Claudio Annibali wins sixth place for master’s thesis at the Valeria Solesin Award

Claudio Annibali has won the sixth place for his master’s thesis at the Valeria Solesin award, an Italian competition at the national level for master’s theses investigating the labor market in terms of gender, from a socio-economic, demographic-statistical and legal perspective. Annibali, who is now a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), was awarded for his master’s thesis titled ‘Intergenerational Mobility in Europe: the Role of Mothers and Gender Differences’.

All the theses that were selected for the competition were analyzed by a scientific board of 21 professors from Italian universities, such as Bocconi, Sapienza, and Trento University. The board judged the theses by their scientific rigor and their innovativeness. For his master’s thesis, which he completed at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Annibali analyzed the role of mothers in the intergenerational transmission of educational levels.

“We found that mothers play a huge role in their children's level of education and, in particular, there is a gendered effect: sons are more influenced by their fathers and daughters by their mothers, especially at the high end of the educational distribution. However, we find that in countries with a long history of public spending, this intergenerational link is less strong”, Annibali explains. Since in times of great economic inequality initial conditions tend to play a stronger role in the individual's labor market success, this lower intergenerational link means that inequality is less likely to be transmitted from one generation to the other.

Attention for gender component

The insight on gender economics and the different set of conditions that women and men face that Annibali acquired with his master’s thesis will also be of use in his PhD. Annibali: “In my PhD I will focus on labor market participation and human capital, as my first project is about undiagnosed diabetic individuals and their labor market outcomes and my second project should be about non-cognitive abilities and their effects on labor market outcomes. In both cases we will pay special attention to the gender component as well.”

The Valeria Solesin Award

Valeria Solesin Award was created in memory of Valeria Solesin, who was a young researcher working on topics regarding women in the labor market. She was unfortunately killed in the Bataclan terrorist attack. The award is an initiative of Forum della Meritocrazia and many sponsoring partners, the main sponsor being Allianz. Annibali’s award was funded by SAS, a company that provides business analytics software and services. The PhD candidate is really happy about receiving this award. “I know that the competition was really hard, as it was held at the national level. It marks the end of my Masters and I hope it is a good omen for what is to come during my PhD.”