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Working poverty is a phenomenon that is only marginally on the agenda of policymakers. Studies on the working poor, which are usually based on sample data, fail to put the oeil-de-boeuf on the most vulnerable. This paper aims at observing the characteristics of the Ambrosian working poor with the focus on natives and migrants by experimental administrative data from Istat to identify specific areas of poverty risk. To this end, logistic regressions and tree models of the poverty despite work as a function of socio-demographic variables have been specified. Both individual worker and family variables were considered. The results, in line with the reference literature, allow for an in-depth spatial and sub-population analysis resulting from the combination of the study dimensions for which there are high risks of in-work poverty, for example citizenship and household work intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact assessment of social and labour policies is mainly based on direct inquiry on their recipients. In the case of net impact assessments, one has to observe a group of untreated individuals that is very homogeneous with respect to the treated. However, the very high cost of direct surveys limits their scope, as it prevents large sample size, hindering the reliability of estimates. The access to databases created for different purposes (fiscal, administrative, monitoring) could overcome the above limitations, with much convenience in terms of cost and data quality. This paper presents a validation exercise based on a very broad and complex employment database, the Comunicazioni Obbligaorie (COB), that collects employers' compulsory notifications in the case of changes in a job contract. This exercise was possible thanks to an extraordinary condition, giving contemporaneous access to two different data sources, the COB database and a direct survey on recipients of vocational training policies in the Piedmont Region. The paper discusses the main differences between employment indicators evaluated on direct survey data and on COB data. Inconsistencies involve the 20% sample. In addition, such inconsistencies do distort the net impact assessment, since the key variables for placement outcomes vary significantly. Hence, whenever administrative databases are used as a source for socioeconomic analyses, extreme caution and critical thinking must be used, verifying the reliability of estimates deriving from their use and comparing results with other sources. In the lack of such preliminary validation, which should be carried out in close collaboration with the regional or national authorities managing the information systems, we run the risk not only to uncritically accept information producing systematic bias, but also to prevent the development of procedures that are essential for the system development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decades, a lot of resources for active labour market policies have been devoted to training programs. Even if the opinion is diffused that training provides both an increase in skills and (thus) employability, following the international literature the impact of training on working conditions is very low. Evidence from Italy is quite scarce. In this paper an evaluation from Piedmont (in the north-west of Italy) is presented. Using administrative data from the job training and the labour market information systems, the employment rates of two groups of unemployed enrolled at Public Employment Service offices are compared. The impact estimates, obtained via propensity score matching, are (except for some quite peculiar courses) close to zero. Results are slightly better in the case of long term courses. While presenting the research, main advantages and disadvantages of different evaluation designs are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]