This project intends to analyse in what extent parental background directly influences offsprings' labour outcomes, in order to measure how the economic access in the labour market is due to mechanisms related to family ties rather than individual merits.
The various approaches exploited to assess the impact of the family background on the children outcomes, such as labour market outcomes, have been several: different datasets are constantly available to researchers and the field of research is in constant evolution.
Furthermore, disparate econometric approaches might be relied upon in testing the impact of the processes of family networking and nepotism aimed at impede the equal opportunity to be employed. Indeed, most of time, we can find research papers which are in stark contrast among them regarding the results they yield.
The value added in this project will come from the capacity to analyse these different aspects in combination with each other as it often happens in labour market achievement.
To best of my knowledge, this is the first work that tries to measure how familiar connections helps labour market achievement in the Italian case and to quantify how the impact differs among individuals with different family backgrounds.
Moreover, in contrast to the extensive treatment of networks by sociology, economists' formal studies, as well as the understanding of the role of network processes by which inequities are produced and reproduced, are much less developed.
Hence, this comprehensive approach is essential to properly verify the impact of different parental background mechanisms, trends and contents in multiple but complementary areas, also suggesting which kind of public policies should be implemented to improve the opportunities for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, able to generate more equitable entry working conditions.
In order to estimate the effect on labour market outcomes of relying on familiar contacts to locate a job, we estimate the impact on earnings using propensity score matching (PSM), thus minimizing observable selection bias. More in a detail, this technique is used to identify the treatment effect of using family ties by comparing the outcomes of closely matched treatment and control groups, where the key independent variable is whether or not individuals found their current job with the help of a relative.