Suchergebnisse

Il lavoro tratta gli effetti delle interazioni sociali tra compagni di scuola o di classe (c.d. peer effects) sugli apprendimenti degli studenti delle scuole medie. Il periodo di frequenza della scuola media rappresenta un momento critico nello sviluppo dell'adolescente che passa molto tempo con i compagni (a scuola e fuori da scuola) determinando forti legami di amicizia che ne influenzano lo sviluppo. Nel primo e nel secondo capitolo si tratta dell'effetto delle interazioni sociali tra studenti nativi e non nativi sull'apprendimento. Il terzo capitolo analizza il comportamento di cheating durante gli esami ufficiali come una forma di collaborazione che scaturisce da interazioni sociali. Il lavoro contribuisce alla letteratura esistente identificando gli effetti delle interazioni sociali con metodi innovativi e fornendo un'interpretazione stilizzata dei risultati mediante semplici modelli teorici. La tesi utilizza una banca dati innovativa che unisce i risultati dei test Invalsi in matematica e italiano (Esame Finale del I Ciclo, e Programma di Valutazione Nazionale, a.s. 2007-08, 2008-09, 2010-11), a dati amministrativi sulle scuole e dati censuari sulla popolazione (Censimento 2001). I risultati mostrano che le interazioni sociali influenzano in maniera significativa i risultati scolastici degli studenti. ; I focus on social interactions among junior high school students attending the same class or the same school. Junior high school is generally considered by educational psychologists as the period in which friendships ties are usually formed and interactions with school mates take a relevant part of students' time at school and outside school. In first and in the second chapter I focus on the effect on attainment of social interactions between native and non-native students. The third chapter deals with students' cheating as a form of social interaction among classmates taking an official exam. The thesis contributes to the existing literature in proposing different empirical strategy to identify social interactions parameters and linking the results to stylized theoretical frameworks to shed light on the possible social mechanisms driving the estimated effects. The three chapters exploit rich and newly available datasets combining test score results in Math and Language from INVALSI (First Cycle Final Exam and National Evaluation Program, s.y. 2007-08, 2008-09, 2010-11), school administrative records, and the Italian Population Census Survey 2001. The results of the research demonstrate a strong role played by social interactions among school mates in affecting students' attainment.

SUMMARYWe study the impact of news content on individuals' perceptions about corruption. To this purpose, we combine individuals' beliefs about the likelihood that corruption events may occur in everyday life, as obtained from questions introduced in a large household survey, with their as-good-as-random exposure to corruption-related news on the date of the interview. Results show that a 1 SD increase in the number of corruption news items raises corruption perceptions by 3.5%. Consistently with a mechanism of persuasion, perceptions respond mainly to news not related to specific corruption events rather than to those reporting on arrests, investigations or convictions.

Local governments suspected of Mafia infiltration can be dismissed in Italy through an administrative act not increasing formal deterrence but potentially signaling improved law enforcement among local communities. This paper finds that dismissals are associated to a persistent fall of petty crimes (e.g. thefts) but have no consequences on offenses more closely related to the activity of organized crime, as homicide, extortion, drug-trafficking or usury. Petty crimes are estimated to fall by around 10%, on average, a result that seems driven by the perception of enhanced deterrence (through media pressure, the signaling role of the policy, and other forms of social control) rather than induced by organized crime itself.