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Academic Research
Leveraging the Global Talent Pool to Jumpstart Prosperity in Emerging Economies
In this project, researchers measure countries’ degree of openness towards different groups of migrants, and test the hypothesis that more developed economies are more open to international migrants, and in particular to international talent. -
Working Papers
A Generation of Italian Economists
We examine the role of financial aid in shaping the formation of human capital in economics. Specifically, we study the impact of a large merit-based scholarship for graduate studies in […]
We examine the role of financial aid in shaping the formation of human capital in economics. Specifically, we study the impact of a large merit-based scholarship for graduate studies in affecting individuals’ occupational choices, career trajectories, and labor market outcomes of a generation of Italian economists with special focus on gender gaps and the role of social mobility. We construct a unique dataset that combines archival sources and includes microdata for the universe of applicants to the scholarship program and follow these individuals over their professional life. Our unique sample that focuses on the high end of the talent and ability distribution also allows us to analyze the characteristics of top graduates, a group which tends to be under-sampled in most surveys. We discuss five main results. First, women are less likely to be shortlisted for a scholarship as they tend to receive lower scores in the most subjective criteria used in the initial screening of candidates. Second, scholarship winners are much more likely to choose a research career and this effect is larger for women. Third, women who work in Italian universities tend to have less citations than men who work in Italy. However, the citation gender gap is smaller for candidates who received a scholarship. Fourth, women take longer to be promoted to the rank of full professor, even after controlling for academic productivity. Fifth, it is easier to become a high achiever for individuals from households with a lower socio-economic status if they reside in high social mobility provinces. However, high-achievers from lower socio-economic status households face an up-hill battle even in high social mobility provinces.
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Journal Articles
A journey through time: the story behind ‘eight decades of changes in occupational tasks, computerization and the gender pay gap’
Industry and Innovation, 31
In this interview article, we embark on a fascinating journey through time alongside the winners of the 2023 DRUID Best Paper Award. DRUID, an annual research conference renowned as the […]
In this interview article, we embark on a fascinating journey through time alongside the winners of the 2023 DRUID Best Paper Award. DRUID, an annual research conference renowned as the hub of cutting-edge research on innovation and the dynamics of structural, institutional, and geographic change, bestows this award on the most innovative and exceptional conference submission. As longstanding allies of DRUID, Industry and Innovation offers an exclusive peek behind the curtains, unveiling the untold stories that underlie award-winning research.
In 2023, this coveted DRUID prize was awarded to a paper by Ljubica Nedelkoska, Shreyas Gadgin Matha, James McNerney, Andre Assumpcao, Dario Diodato, and Frank Neffke. Their work stands out through an impressive data collection effort and the exploration of a compelling and urgent research question – how technological change has impacted the gender pay gap. Throughout this interview, the author team takes us down memory lane, retelling the story behind their research project. On this journey through time, we trace the genesis of the authors’ innovative ideas and the intricate pathways they navigated in their quest to understand the past as a means of unravelling the future of work and its implications for gender inequality in the labour market. This journey not only takes us back in time but also points to potential avenues for future research and open questions that lie ahead.
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Working Papers
Agglomeration Economies: The Heterogeneous Contribution of Human Capital and Value Chains
**Updated version of this paper published here** We document the heterogeneity across sectors in the impact labor and input-output links have on industry agglomeration. Exploiting the available degrees of freedom in […]**Updated version of this paper published here**
We document the heterogeneity across sectors in the impact labor and input-output links have on industry agglomeration. Exploiting the available degrees of freedom in coagglomeration patterns, we estimate the industry-specic benefits of sharing labor needs and supply links with local firms. On aggregate, coagglomeration patterns of services are at least as strongly driven by input-output linkages as those of manufacturing, whereas labor linkages are much more potent drivers of coagglomeration in services than in manufacturing. Moreover, the degree to which labor and input-output linkages are reflected in an industry’s coagglomeration patterns is relevant for predicting patterns of city-industry employment growth.
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Working Papers
Appraising the Economic Potential of Panama: Policy Recommendations for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth
This report aims to summarize the main findings of the project as gathered by the three baseline documents, and frame them within a coherent set of policy recommendations that can […]This report aims to summarize the main findings of the project as gathered by the three baseline documents, and frame them within a coherent set of policy recommendations that can help Panama to maintain their growth momentum in time and make it more inclusive. Three elements stand out as cornerstones of our proposal:
(i) attracting and retaining qualified human capital;
(ii) maximizing the diffusion of know-how and knowledge spillovers, and
(iii) leveraging on public-private dialog to tackle coordination problems that are hindering economic activity outside the Panama-Colón axis.
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Working Papers
Automation, Skills Use and Training
This study focuses on the risk of automation and its interaction with training and the use of skills at work. Building on the expert assessment carried out by Carl Frey […]This study focuses on the risk of automation and its interaction with training and the use of skills at work. Building on the expert assessment carried out by Carl Frey and Michael Osborne in 2013, the paper estimates the risk of automation for individual jobs based on the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). The analysis improves on other international estimates of the individual risk of automation by using a more disaggregated occupational classification and identifying the same automation bottlenecks emerging from the experts’ discussion. Hence, it more closely aligns to the initial assessment of the potential automation deriving from the development of Machine Learning. Furthermore, this study investigates the same methodology using national data from Germany and United Kingdom, providing insights into the robustness of the results.
The risk of automation is estimated for the 32 OECD countries that have participated in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) so far. Beyond the share of jobs likely to be significantly disrupted by automation of production and services, the accent is put on characteristics of these jobs and the characteristics of the workers who hold them. The risk is also assessed against the use of ICT at work and the role of training in helping workers transit to new career opportunities.
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Working Papers
Coworker complementarity
How important is working with people who complement one’s skills? Using administrative data that record which of 491 educational tracks each worker in Sweden absolved, I quantify the educational fit […]How important is working with people who complement one’s skills? Using administrative data that record which of 491 educational tracks each worker in Sweden absolved, I quantify the educational fit among coworkers along two dimensions: coworker match and coworker substitutability. Complementary coworkers raise wages with a comparable factor as does a college degree, whereas working with close substitutes is associated with wage penalties. Moreover, this coworker fit does not only account for large portions of the urban and large-plant wage premiums, but the returns to own schooling and the urban wage premium are almost completely contingent on finding complementary coworkers.
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Working Papers
Diagnosing Human Capital as a Binding Constraint to Growth: Tests, Symptoms and Prescriptions
The empirical literature on the contributions of human capital investments to economic growth shows mixed results. While evidence from OECD countries demonstrates that human capital accumulation is associated with growth […]The empirical literature on the contributions of human capital investments to economic growth shows mixed results. While evidence from OECD countries demonstrates that human capital accumulation is associated with growth accelerations, the substantial efforts of developing countries to improve access to and quality of education, as a means for skill accumulation, did not translate into higher income per capita. In this paper, we propose a framework, building on the principles of Growth Diagnostics (Hausmann, Rodrik and Velasco, 2008), to enable practitioners to determine whether human capital investments are a priority for a country’s growth strategy. We then discuss and exemplify different tests to diagnose human capital in a place, drawing on the Harvard Growth Lab’s experience in different development context, and discuss various policy options to address skill shortages. -
Journal Articles
Diagnosing Human Capital as a Binding Constraint to Growth: Tests, Symptoms and Prescriptions
Cambridge University Press: Elements in the Economics of Emerging Markets
The empirical literature on the contributions of human capital investments to economic growth shows mixed results. While evidence from OECD countries demonstrates that human capital accumulation is associated with growth […]
The empirical literature on the contributions of human capital investments to economic growth shows mixed results. While evidence from OECD countries demonstrates that human capital accumulation is associated with growth accelerations, the substantial efforts of developing countries to improve access to and quality of education, as a means for skill accumulation, did not translate into higher income per capita. In this Element, we propose a framework, building on the principles of ‘growth diagnostics’, to enable practitioners to determine whether human capital investments are a priority for a country’s growth strategy. We then discuss and exemplify different tests to diagnose human capital in a place, drawing on the Harvard Growth Lab’s experience in different development context, and discuss various policy options to address skill shortages.
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Working Papers
Diagnosing South Africa’s High Unemployment and Low Informality
This report analyzes the causes and consequences of South Africa’s high rates of unemployment and the unique nature of labor market exclusion in the country. It leverages a combination of […]This report analyzes the causes and consequences of South Africa’s high rates of unemployment and the unique nature of labor market exclusion in the country. It leverages a combination of new quantitative analysis using South African datasets and international datasets for benchmarking, together with synthesis of existing literature and case studies. The goal is to: (1) characterize the challenge of labor market exclusion in South Africa, (2) identify ways in which this is similar and different to other countries, (3) understand what drives the unique challenges of the labor market in South Africa, and (4) narrow down what policy areas are most important to address the underlying drivers. This report takes a diagnostic approach to understand the causes of South Africa’s unique pattern of low informality.
Related project: Accelerating Growth Through Inclusion in South Africa