In this paper we document a common sense idea: When an individual is searching for a new job, the longer it takes the more s/he will be available to adapt her/his skills, often with a worsening in status and/or wage. We used a dataset of administrative source, containing a sample of individuals'...

In many European countries the participation rates of older workers are worryingly low, and Italy – within this picture – has one of the worst records, particularly for females. In this paper we investigate whether this signals an issue about their employability. Indeed, the...

We use a unique data set providing administrative information on earnings by skill-level (blue collars, white collars), on the local stock of human capital and on several firm’s characteristics, including balance sheet data, to investigate the size of localized human capital externalities in...

In linked employer-employee databases, when the employees are sampled first and then the employers data are attached, the set of firms that enter the sample is biased towards the large dimension. In this paper I discuss two strategies to impute inflating factors to the employers’ records, and...

Most Oecd Countries are experiencing a rapid population ageing. Italy adds to this picture a very low labour market participation of the elders, so that most projections of the impact of ageing on the labour market are rather pessimistic. However, there are other long run modifications currently...

What is the relationship, if any, between Experimental Economics and Agent-based Computational Economics? Experimental Economics (EXP) investigates individual behaviour (and the emergence of aggregate regularities) by means of human subject experiments. Agent-based Computational Economics (ACE),...

Traditional (i.e. analytical) modelling practices in the social sciences rely on a very well established, although implicit, methodological protocol, both with respect to the way models are presented and to the kinds of analysis that are performed. Unfortunately, computer-simulated models often...

This paper presents some artificial stylised facts emerging in a simulated contestable market where firms interact with each other in taking their stay or go decision. I use nearly zero-intelligence firms: no optimisation is considered, and all the firms sell at a fixed price an equal quantity...

In this paper I give a tentative assessment of the methodological status of agent based simulations. I first show under which conditions ABS can be a complement to traditional modelling. I then consider whether they can be held as a sound methodology of their own. Various topics relevant to the...