The impact of education on fertility in Italy. Changes across cohorts and south–north differences

Quality & Quantity - Several studies suggest that over the last decades in Italy the negative effects of women’s education on fertility have attenuated. However, recent analyses developed...     

Analysing Household and Intra-urban Variants in the Consumption of Financial Services: Uncovering “Exclusion” in an English City

This study provides an empirical assessment of the socioeconomic factors that determine household exclusion from consumer financial services. A unique microeconomic data set, of interview data, collected from a representative cross-sectional sample of 1005 households is analysed using logistic regression techniques. In investigating exclusion from consumer financial services, both financial self-exclusion and institutional-led financial exclusion are examined. Indicators of financial self-exclusion include the absence of a savings account or home contents insurance, whilst indicators of institutional-led financial exclusion include the use of “doorstep lenders.” Findings show that both measures of financial self-exclusion are determined by income, education, age, housing tenure, and social participation, whilst financial exclusion is generally associated with socioeconomic characteristics such as age, gender, housing tenure, working status, income, disability, and the presence of young people in household but not with respondents’ residential area, education level, internet use, and social participation. These results offer useful insights to policy makers and financial services providers in terms of the range and mix of policies and instruments that local and central Government can deploy to address exclusion.     

The Codes of Ethics of S&P/MIB Italian Companies: An Investigation of Their Contents and the Main Factors that Influence Their Adoption

This article introduces and discusses the initial results of a survey focused on the contents, role and effectiveness of company codes of ethics. The article examines the contents of the codes of ethics of companies operating in the private sector in Italy, quoted on the Italian Stock Exchange (Standard&Poor/Mib-Milano Indice Borsa). The purpose of this investigation was to identify any correlations between sector characteristics and the contents of the codes of ethics, which would enable us to map out the main principles followed in writing the companies’ codes of ethics. The analysis was conducted in order to ascertain whether there were common factors deriving from the shared ethical questions faced by the companies operating in the same sector of activity. As the first step, the 40 companies were subdivided into three main economic categories – Industrial, Financial and Service. Then the contents of each code of ethics were evaluated and classified in accordance with different criteria. The main categories of classification were based on – general principles, social values, rules of conduct, relationships with third parties, implementation and sanctions. The next objective was to investigate whether these characteristics were due to the regulation of the sector of reference, the existence of sector benchmarks for best practice, or simply companies’ voluntary stance on ethical issues. The main conclusions were that the codes of ethics of the Italian companies that we analysed do not seem to show relevant differences traceable to sector of activity, and their adoption is affected by several reasons other than intentionally ethical considerations.