Loris Vergolini

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Bologna

In this paper we aim to analyze the relationship between social participation and education among elderly people in Italy. Social participation, that is a key dimension of active ageing, is divided into three sub-dimensions: cultural participation; socio-political participation and social contacts. Our main research question focuses on the role pla...

This paper examines the impact of capping benefits under the Minimum Guaranteed Income programme in an Italian province. The study uses a regression kink design to estimate the impact of capping the benefit at €950 on household and individual outcomes. The results show that capping the benefit did not significantly affect total household expenditur...

We present a framework to quantitively measure social inclusion and suggest actions to increase the integration of more isolated agents. An important aim of our framework is to lower the barriers to entry for researchers in the field. Hence, we show how one can assemble, program, and deploy affordable, over-the-counter IoT devices to work as reliab...

The expansion of higher education has led to a more diverse student population, theorized around the concept of the non-traditional student. This term is used to describe students whose socio-demographic characteristics, motivations, study engagement and experiences differ from those of traditional higher education participants. The non-traditional...

Student employment is on the increase in many European countries. It takes many forms, from full-time employment to various types of flexible work, which involves short-term, non-standard and informal work. Despite its relevance and complexity, the connection between higher education and concurrent employment has been only partially explored in sch...

After four decades of increasing within‐country income inequality in many EU Member States, this study first aims to understand to what extent and how EU Member States make use of distributional impact assessments (DIAs) for budgetary measures. The second aim is to understand the factors that constrain the use of DIA, leading us to propose strategi...

This paper investigates the demand for language skills using data on online job vacancies in 27 European Union member countries and the United Kingdom in 2021. Evidence indicates that although Europe remains a linguistically diverse labour market, knowing English confers unique advantages in certain occupations. Across countries included in the ana...

Percorsi is a matched savings program aimed at helping students from low-income households attend college. Previous experimental re-search has demonstrated the positive effects of the program on college enrollment and persistence. This paper investigates the extent to which these experimental results are attributable to the applied targeting strate...

This study reviews the use of (ex-ante) Distributional Impact Assessment (DIA) in the budgetary processes in the EU Member States. DIA refers to the assessment of the impact of policies on the income distribution, poverty and income inequality. The study also provides suggestions for further increasing the use of DIA. Insights from this study suppo...

This work provides an assessment of the Italian experimental literature in the field of education. We review 25 RCTs completed between 2009 and 2020, analysing their alignment to the CONSORT guidelines. Our findings show that the scientific reporting is on average of good quality; however, there are areas where a significant improvement is needed....

This chapter provides an overview of what we can learn from the PISA data. The first contribution explores some of the insights from analyses of within country data. The next two question the validity of some of the findings. The second contribution uses the French data to explore how certain features of the PISA items are problematic while the thi...

In this work, we investigate whether grants improve the academic outcomes of students from socio-economically disadvantaged families and thereby reduce inequalities of educational opportunities. We focus on Italy, which is characterized by high dropout rates, prolonged duration of higher education studies and considerable social inequalities in edu...

We estimate the impact of a matched savings account program on high school students’ college enrollment and persistence through a randomized controlled trial carried out in Italy. The tested program (Percorsi) provided low‐income high school students with a 4:1 match rate for savings dedicated to higher education expenditures and required that they...

The recent economic downturn has had profound influences on contemporary European societies. This paper analyzes how the Great Recession affected the drop-out rate among university students in Italy, and whether their chosen field of study moderated its effect. To examine the potential long-term effects of this economic downturn on social inequalit...

This article analyses the effect of the Berlinguer reform that was introduced in Italy in 1999 and increased compulsory schooling from eight to nine years. Hence, students had to attend school until the age of 15 instead of 14 that was required at the time and therefore to attend at least one year of upper secondary school (for pupils with a regula...

This contribution reviews the literature on the role of financial aid in enhancing university participation. This aim will be reached through three main steps. First, we describe a theoretical framework based on rational action theory that could explain the effects exerted by the different measures. Second, we analyse the main forms of financial ai...

We investigate whether grants improve the academic outcomes of students from socioeconomicallydisadvantaged families and, by this way, contribute to reducing inequalitiesof educational opportunities. Differently from most previous studies, we focus on Italy, acontext with high dropout rates and prolonged duration of higher education studies. Toesti...

Over and beyond traditional indicators of achievement (such test scores), other – often overlooked – competences (such as engagement, effort and perseverance) matter hugely for young people’s future life outcomes and their full inclusion in the society. Yet, not much is known about these competences. Their theoretical definition is disputed; their...

The paper summarises the basic features of the long-standing debate between authors maintaining the persistence of social classes in contemporary advanced societies and the authors stating, on the contrary, that social inequalities are deeply fragmented or even individualised. Then, it outlines the reasons why this debate should be taken again by I...

In questo articolo si presentano i risultati di un’indagine intesa a illustrare le dinamiche della domanda collettiva di istruzione in Italia a partire dagli inizi del XX secolo. L’analisi si è proposta di misurare, attraverso procedure di analisi controfattuale basate sul metodo delle serie storiche interrotte, il peso assunto in queste dinamiche...

In this paper, we analyse the role of social origins in the shaping of university participation in the province of Trento (North-East of Italy) from 2000 to 2012. This long-term view gives us the chance to test the role played by the Bologna process and by the economic crisis. More precisely, this setting allows us to analyse its effects on inequal...

This paper presents the early impact estimates from a randomized controlled trial aimed at testing the efficacy of an asset-building programme on higher education participation of children coming from low-income families. The experimental evidence points to positive and statistically significant impacts of the programme on university enrolment (+8....

Personality traits are increasingly considered as a powerful predictor of socio-economic success as academic achievement. In this article, we exploit the random assignment of applicants to a programme in order to retrieve unbiased estimates of the impact of studying abroad on both cognitive and noncognitive abilities. Our findings suggest that seco...

In this article we investigate whether, in Italy, social background is related to graduation from more rewarding fields of study and if horizontal inequalities in higher education changed before and after the ‘Bologna process’. We analyse fields of study (FoS) as a categorical variable, as well as a quantitative variable measuring the expected retu...

In this paper, we analyse social inequalities along the horizontal dimension of education in Italy. More precisely, we focus on the role of family background in completing specific fields of study at both secondary and tertiary levels of education. To mitigate the limitations of the traditional sequential model, we construct a typology of education...

Previous studies of trends in social inequalities in upper secondary track choices in Italy found evidence that, in the period of highest educational expansion, horizontal inequalities increased, consistently with the Effectively Maintained Inequality thesis (EMI). Our paper, focusing on the youngest birth cohorts (1958?1989), documents that enrolm...

In this paper, we analyse the role of social origins in the shaping of university participation in the province of Trento (North-East of Italy) from 2000 to 2012. This long-term view gives us the chance to test the role played by the Bologna process and by the economic crisis. More precisely, this setting allows us to analyse its effects on inequal...

This paper investigates the impact of an educational programme recently introduced in the Province of Trento (North-East of Italy) aimed at fostering university enrolment of students from low-income families and at reducing inequalities in access to higher education. The programme consists in generous incentives: it targets university students from...

This paper analyses the efficacy of an abroad study programme of English as a foreign language lasting four weeks and targeted to students enrolled in the fourth year of upper secondary school of the province of Trento. To identify the causal effect of the programme on school achievement and on a set of psychological outcomes, a field experiment wa...

In this paper we investigate the relationship between liquidity constraints and university participation. We assess an educational programme introduced in the Province of Trento (North-East of Italy) in 2009 in order to enhance university participation and to reduce social inequalities in access to higher education. The programme, known as Grant 5B...

The impact of family background on one’s educational choices and career is a crucial concern for research on social stratification and inequalities. Traditionally, the topic has been studied using sequential models, pointing the attention on consecutive transitions between the various levels of education. This approach has been highly criticized in...

This contribution has two main goals. First, we review the most relevant em-pirical literature that has focused on the relationship between tracking and inequality in Ita-ly. We address the issue of inequality in access to the different school branches. We pay par-ticular attention to the role played by social background, but we also consider migra...

We discuss the design and implementation of educational programmes aimed at increasing university enrolment. We focus on a means-test policy introduced in the Italian province of Trento, which consists of a monetary incentive in the form of a grant. To reduce inequalities in access to higher education, aid is awarded according to merit and financia...

Using a counterfactual approach, this paper empirically investigates the impact of an educational program recently introduced in the province of Trento (North-East of Italy). The aim of the policy is to foster university enrollment of students from low-income families and reduce inequalities in access to Higher Education. The program, known as Gran...

Using a counterfactual approach, this paper empirically investigates the impact of an educational programme recently introduced in the Province of Trento (North-East of Italy). The aim of the policy is to foster university enrolment of students from low-income families and to reduce inequalities in access to higher education. The programme, known a...

In this paper my concern is the analysis of the connection between social cohesion and social inequalities at European level. The paper is build around three main issues. The first one regards the definition and measurement of the concept of social cohesion. The second problem consists in the identification of the factors that shapes the overall le...

This article explores the relationship between social cohesion and social inequalities in Europe. The analysis is built around two main research questions: Does economic inequality exert an impact on the level of social cohesion? Does social class mediate between economic inequality and social cohesion? The comparative analysis is based on the welf...

This article explores the relationship between social cohesion and social inequalities in Europe. The analysis is built around two main research questions: Does economic vulnerability exert an impact on the level of social cohesion? Does social class mediate between economic vulnerability and social cohesion? The comparative analysis is based on th...

This article examines the relationship between social cohesion and economic vulnerability in Europe. The analyses are build around two main research hypotheses. The first one argues the existence of a direct and negative association between economic inequality and social cohesion. The second supposition states that this connection is mediated by so...