IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pia/wpaper/55-2008.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Employment Intensity of Growth in Italy A Note Using Regional Data

Author

Listed:
  • Cristiano Perugini

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide a measure of the relationship between employment and output growth in Italy and to illustrate its dynamics across a relatively extended time-span (1970-2004). Given the well-known and persisting regional differences of labour market performance and dynamics in Italy, our analytical approach favours the exploitation of spatially disaggregated information, employing regional (NUTS 2) data. The availability of industry composition of employment and value added also allows light to be shed on sector employment intensity of output growth, and the estimation of sector elasticity to GDP describes structural change. The empirical analysis supplies quantitative information about the evolution of employment elasticity during the period considered, clearly depicting the well-known period of job-rich growth (observed since the mid-1990s), after a period of jobless growth. The outcomes also show how regional levels of analysis, together with industry breakdown, may provide very useful information, especially on policy grounds and the desirability of the extension of the study to European level.

Suggested Citation

  • Cristiano Perugini, 2008. "Employment Intensity of Growth in Italy A Note Using Regional Data," Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia, Finanza e Statistica 55/2008, Università di Perugia, Dipartimento Economia.
  • Handle: RePEc:pia:wpaper:55/2008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www2.ec.unipg.it/quaderni/qd55web.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicholas Apergis & Anthony Rezitis, 2003. "An examination of Okun's law: evidence from regional areas in Greece," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(10), pages 1147-1151.
    2. Gilles Mourre, 2006. "Did the pattern of aggregate employment growth change in the euro area in the late 1990s?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(15), pages 1783-1807.
    3. Robert Solow, 2000. "Unemployment in the United States and in Europe - A Contrast and the Reasons," CESifo Working Paper Series 231, CESifo.
    4. repec:eee:labchp:v:1:y:1986:i:c:p:473-522 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Kwami Adanu, 2005. "A cross-province comparison of Okun's coefficient for Canada," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(5), pages 561-570.
    6. Flaig Gebhard & Rottmann Horst, 2001. "Input Demand and the Shortand Long-Run Employment Thresholds: An Empirical Analysis for the German Manufacturing Sector," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 2(4), pages 367-384, December.
    7. Prachowny, Martin F J, 1993. "Okun's Law: Theoretical Foundations and Revised Estimates," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 75(2), pages 331-336, May.
    8. Daniel S. Hamermesh & Gerard A. Pfann, 1996. "Adjustment Costs in Factor Demand," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 1264-1292, September.
    9. Bruno Bracalente & Cristiano Perugini, 2010. "The components of regional disparities in Europe," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 44(3), pages 621-645, June.
    10. Gert Schnabel, 2002. "Output trends and Okun's law," BIS Working Papers 111, Bank for International Settlements.
    11. Lee, Jim, 2000. "The Robustness of Okun's Law: Evidence from OECD Countries," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 331-356, April.
    12. Thomas Palley, 2018. "Unemployment and growth," FMM Working Paper 21-2018, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    13. Brian Silverstone & Richard Harris, 2001. "Testing for asymmetry in Okun's law: A cross-country comparison," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 5(2), pages 1-13.
    14. Marco Vivarelli, 2002. "Book review," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(6), pages 581-584.
    15. Dimitris Christopoulos, 2004. "The relationship between output and unemployment: Evidence from Greek regions," Papers in Regional Science, Springer;Regional Science Association International, vol. 83(3), pages 611-620, July.
    16. Charles Adams & David T. Coe, 1990. "A Systems Approach to Estimating the Natural Rate of Unemployment and Potential Output for the United States," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 37(2), pages 232-293, June.
    17. Bean, Charles R, 1994. "European Unemployment: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 32(2), pages 573-619, June.
    18. Freeman, Donald G, 2001. "Panel Tests of Okun's Law for Ten Industrial Countries," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(4), pages 511-523, October.
    19. Ana L. Revenga & Samuel Bentolila, 1995. "What Affects the Employment Rate Intensity of Growth?," Working Papers 9517, Banco de España.
    20. Robert Solow, 2000. "Unemployment in the United States and in Europe : a contrast and the reasons ; the European unemployment problem," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 1(01), pages 3-5, October.
    21. Roger Perman & Christophe Tavera, 2005. "A cross-country analysis of the Okun's Law coefficient convergence in Europe," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(21), pages 2501-2513.
    22. Dipak Mazumdar, 2003. "Trends in employment and the employment elasticity in manufacturing, 1971--92: an international comparison," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 27(4), pages 563-582, July.
    23. Sapir, Andre & Aghion, Philippe & Bertola, Giuseppe & Hellwig, Martin & Pisani-Ferry, Jean & Rosati, Dariusz & Vinals, Jose & Wallace, Helen, 2004. "An Agenda for a Growing Europe: The Sapir Report," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199271498.
    24. Georg Erber, 1994. "Verdoorn's or Okun's Law?: Employment and Growth Experiences in OECD Countries, 1960-1993," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 98, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    25. Leopold Sogner & Alfred Stiassny, 2002. "An analysis on the structural stability of Okun's law--a cross-country study," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(14), pages 1775-1787.
    26. Olivier Blanchard, 2006. "European unemployment: the evolution of facts and ideas [‘The macroeconomics of low inflation’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 21(45), pages 6-59.
    27. Jesús Crespo Cuaresma, 2003. "Okun's Law Revisited," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 65(4), pages 439-451, September.
    28. repec:ilo:ilowps:343576 is not listed on IDEAS
    29. Paramsothy Silvapulle & Imad A. Moosa & Mervyn J. Silvapulle, 2004. "Asymmetry in Okun's law," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(2), pages 353-374, May.
    30. Buscher, Herbert & Mueller, Claudia, 1999. "Exchange Rate Volatility Effects on the German Labour Market: A Survey of Recent Results and Extensions," IZA Discussion Papers 37, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    31. Robert J. Gordon, 1984. "Unemployment and Potential Output in the 1980s," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 15(2), pages 537-568.
    32. Kaufman, Roger T., 1988. "An international comparison of Okun's laws," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 182-203, June.
    33. Moosa, Imad A., 1997. "A Cross-Country Comparison of Okun's Coefficient," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 335-356, June.
    34. PERUGINI, Cristiano, 2009. "Employment Intensity Of Growth In Italy. A Note Using Regional Data," Regional and Sectoral Economic Studies, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 9(1).
    35. Clifford L. F. Attfield & Brian Silverstone, 1997. "Okun's Coefficient: A Comment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(2), pages 326-329, May.
    36. Catherine Saget, 2000. "Can the Level of Employment be Explained by GDP Growth in Transition Countries? (Theory versus the Quality of Data)," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 14(4), pages 623-643, December.
    37. Aki Kangasharju & Jaakko Pehkonen, 2001. "Employment-output link in Finland : evidence from regional data," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 41-50, Spring.
    38. Paramsothy Silvapulle & Imad Moosa & Mervyn Silvapulle, 2004. "Asymmetry in Okun's law," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 37(2), pages 353-374, May.
    39. Jaakko Pehkonen, 2000. "Employment, unemployment and output growth in booms and recessions: time series evidence from Finland, 1970-1996," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(7), pages 885-900.
    40. Gabrisch, Hubert & Buscher, Herbert S., 2005. "The unemployment-growth relationship in transition countries," IWH Discussion Papers 5/2005, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    41. Pietro Garibaldi & Paolo Mauro, 2002. "Anatomy of employment growth [‘Growth and unemployment’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 17(34), pages 67-114.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rui Pereira, 2014. "Okun’s law, asymmetries and regional spillovers: evidence from Virginia metropolitan statistical areas and the District of Columbia," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 52(2), pages 583-595, March.
    2. Damiani, Mirella & Pompei, Fabrizio & Ricci, Andrea, 2011. "Temporary job protection and productivity growth in EU economies," MPRA Paper 29698, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Rim Mouelhi & Monia Ghazali, 2014. "The Employment Intensity of Output Growth in Tunisia and Its Determinants," Working Papers 857, Economic Research Forum, revised Nov 2014.
    4. Vakulenko, Elena, 2015. "Analysis of the relationship between regional labour markets in Russia using Okun’s model," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 40(4), pages 28-48.
    5. Mohamed Goaied & Seifallah Sassi, 2015. "Trade liberalisation and employment intensity of sectoral output growth: Lessons from Tunisia," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 26(2), pages 261-275, June.
    6. Silvia Micheli, 2010. "Learning Curve and Wind Power," Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia, Finanza e Statistica 81/2010, Università di Perugia, Dipartimento Economia.
    7. Francesco Venturini, 2011. "Product variety, product quality, and evidence of Schumpeterian endogenous growth: a note," Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia, Finanza e Statistica 93/2011, Università di Perugia, Dipartimento Economia.
    8. repec:ilo:ilowps:486701 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Falguni Pattanaik & Narayan Chandra Nayak, 2014. "Macroeconomic Determinants of Employment Intensity of Growth in India," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 8(2), pages 137-154, May.
    10. Stefano Herzel & Marco Nicolosi & Cătălin Stărică, 2012. "The cost of sustainability in optimal portfolio decisions," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3-4), pages 333-349, May.
    11. EL HAMADI Youssef & ABDOUNI Abdeljabbar & BOUAOUZ Karima, 2017. "The Sectoral Employment Intensity Of Growth In Morocco: A Pooled Mean Group Approach," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 17(2), pages 87-98.
    12. Mirella Damiani, 2010. "Labour regulation, corporate governance and varieties of capitalism," Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia, Finanza e Statistica 76/2010, Università di Perugia, Dipartimento Economia.
    13. PERUGINI, Cristiano, 2009. "Employment Intensity Of Growth In Italy. A Note Using Regional Data," Regional and Sectoral Economic Studies, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 9(1).
    14. Tregenna, Fiona., 2015. "Sectoral dimensions of employment targeting," ILO Working Papers 994867013402676, International Labour Organization.
    15. Mindaugas Butkus & Laura Dargenyte-Kacilevièiene & Kristina Matuzevièiute & Janina Šeputiene & Dovile Rupliene, 2023. "Age- and Gender-specific Output-employment Relationship across Economic Sectors," Journal of Economics / Ekonomicky casopis, Institute of Economic Research, Slovak Academy of Sciences, vol. 71(1), pages 3-22, January.
    16. Davide Castellani & Fabio Pieri, 2011. "Foreign Investments and Productivity Evidence from European Regions," Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia, Finanza e Statistica 83/2011, Università di Perugia, Dipartimento Economia.
    17. Monia Ghazali and Rim Mouelhi, 2018. "The Employment Intensity of Growth: Evidence from Tunisia," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 43(3), pages 85-118, September.
    18. Selda Gorkey & Asli Tasbasi, 2023. "Employment Intensity of Economic Growth in Southern Europe: Evidence from Multidimensional Panel Data," Croatian Economic Survey, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb, vol. 25(1), pages 5-32, June.
    19. Iglika Vassileva, 2019. "Labour Intensiveness of Economic Growth in Bulgaria: Estimates, Impact of the Global Crisis and Drivers," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 3, pages 18-41.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Durech, Richard & Minea, Alexandru & Mustea, Lavinia & Slusna, Lubica, 2014. "Regional evidence on Okun's Law in Czech Republic and Slovakia," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 57-65.
    2. Shabir Mohsin Hashmi & Ali Gul Khushik & Muhammad Akram Gilal & Zhao Yongliang, 2021. "The Impact of GDP and Its Expenditure Components on Unemployment Within BRICS Countries: Evidence of Okun’s Law From Aggregate and Disaggregated Approaches," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, June.
    3. Bande, Roberto & Martín-Román, Ángel, 2018. "Regional differences in the Okun’s Relationship: New Evidence for Spain (1980-2015)," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 41, pages 137-165.
    4. Porras-Arena, M. Sylvina & Martín-Román, Ángel L., 2023. "The heterogeneity of Okun's law: A metaregression analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    5. repec:ilo:ilowps:486701 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Celia Melguizo, 2017. "An analysis of Okun’s law for the Spanish provinces," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 37(1), pages 59-90, February.
    7. Tregenna, Fiona., 2015. "Sectoral dimensions of employment targeting," ILO Working Papers 994867013402676, International Labour Organization.
    8. Elhorst, J. Paul & Emili, Silvia, 2022. "A spatial econometric multivariate model of Okun's law," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    9. João Tovar Jalles, 2019. "On the Time‐Varying Relationship between Unemployment and Output: What shapes it?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 66(5), pages 605-630, November.
    10. Cristiano Perugini & Marcello Signorelli, 2007. "Labour Market Performance Differentials and Dynamics in EU-15 Countries and Regions," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 4(2), pages 209-262, September.
    11. Antal, Miklós, 2014. "Green goals and full employment: Are they compatible?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 276-286.
    12. Abdessalem GOUIDER & Ridha NOUIRA & Faouzi SBOUI, 2018. "La relation croissance-chômage en Tunisie : validation de la spécification non linéaire de la loi d’Okun," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 47, pages 27-41.
    13. Kim, Jun & Yoon, Jong Cheol & Jei, Sang Young, 2020. "An empirical analysis of Okun’s laws in ASEAN using time-varying parameter model," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 540(C).
    14. João Sousa Andrade, 2007. "Uma Aplicação da Lei de Okun em Portugal," GEMF Working Papers 2007-04, GEMF, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra.
    15. Davide Furceri & Ernesto Crivelli & Mr. Joël Toujas-Bernate, 2012. "Can Policies Affect Employment Intensity of Growth? A Cross-Country Analysis," IMF Working Papers 2012/218, International Monetary Fund.
    16. Guisinger, Amy Y. & Hernandez-Murillo, Ruben & Owyang, Michael T. & Sinclair, Tara M., 2018. "A state-level analysis of Okun's law," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 239-248.
    17. Ousama Ben-Salha & Zouhair Mrabet, 2019. "Is Economic Growth Really Jobless? Empirical Evidence from North Africa," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 61(4), pages 598-624, December.
    18. Fontanari, Claudia & Palumbo, Antonella & Salvatori, Chiara, 2020. "Potential Output in Theory and Practice: A Revision and Update of Okun's Original Method," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 247-266.
    19. Neifar, Malika, 2020. "Cyclical Output, Cyclical Unemployment, and augmented Okun's Law in MENA zone," MPRA Paper 98953, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Costas KARFAKIS & Constantinos KATRAKILIDIS & Eftychia TSANANA, 2014. "Does output predict unemployment? A look at Okun's law in Greece," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 153(3), pages 421-433, September.
    21. Giorgio Canarella & Stephen M. Miller, 2017. "Did Okun’s law die after the Great Recession?," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 52(4), pages 216-226, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    employment elasticity; growth; productivity; regions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pia:wpaper:55/2008. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ubaldo Pizzoli (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deperit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.