Early Occupational Outcomes of School-to-Work Transition in Italy. A “Centre-Periphery” Geographical Approach

Giulia Dugar, Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna
Francesca Tosi , Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna
Livia Elisa Ortensi, Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna

Recently, the European context has witnessed a general delay in the school-to-work transition (SWT) of young people, with Italy being one of the worst-placed scenarios also due to labour market reforms that have led to an increase of non-standard workers – a vulnerability that is more common among young people, and especially among women, individuals with tertiary education, and the middle managerial class. Whilst SWT is often looked at in an international comparative perspective, research focusing on intra-national territorial differences is relatively scarcer. In particular, although being historically characterized by significant regional heterogeneity in socioeconomic terms, the Italian case has not received the necessary attention concerning the role played by geographic disparities in determining young people’s labour market outcomes that go beyond the canonical North-South divide. Based on these premises, this contribution wishes to fill-in the literature gap by assessing to what extent geographical origins in Italy predict early occupational outcomes. Using individual-level data from two surveys from the Italian National Institute of Statistics on the labour integration of high-school graduates and university graduates, integrated with the NUTS-3 level urban/rural territorial classification proposed by Eurostat, we employ logistic regression analysis to examine the association between of respondents’ places of origin and early occupational outcomes in terms of contract type, job prestige, and earned income. We expect that, net of individual- and household-level control factors, spatial characteristics of places of origin significantly mediate early occupational outcomes of Italian young people, shaping their economic opportunities and ultimately their transition to adulthood paths.

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 Presented in Session 66. Transition to Adulthood, and Beyond