundaries of a multinational enterprise (MNE). Similarly to the theoretical findings on the FDI-licensing trade-off, we show that the integrated solution is more likely to emerge when know-how easily spills over—i.e., when firms are endowed with more intangible assets or they belong to high-tech industries. Probit estimates, from a new firm-level data set, show that Japanese manufacturing operations in Europe are in line with these predictions. JEL no. F23, C25, O5     

A Tale of Three Countries: Italian,Spanish and Swiss Manufacturing Operations in China

In this paper, the choice of joint venture versus wholly foreign‐owned enterprise (WFOE), made by Italian, Spanish and Swiss multinationals in China, as shaped by the risk of dissipation of intangible assets, is investigated. Probit estimates, based on an entirely new firm‐level dataset, constructed by the author, show that WFOE is more likely to emerge when know‐how easily spills over – namely for firms endowed with more intangible assets or belonging to high‐tech sectors – in line with the theoretical expectations.     

Union responses to ‘multi‐enterprise’ factories in the Italian motor industry

During the 1990s, outsourcing work was commonly associated with the weakening of union organisation and the deterioration of pay, working conditions and job security. A variant of outsourcing, termed here as ‘insourcing’, involves a firm purchasing ‘non‐core’ functions and services from enterprises located under the same roof. This case study of Fiat outlines the impact of insourcing on traditional arrangements and practices, and analyses the response of Italian local unions. The findings indicate that in the context of ‘bargained compromise’ between trade unions and management in the Italian motor industry insourcing did not have the negative implications for union organisation and employee terms and conditions associated with traditional outsourcing.     

Change in contemporary Italy's social concertation

This article examines the crisis of social concertation in Italy since 2000. We argue that this crisis is not due exclusively to the political shift from a centre‐left to a centre‐right government led by Silvio Berlusconi, or the end of the European integration phase. It reflects the continued failure of Italian social concertation to address problems of economic growth and work productivity was apparent by the second half of the 1990s. We argue that this is due mainly to the stagnation of the decentralisation process at the company and territorial levels and, in particular, the limited development of second‐level collective bargaining introduced by the 1993 July Ciampi Protocol. This reflects a weakness in the Italian institutional context as well as the difficulties associated with the altering of industrial relations in global market economies more generally. The prospects for the future of concertative policy making in the Italian context are also discussed.     

Ex-dividend returns: The Mexican puzzle

We study ex-dividend returns in Mexico, where an imputation system entitles individual investors to a net dividend tax credit. Based on taxation, we expect ex-day abnormal returns to be negative or at most zero in Mexico. However, they are significantly positive. Because ex-day returns are positive even for stocks restricted to Mexican nationals, they are not attributable to foreign stockholders’ tax considerations. None of the market microstructure-based hypothesis in the literature can explain these positive ex-day returns. Ex-day returns in Mexico are a puzzle.     

Union Strategies,National Institutions and the Use of Temporary Labour in Italian and US Plants

This article analyses variation in the use of temporary labour based on a comparison of two plants of the same US automotive multinational corporation, one in Italy and the other in the United States. We argue that differences in the use of temporary labour are explained by union capacities to make trade‐offs between alternative forms of flexibility as well as trade‐offs in the protection of internal and external groups of workers. Union capacity is dependent on the availability of power resources within different national institutional environments. These resources are shown to influence not only the ways in which temporary workers are used but also bargaining outcomes — including employment conditions — benefiting them.