An original cross-sectional dataset referring to a medium-sized Italian university is implemented in order to analyze the determinants of scientific research production at individual level. The dataset includes 942 permanent researchers of various scientific sectors for a three-year time-span (2008)(2009)(2010). Three different indicators -based on the number of publications and/or citations -are considered as response variables. The corresponding distributions are highly skewed and display an excess of zero-valued observations. In this setting, the goodness-of-fit of several Poisson mixture regression models are explored by assuming an extensive set of explanatory variables. As to the personal observable characteristics of the researchers, the results emphasize the age effect and the gender productivity gap -as previously documented by existing studies. Analogously, the analysis confirm that productivity is strongly affected by the publication and citation practices adopted in different scientific disciplines. The empirical evidence on the connection between teaching and research activities suggests that no univocal substitution or complementarity thesis can be claimed: a major teaching load does not affect the odds to be a non-active researcher and does not significantly reduce the number of publications for active researchers. In addition, new evidence emerges on the effect of researchers administrative tasks -which seem to be negatively related with researcher's productivity -and on the composition of departments. Researchers' productivity is apparently enhanced by operating in department filled with more administrative and technical staff, and it is not significantly affected by the composition of the department in terms of senior/junior researchers.

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The topic of work safety is a very relevant and multifaceted problem for workers, firms and policy makers. Differing from other narrow scope studies, this article aims to enrich the understanding of workplace safety as a whole by applying econometric techniques on data from the Italian Labour Force Survey. Findings show poor working conditions are the most significant determinants of accidents and illnesses occurring at work while having a fixed-term (temporary) contract is not significant. Other significant determinants of work safety are: not being new to the workforce, dissatisfaction with the current job, gender and a latent proneness observed with occurrence of accident on the way to work. This article also highlights that work related accidents and illnesses are two deeply correlated phenomena and that there is a structural break after three years on the job

The long-term evolution of Economic History evidence from the top five field journals (1927-2017)

This paper investigates the effects of the introduction of information and communication technologies (ICT) on the skills of a workforce.Using micro-data collected from workers in the textile sector, we analyse whether the introduction of ICT has modified workers' tasks, so that higher skills and longer training periods than before are necessary. Empirical evidence suggests that the adoption of ICT has no universal skill-biased effect for all occupations at least in the textile sector.