Education, Training and Probability of Transition to Permanent Employment in the Italian Regional Labour Markets
The aim of this paper is to investigate the factors determining the "speed" of transition between a temporary/precarious job towards a stable one in the Italian regional labour markets. In this context the importance of individual human capital is widely recognized by the economic literature. Nevertheless, education is not the only variable affecting this kind of labour market transitions. In this paper, in order to have a better understanding of the transition processes to stable employment in Italy, I developed a theoretical model in which the intensity of transition between temporary and stable jobs depends on individual human capital and unemployment rates at regional level. In particular, the claim is that higher rates of unemployment at regional level would reduce the new entrants' wages and would contribute to increase the minimum level of education for the investment in training, and the subsequent confirmation of a temporary worker on the expiry of a fixed-term contract, to be profitable for the firm. To test this hypothesis I estimated a discrete time duration model with gamma-distributed unobserved heterogeneity, based on ECHP data for Italian regions (1995-2001), disaggregated at territorial level. Results are consistent with the implication of the theoretical model.
Temporary Contracts, Employees' Effort and Labour Productivity: The Evidence for Italy
This paper discusses a thesis indicated by recent empirical evidence from both European and non European countries; namely, if firms use temporary contracts as a tool to screen potential employees and provide workers with a "stepping stone" into permanent employment, then temporary employees have an incentive to make more effort than their permanent colleagues. After a theoretical discussion, the paper focuses on the econometrical analysis of this thesis in an institutional context, like the Italian one, in which firms are likely to use temporary contracts, mainly to adjust the workforce during the cycle. Data are drawn from ISFOL-Plus 2005 and from ECHP (1996-2001) for Italy. The paper concludes by pointing out that a higher effort does not necessary mean higher labour productivity, and suggests public policies to improve effort and productivity in labour markets characterised by an increase of temporary jobs.
An assessment of the Impact of Devolution on Women Empowerment in Nakuru County
-Women have been grossly marginalized in organs of decision-making and governance structures. The Constitution of Kenya has sought to bridge this gap by providing both women and men the right to equal treatment, including the right to equal opportunities in political, economic, cultural and social spheres. However, gender equality has not been achieved and women are still lagging in terms of decision making processes. The main objective of the study was to detemine the impact of devolution on women empowerment in Nakuru County. The study found that substantive women representation, development of programs and accessibility of services had a positive effect on the women empowerment in Nakuru County. The study also found out that increased accessibility of Services by women influenced women empowerment, this study also concludes that the introduction of development programs had the greatest impact on women empowerment in Nakuru County. The study recommends that more programs targeting women should be introduced as these have the greatest impact on women empowerment. The findings may be used to make conclusions and recommendations.