Francesco Bloise, Maurizio Franzini and Michele Raitano
The authors analyse how the association between parental background and adult children's earnings changes when net rather than gross children's earnings are considered and…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors analyse how the association between parental background and adult children's earnings changes when net rather than gross children's earnings are considered and disentangle what such changes depend on: differences between pre and after taxes earnings inequality or reranking of individuals along the earnings distribution before and after taxes.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data from European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 2011, the authors focus on two large European countries, Italy and Poland, with comparable levels of inequality and background-related earnings premia but very different personal income tax (PIT) design and estimate – at both the mean and the deciles of the earnings distribution – the association between parents' characteristics and children's gross and net earnings.
Findings
The authors find that in Italy the PIT reduces the magnitude of the association between parental background and adult children's earnings at the top of the distribution, while no effects emerge for Poland, and the reduction is mostly due to a decrease in earnings inequality rather than to a re-ranking of children along the distribution. The findings are confirmed when the authors simulate the introduction of a “quasi flat tax” regime in Italy.
Social implications
The findings suggest that the higher the tax progressivity, the higher the background-related inequality reduction and the lower the intergenerational association, signalling that the degree of progressivity amongst children may be an effective weapon to reduce intergenerational inequality.
Originality/value
In the literature on intergenerational inequality, the role of taxes is usually overlooked. In this paper, the authors try to fill this gap and enquire how the PIT design affects the association between parental background and adult children's earnings.
Details
Keywords
Francesca Farabollini and Maurizio Franzini
In this issue A Voice from Pari comes from two participants at “The Future of the Academy” conference held in Pari in September 2001. Italian universities are in the midst of…
Abstract
In this issue A Voice from Pari comes from two participants at “The Future of the Academy” conference held in Pari in September 2001. Italian universities are in the midst of large‐scale reforms dictated by the Italian government. When one reads that, while graduates in most European countries can expect to start work in their early twenties, Italian students are not graduating until around the age of 27, it becomes clear why change is needed. Francesca Farabollini, pro‐rector of education at the University of Siena, and Maurizio Franzini, an economist at the same university, have been actively engaged in these reforms and present an analysis of the Italian situation and some reflections on the advantages and disadvantages of open competition in the university market place.
Details
Keywords
Marina Bianchi and Maurizio Franzini
Albert Hirschman always distinguished himself by his unique approach in tackling economic problems, an approach that moved easily from literature and philosophy to political…
Abstract
Albert Hirschman always distinguished himself by his unique approach in tackling economic problems, an approach that moved easily from literature and philosophy to political economy and social psychology, without ever losing sight of the real workings of social and political life.
The papers collected here stemmed from a desire to know more closely this rare economist who used the tools and features of one discipline to throw light upon those of another.
The methodological stance is the first element that emerges either explicitly or implicitly from this collection of papers: Hirschman’s suspicion of all-encompassing theories and their issue in encompassing plans – development plans in particular. His was a piecemeal approach targeting the scarcest of all factors, such as the ability to mobilize resources and to solve problems. This matched Hirschman’s own view that “petites idées,” to look at problems in the small, form the material for further observations and insights.
The second element that emerges from these papers is the richness of themes explored – from how to voice reasons for one’s disappointment and distrust to the role of countervailing passions in institutional development, from the “bias for hope” to the problem of inequality – but also the strong connections that exist among them. These connections revolve around the problem of economic change and its dynamics: how to explain it, how to promote it.
Yet, no matter which of Hirschman’s works we pick up for the first time or rediscover, we cannot avoid seeing that besides the scientist with his microscopic lenses, there is also the artist who looks at problems not for the final truth they might hide or the definite solution, but to make us aware of them, to open our eyes to curiosity and wonder. This is a difficult lesson, but not one Hirschman will let us forget.
Details
Keywords
Hirschman has repeatedly stated that Voice is better than Exit as citizens or clients response to dissatisfaction with the service provided by organizations of various nature. He…
Abstract
Hirschman has repeatedly stated that Voice is better than Exit as citizens or clients response to dissatisfaction with the service provided by organizations of various nature. He also maintained that all too often Exit was preferred to Voice and the negative result would be that services of worse quality will be supplied in the system as a whole.
Unfortunately, Hirschman never formalized his powerful categories and his fascinating ideas. The paper is an attempt to fill this gap; it also aims at showing how helpful Hirschaman’s approach can be in the endeavour to design efficient institutions.
This paper provides a definition of efficiency convenient for our purposes and presents a model where both Exit and Voice can be necessary in order to achieve efficient results, given that the decline of organizations can have several different originating factors. Then it identifies the analytical conditions under which Exit is spontaneously chosen by citizens or clients despite being less efficient than Voice. The paper shows that the use of Exit when Voice would be more efficient is not as general as Hirschman seemed to imply but it can arise under well-specified circumstances. In its final part, the paper suggests how institutions should be designed in order to prevent such inefficient results.
Details
Keywords
Arthur Harkins and George Kubik
This article is the fourth in a series examining the projected impacts of new technology and software on K‐12 education. The data was collected from 166 school administrators…
Abstract
This article is the fourth in a series examining the projected impacts of new technology and software on K‐12 education. The data was collected from 166 school administrators attending a workshop in the United States during January 2001. The data is presented in the form of brief composites representing administrator uses of handhelds for school management performances. The authors then comment on the administrators’ assessments based on the background reasoning.
Details
Keywords
In present times of increasing change and uncertainty, managers need a real understanding of the way that people learn. Managers must strive to support a work environment that…
Abstract
In present times of increasing change and uncertainty, managers need a real understanding of the way that people learn. Managers must strive to support a work environment that nurtures continuous learning. This article examines the principles that should help managers in their new roles and responsibilities, such as continuous learning, learning from customers, building on existing innovation, listening, observing and understanding.
Details
Keywords
This paper discusses the role of Albert O. Hirschman as a founder of development economics in the postwar years. Although Hirschman maintained a strong interest in development…
Abstract
This paper discusses the role of Albert O. Hirschman as a founder of development economics in the postwar years. Although Hirschman maintained a strong interest in development matters throughout his entire professional career, his major contributions to development economics took place between the mid-1950s and the late 1960s. The paper examines Hirschman’s innovative contributions to the new discipline. When, in the 1950s, development economics gravitated around the concept of “balanced growth,” Hirschman opened new vistas with a theory of “unbalanced growth.” In the early 1960s, Hirschman focused on reformist political approaches to development, against the opposed extremisms of reaction and revolution. Finally, in the late 1960s, Hirschman opened new perspectives on the importance of detailed analysis of development projects, against the theoretical drift of early development economics.
The discussion of Hirschman’s development career is also an opportunity to observe the gap between theoretical debates and development policies. Whereas development economists often clashed on theoretical issues, their views were remarkably closer on practical questions.
As a pioneer of development economics, Hirschman sought to establish it as a discipline theoretically distinct from mainstream economics. By the 1980s, this project had collapsed, and the development question was reabsorbed by the economic mainstream. This article, however, argues that current development debates remain deeply indebted to Hirschman’s contribution. His reformist vision, rejection of one-size-fits-all solutions, his insistence on the ineluctable role of uncertainty, and his search for country-specific, incremental, and evolutionary policies make his approach central to current development discourse.
Details
Keywords
This paper analyzes the standpoint of Albert O. Hirschman in the structuralist–monetarist debate that took place in Latin America during the 1950s and 1960s. It claims that…
Abstract
This paper analyzes the standpoint of Albert O. Hirschman in the structuralist–monetarist debate that took place in Latin America during the 1950s and 1960s. It claims that Hirschman had many affinities with the structuralist approach, in virtue of his methodological stance and of his view of the role to be performed by economic advisers in foreign countries. Similar to the structuralists, Hirschman did not make the control of inflation a central tenet of his development theory; also like them, he dissented from the orthodox approach. However, Hirschman did not take a clear-cut side on the debate, choosing, instead, to act as a go-between.