By showing the effects of geographic mobility for study and labour purposes, the aim of this study is to explain which are the main factors of earning differentials among graduates and to estimate the employment probability with relation to different Italian universities and different degree courses. In particular, the report aims at providing an estimate of the effects of geographic mobility on graduates' earning differentials and employment probabilities by comparing southern universities and those in other Italy's areas. In addition, in order to compare national results with local results, this report includes in the analysis a sub-sample of residents in southern regions. Focusing on territorial features and different academic offerings enables to outline incoming and outgoing mobility patterns, highlighting the effects of southern human capital migration towards North-Central regions' universities.

We study firms’ export and R&D activities and their effects on employment growth and worker flows for a sample of Italian SMEs operating in the manufacturing industry. After accounting for the under-reporting of R&D in SMEs, our quantile regressions reveal that: (i) R&D is associated with higher employment growth rates, higher hiring rates and lower separation rates; (ii) R&D-induced exports are negatively related to firm employment growth and hirings and positively related to separations; and (iii) pure exports are not a driver of employment growth and worker flows.

In this paper, we estimate wage gains due to geographic mobility of Italian university graduates three years after graduation. By means of a matching procedure we quantify wage premia associated with the choice of studying far from home, moving after graduation and moving back home after graduation. We find evidence of large heterogeneity in the returns to different migration patterns. The results show large gains for those who move after graduation and smaller gains for those who migrate to study. Conversely, those who choose to go back home after having studied in regions different from that of origin suffer small losses. Our findings are robust to a finer definition of mobility and to the subsample of individuals originating from the South.

Following a recent stream of research that focuses on the migration of high-skilled workers, this paper examines the wage performance of two cohorts of Italian Ph.D. graduates associated with international mobility. After controlling for the endogeneity of the migration decision, we find that labor mobility is associated with higher wages and that selection on unobservable traits is essential to address the issue of the returns to migration. Additionally, we do not find evidence of individual heterogeneity in the response of wages to migration. We also show that our results are always confirmed when we include two exclusion restrictions in the empirical model and when we restrict the analysis to different subpopulations.

This paper examines the effects of uncertainty and flexible labour contracts on the Research and Development (R&D) intensity. Using a panel of Italian manufacturing firms, we find a hump-shaped relationship between workforce flexibility and R&D intensity. Moreover, as predicted by the real options theory, our results suggest that product market uncertainty reduces R&D efforts and that flexible labour contracts countervail the adverse effect of uncertainty on R&D.

This paper formalizes the use of flexible labour contracts in an efficiency wage framework, and derives market dualism as an endogenous outcome. By allowing temporary contracts to be either renewed or converted into permanent contracts, we obtain new theoretical insights into the market equilibrium. The conversion rate is itself an incentive device that acts as a substitute for the wage, and firms pay a wage differential in favour of permanent workers. The model also predicts that even if firms hire exclusively under flexible contracts, dualism arises as a feature internal to each firm and, consequently, as a market property.