Job Market Papers

Cantarella, M. , Fraccaroli, N., & Volpe, R. ; Does language prevent policy implementation? Evidence from the Italian Start-up Act

Abstract: Does ethnolinguistic diversity prevent policy implementation? The Italian Start-up Act of 2012 is an ideal policy to investigate this question. The Act sets up a scheme of benefits which young firms can access by registering as "innovative start-up" on a voluntary basis. Due to the ethnolinguistic divide in the Trentino-Alto Adige region, we find that firms with German-named CEOs are less likely to register as start-ups than firms with Italian-named CEOs, while performing similarly in the years preceding the introduction of the policy. These findings are robust to regional heterogeneity correlated with surname origin. We exploit these asymmetries as an exogenous source of access to the benefit scheme. Our findings suggest that registered start-ups do not perform any better than comparable unregistered firms. 

Cantarella, M. & Strozzi, C. (2022); Piecework and job search in the platform economy; IZA Discussion Paper Series No. 15775

Abstract: The massive growth of jobs in the platform economy has reignited a long-standing debate on the wage elasticity of labour supply for the self-employed. Overwhelming empirical evidence seems to suggest that workers in the platform economy would work more than they wish for, for a lower wage, suggesting a backward-bending labour supply curve. Is this puzzling outcome explained by target earning behaviour or rather by the uncertainty arising from task search? In this paper, we test these hypotheses making use of new data on on-location and online platform workers from the EU, exploiting search shocks in a difference-in-differences strategy to reassess the wage elasticity of labour supply. We find that uncertainty in search plays a central role in inflating hours of work, revealing a positive and inelastic wage elasticity for all platform workers. On average, a percentage increase in search leads to a net loss of 13.4% in income, suggesting that piecework might be an endemic source of demand surplus for monopsonistic markets.

Publications

Cantarella, M. & Fraccaroli, N., & Volpe, R. (2023); Does fake news affect voting behaviour?; Research Policy  [Media coverage: VoxEU; Il Foglio; TPI; TP]

Cantarella, M. & Strozzi, C. (2021); Workers in the Crowd: The Labour Market Impact of the Online Platform Economy; Industrial and Corporate Change

Cantarella, M. & Kavonius, I. K. (2022); Työmarkkinoiden polarisaatio ja kotitalouksien lainanotto; Kansantaloudellinen Aikakauskirja

Refereed working papers

Cantarella, M. & Kavonius, I. K. (2022); Job polarisation and household borrowing; ECB working paper series No 2683  [Policy brief version: SUERF] [Journal publication status: R&R]

Cantarella M., Neri A., Ranalli M. G.  (2021); A new allocation method to close the gap between micro and macro statistics for household wealth; Bank of Italy - Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) No. 646 [Journal publication status: Conditionally accepted]

Papers in progress

Cantarella, M. & Kavonius, I. K.; Mortgage access and occupational growth: a Bartik instrument approach

Other working papers

Cantarella, M. (2019); #Portichiusi: the human costs of migrant deterrence in the Mediterranean; DEMB Working Paper Series N.154 [Media coverage: Avvenire]