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The Italian university system has long been characterised by high non-completion rates, though aggregate data show a slight reduction of dropouts in recent years. The most straightforward theoretical explanation for this lies in the lowering opportunity cost of studying due to the financial and economic crisis. Nonetheless, this interpretation is likely to be partly misleading. Indeed, when the crisis hit Italy, enrolment rates had been declining for years and the sample of freshmen has become increasingly selected according to family 'social class', family cultural background, type of high school diploma and individual ability. Since a good family background, as well as other individual characteristics, significantly increases students' probability of succeeding, the recent decline in dropout rates could partly depend on sample selection. By applying probit selection models and decomposition techniques to a sample of Italian university students enrolled in different periods of time, [the author finds] that changes in students' background and students' characteristics play a major role in the recent reduction of the aggregate dropout rate.

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This paper analyzes the role of the agglomeration of highly educated employers on firms' utilization of fixed term contracts, an issue that the literature has not investigated so far. Taking advantage of a unique firm-level dataset provided by [Istituto per lo sviluppo della formazione professionale dei lavoratori = Institute for the Development of Vocational Training of Workers] ISFOL for 2010, [the authors'] findings demonstrate that the 'proximity' of graduate employers reduce significantly the firms' propensity to hire on a temporary basis. Then, [the authors] argue that knowledge spillover deriving from the human capital of employers represents a potential channel through which reducing the insider-outsider divide of labor market. Moreover, a number of econometric issues are considered to verify such a result: the skewed and bounded nature of the share of fixed term contracts, the endogeneity issues derived from the agglomeration effect as well as the cross section dependence problems affecting standard errors.

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According to recent literature, this paper highlights the relevance of spatial mobility as an explanatory factor of the individual risk of job-education mismatch. To investigate this causal link, [the authors] use individual information about daily home-to-work commuting time and choices to relocate in a different local area to get a job. [The authors'] model takes into account relevant local labour market features. [The authors] control for selective access to employment and test for endogeneity of spatial mobility. Results show a negative impact of commuting time on educational mismatch for upper-secondary graduates, as well as a negative impact of migration/migration distance for university graduates.

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This paper analyses the incidence of overeducation of university graduates. To this end, [the authors] estimate a random effects model for a panel of European countries. [The] results do not confirm that the increase of the supply of qualified labour per se can be seen as a relevant factor fuelling overeducation. The relative wage of university graduates is inversely related to overeducation. This finding suggests a role for the demand for qualified labour. Cyclical conditions also matter, as overeducation operates as a short-term adjustment mechanism. This result sheds new light on the possible effects of the recession currently hitting the industrialized countries and on policy measures needed to foster economic recovery.

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Most papers dealing with individual overeducation risks focus on labour supply characteristics and workers' behaviour. On the other hand, only a few studies consider labour demand characteristics and technological change. In this paper we analyse the influence of both demand and supply factors on educational mismatch in a set of 10 European countries. Our hypothesis, confirmed by results obtained using ordered probit model with sample selection, is that demand factors generally play a major role in reducing educational mismatch in technologically more advanced countries, whereas supply factors are more important in countries that are lagging behind in the international division of labour. At the same time, important cross-country and gender differences have been identified in the way the demand/supply factors operate. All this calls for the fine-tuning of policies aimed to tackle the problem of educational mismatch. Apparently, [employment protection legislation] EPL does not appear neither to hinder technological development, nor increase overeducation.

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