Research

This paper investigates the effect of technological exposure on UK employment polarization during 1993–2014. The identification strategy exploits variation across local labour markets in the historical specialization in routine-intensive activities. The Routine Biased Technical Change hypothesis is tested and only partly corroborated. Strikingly, I find no effect of technological exposure on the growth of high-skilled non-routine cognitive jobs. I claim that the rapid educational upgrading of the 1990s may help explain this result. This is supported by evidence of a marked increase in outflows of both graduates and non-graduates from the top moving down the occupational ladder since 1991. 

The extent to which firms respond to labor supply shocks has important implications for local and national economies. We exploit firm-level panel data on product and process innovation activities in the United Kingdom and find that the large, unanticipated, low-skill labor supply (immigration) shock generated by the 2004 expansion of the European Union to Eastern European countries increased process innovation and reduced product innovation, with overall innovation activity going up. This implies that the innovation response to labor supply shocks may be more nuanced than the previous literature has suggested. Both of these effects are increasing in the low-skill intensity of firm production. In addition, the reduction in product innovation is lessened for firms whose output is sold locally, which is consistent with a demand side effect generated by the labor supply shock. 

Exploiting high-frequency vaccination data for COVID-19 and social capital measures at the municipal level in Italy between January and October 2021, this paper estimates the effect of social capital on vaccination compliance. We find that weekly vaccination coverage increased up to 1.60 percentage points more in municipalities with higher social capital. Results do not differ by gender and the effect is mainly driven by younger generations. Our findings shed light on the role of social capital as a driver of health protective behavior. 

We estimate the impacts of PICSA training and meetings on lead farmers in Malawi, taking farmers in four districts where PICSA operated, and farmers in four other districts where the programme was not present.

We compare outcomes in farming practice, yields obtained, livelihood decisions and food security between lead farmers who participated in PICSA and those who did not. Because selection into the programme was not random, we use propensity score matching and regression adjustment to correct for potential selection bias.

PICSA lead farmers used seasonal forecasts to plan farm decisions, change crop activities, increase maize yields, and improve their food security. Differences between them and the control group were, in most cases, significant.