| Abstract: |
I investigate the operation of the academic market in Italy, mapping current
scholars’ location choices. I build a new dataset of current professors,
associating each scholar with a composite indicator of their quality. The
analysis includes the quality of the university and the features of the city
where the institution is located. I estimate the strength of different
factors: gravity (distance), agglomeration (scholars are attracted to higher
quality universities), selection (better scholars travel longer distances),
and sorting (the better the scholar, the more the quality of universities is
weighted). I find that all of these factors have an effect, and do not vary
according to scholars’ gender. I find a greater expected utility for scholars
in choosing private universities over public ones, through a consistent
nesting procedure. Comparing these forces to historical trends in Italian
academia, the sorting effect delineates a new momentum for the current
academic market in Italy. |