We exploit a data set on labour market flows produced by the Italian National Statistical Office by interviewing about 85,000 graduate and non graduate individuals aged 15-29 in transition between five labour market states: Standard Wage Employment; Non-Standard Wage Employment; Self-Employment; Unemployment; Inactivity. From these data we constructed an average six-year transition matrix whose coefficients can be interpreted as probabilities of moving from one state to another over time. The purpose of the paper is to verify whether higher education increases the likelihood of young Italian workers moving from non-standard to standard wage contracts. As we find evidence for the so-called stepping stone hypothesis (that is an higher probability of moving to a permanent job for individuals starting from a temporary job), we expect graduates to be more likely to pass from non-standard to standard wage contracts than non-graduates, because the signaling effect of education is enhanced by the stepping stone effect of non-standard wage contracts. Nevertheless, we find that non-standard wage contracts of graduates are more likely to be terminated as bad job/worker matches. This paper adds to the empirical literature on the probability of young workers moving from non-standard wage contracts to a permanent job. By separating graduates from non-graduates, we find that education reduces the likelihood of passing from non-standard to standard wage contracts. We interpret this result as evidence of the changing labour market that makes more difficult to infer the productivity of graduates than for non-graduates.

Higher education in non-standard wage contracts / Chelli, Francesco Maria; Rosti, L.. - In: EDUCATION & TRAINING. - ISSN 0040-0912. - STAMPA. - Vol. 54 Iss: 2/3, 2012:(2012), pp. 142-151.

Higher education in non-standard wage contracts

CHELLI, Francesco Maria;
2012-01-01

Abstract

We exploit a data set on labour market flows produced by the Italian National Statistical Office by interviewing about 85,000 graduate and non graduate individuals aged 15-29 in transition between five labour market states: Standard Wage Employment; Non-Standard Wage Employment; Self-Employment; Unemployment; Inactivity. From these data we constructed an average six-year transition matrix whose coefficients can be interpreted as probabilities of moving from one state to another over time. The purpose of the paper is to verify whether higher education increases the likelihood of young Italian workers moving from non-standard to standard wage contracts. As we find evidence for the so-called stepping stone hypothesis (that is an higher probability of moving to a permanent job for individuals starting from a temporary job), we expect graduates to be more likely to pass from non-standard to standard wage contracts than non-graduates, because the signaling effect of education is enhanced by the stepping stone effect of non-standard wage contracts. Nevertheless, we find that non-standard wage contracts of graduates are more likely to be terminated as bad job/worker matches. This paper adds to the empirical literature on the probability of young workers moving from non-standard wage contracts to a permanent job. By separating graduates from non-graduates, we find that education reduces the likelihood of passing from non-standard to standard wage contracts. We interpret this result as evidence of the changing labour market that makes more difficult to infer the productivity of graduates than for non-graduates.
2012
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11566/66097
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 39
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact