Essays in the Economics of Education, Labor and Human Capital

This thesis studies three non-traditional tools for human capital acquisition and their effects on the labor market, regional development and inequality. Chapter 2 studies university honors programs, add-on educational tracks offered to talented and motivated students enrolled in non-elite universities. We exploit a quasiexperimental design and show that attending the program is beneficial in terms of academic achievement while in university and shapes labor market choices toward postgraduate studies, both in terms of stated prospects and realized actions. The program affects academics and expectations towards the labor market of low-income and high-income students differently, yet favors end-of-program convergence between the two groups. Chapter 3 explores the interplay between voluntary adult skill acquisition, remote learning and novel educational tools. I study an educational TV program aimed at teaching adult workers in 1960 Italy how to read and write. I digitize Census data and combine it with TV signal variation due to an expanding TV system in a continuous differences in differences strategy. I find that receiving TV signal, and hence being exposed to televised classes, is successful in raising overall literacy rates. This effect is entirely driven by men, as gender norms prevented women from accessing communal TV and, hence, learning. In Chapter 4, we study culture as a driver of regional development when conveyed through a mega event. We focus on Matera’s nomination as the 2019 European Capital of Culture and evaluate the labor market and economic impacts resulting from tourism development triggered by the event. Via event study regressions and permutation tests, we find a boost in tourism, leading to decreased unemployment, increased income, firms, and workers in sectors connected with tourism, as well as a notable impact on the real estate market.