"Upgrading in Spain: an institutional perspective" abstract This paper summarises the main contributions of a book manuscript that aimed to explain the recent rise of Spain’s firms in complex service sectors, and the parallel fall in capital and skill intensive manufacturing sectors through the analysis of the institutional structure that enabled it. I argued that…

"Within-Couple Inequality in Earnings and the Relative Motherhood Penalty. A Cross-National Study of European Countries" abstract While much research has focused on the difference in earnings between childless women and men, mothers and fathers, somewhat less is known on the difference in earnings between women and their partners. This article investigates within couple earnings inequality…

"Social class and subjective well-being: a cross-country comparison" abstract In almost every country, individuals in the upper class enjoy, on average, higher subjective well being (SWB) than individuals in the lower class. However, the size of the SWB gap varies signicantly across countries; in other words, class seems to determine SWB to a greater extent in…

"The legacy of Europe: Studying post-URBAN area-based regeneration in two Italian cities" abstract Despite its largely institutionalist orientation, the literature on Europeanization so far has paid little attention to issues of time. In particular, often overlooked in models of Europeanization is the question of how durable any EU-induced domestic change is, especially in the face…

"The Return of Religion? Faith based welfare provision in a Neo-Liberal Age" abstract Churches were for centuries the major institutional providers of welfare before the state took over this role in late 19th century Europe. With the advent of modernization theory the origins of modern welfare in religion were increasingly regarded as fossils from a distant past.…

"At the Starting Line: Rural Poverty and Inequality among Hispanic Newborns" Abstract The recent movement of Hispanics into rural immigrant destinations has sometimes deflected attention from another major source of rural population growth – fertility. High rates of Hispanic fertility raise an important question: Do Hispanic newborn babies start life’s race behind the starting line,…

"Policy without politics? Domestic agendas, market pressures and "informal but tough" economic conditionality in the Italian labour market reform"

"Child care in Italy: are there social class differences in the access to services?" abstract Child care has become increasingly central in the debate about the transformation and the recalibration of the welfare state. If the welfare state debate until the 1990s was mainly centered around policy fields such as pensions and unemployment benefits (Esping-Andersen,…

"Is America Going to Become Less Conservative?:  Immigrants, Place of Settlement and Partisan Acquisition." Abstract As Latinos become the largest ethnic minority in the United States, commentators have argued that their presence will eventually shift the partisan composition of even the most conservative states.  Will it?  There are competing research findings on mobility and partisanship.  One strand suggests…

"What Things Can We Do with Words? Answers from Italian Fascism (1919–1922) and Georgia Lynchings (1875–1930)" abstract The talk illustrates a quantitative social science approach to texts developed by the author, Quantitative Narrative Analysis (QNA). QNA relies on computer-assisted story grammars to analyze narrative, where a story grammar is the simple Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) structure. In…

"The changing political economy of  self-employment in Italy" abstract This presentation is based on a research on self-employment carried out in 2010-12 in Italy, and published in a book in 2012 (C. Ranci, (ed.) Partite Iva. Il lavoro autonomo nella crisi italiana, Il Mulino, 2012). The research was focused on a general reconstruction of the…

"Taking the Cloak Off the DAG:  The New Frontier of Causal Analysis in the Social Sciences" Abstract The counterfactual approach to causal analysis will continue to transform the social sciences in the next decade.  The potential outcome model, which was largely developed in statistics and economics between 1975 and 2005, has now been joined by…

"The Global Auction for High Skilled Jobs and the Death of Human Capital" abstract For decades, the idea that more education will lead to greater individual and national prosperity has been a cornerstone of developed economies. Indeed, it is almost universally believed that college diplomas give Americans and Europeans a competitive advantage in the global…

"The ideational dimension of civil society: an empirical study ofChinese activists and NGO leaders" (at Campus Luigi Einaudi (CLE), University of Torino, Lungodora Siena 100/a, classroom D4) abstract Despite recent policy changes, governmental monitoring and control of grassroots NGOs remain pervasive and effective to a large extent in China. The enforcement of control over NGOs is complicated…

"Do women know less about politics than men? The gender gap in Political Knowledge" Abstract:This study analyzes the gender differences in political knowledge in a rarely studied area: Europe. The results are obtained via 2-level hierarchical linear models using the 2009 European Election Studies, Voter Study (EES) and show that men provide more correct answers…

"Brokers, Voters, and Clientelism" abstract Brokers, Voters, and Clientelism studies distributive politics:  how parties and governments use material resources to win elections. The authors develop a theory that explains why loyal supporters, rather than swing voters, tend to benefit from pork-barrel politics; why poverty encourages clientelism and vote buying; and why redistribution and voter participation do…

"Can China Close its Huge Rural-Urban Gap?" abstract China today may have the sharpest social cleavage between its rural and urban citizens of any country on earth, with urban households on average having close to 4 times the income of rural households.  Paradoxically, this sharp social cleavage is mainly a legacy of the socialist system…

"Intergovernmentalism and its limits: The implications of the Euro crisis on the European Union"