Fabrizio Bernardi
Professor of Sociology
Tel. [+39] 055 4685 316/233
Fax [+39] 055 4685 201
Email: Fabrizio.Bernardi@eui.eu
Secretary: Monika.Rzemieniecka@eui.eu
Office: BF 179, Badia Fiesolana
EUI SPS Department
Via dei Roccettini 9
50014 San Domenico di Fiesole (FI)
Italy
Office Hours
Office hours are on Thursdays from 15:00 - 17:30.
Please book your slot with Monika.Rzemieniecka@eui.eu .
Fabrizio Bernardi joined the EUI in January 2010, while on leave from the UNED, Spain.
He received his Ph.D. in sociology and social research from the University of Trento in 1998 and his B.A. from the University of Bologna in 1993. He moved to the Department of Sociology II of the UNED in 2001, having previously taught at the faculty of sociology at the University of Bielefeld, Germany, from 1998 to 2001.
Since 1998 he has also taught short term seminars on event history analysis at the University of Oxford, Milan, at the Juan March Institute, Madrid and at the UPF, Barcelona. Between 2007 and 2009 he was senior researcher on social stratification and inequality at the Juan March Institute, Madrid.
He is an elected member of the board of the European Consortium for Social Research, a core member of the “analysing the lifecourse” group within the network Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences (QMSS2) financed by the European Science Foundation and an associate expert in the EQUALSOC network of excellence funded by the European Union’s Sixth Framework Programme.
Bernardi's main teaching and current research interests lie in social stratification, inequality in educational opportunities and educational returns, family and labour market dynamics, social methodology.
Italian, English, Spanish
Inequality in educational opportunities, social mobility, educational returns, family and labour market dynamics and inequality, research design and methodology (quantitative)
1) Level and Inequality in Educational Returns in Europe
Directors: Fabrizio Bernardi (EUI) and Volker Stocké (Bamberg University)
This comparative project studies the level and inequality in educational returns in Europe. It covers three large and interrelated areas. First, we analyse inequalities in educational returns in the labour market (LM) in contemporary post-industrial societies. Are ascribed characteristics (such us social class of origins, gender and ethnicity) increasingly important to explain success in the LM, besides the level of education that an individual might achieve? We address this general question in two ways. On the one hand, we study whether ascribed characteristics have a direct effect on occupational achievement, net of educational achievement and whether these effects have changed over time. On the other hand, we investigate whether educational returns in the labour market depend on the same set of ascribed characteristics, i.e. whether the same educational title has a different value in the LM depending on the social background, gender and ethnicity. Secondly, it studies educational returns outside the labour market such us health, quality of marital life, civic participation. A comparison with the results of the comparative analysis of educational returns in the LM will enable us to have a firmer understanding of the role played by education in the structuring of social inequality in contemporary societies. Finally, we investigate the mechanisms underlying inequality in educational returns in the LM and non LM returns. In other words, we try to explain the findings of the first two areas of the project. We focus specifically on cognitive skills, cultural capital and discrimination.
This project was launched in March 2010, within the activities of EQUALSOC Network of Excellence funded by the European Union’s Sixth Framework Programme. The original financed proposal included the following researchers: G. Ballarino (University of Milan), C. Barone (University of Trento), J. Härkönen (SOFI, Sweden) A. Holm (DPU, Aarhus), M. Meier (DPU, Aarhus), D. Reimer (DPU, Aarhus), I. Kogan (University of Mannheim), R. Pollak (WZB Berlin) . H. van de Werfhorst (University of Amsterdam), M Wolbers University Nijmegen), M. Yaish (University of Haifa), L. Ortiz (UPF). The group has been expanding over the last year and a number of additional researchers have joined one of the three areas of the project.
2) Social mobility and educational attainment during the 20th century
Director: W. Müller. Participants: Bernardi, Barone, Breen, Luijkx. Pollak, Vallet.
The aim of this project it to assess the changes that have occurred over the 20th century in (a) inequality, according to social class, in educational attainment; and (b) the role played by education in the reproduction of social advantage from generation to generation. It particular examines the effects of educational expansion and changes in education inequality for social mobility and social fluidity in Europe: In the work so far, it has been established, that in practically all of the countries studied by the project, class inequality in educational attainment has declined in the course of the 20th century. The core issue now is, whether declining class inequality in educational attainment is also responsible for more social fluidity or whether changes in social fluidity result from other developments in education, such as the marked expansion of education, and the corresponding increase in the general level of education. Expansion alone could have been sufficient to generate increased equality in the competition for different class destinations among people coming from different class origins. This is because, in many countries, the influence of class origin on class destination is much weaker among people with high levels of education than among those with low levels. This specific issue is examined in comparative ways – analytically and with simulation models – along side with analyses of the general role of education for changes across time in social fluidity. The countries analysed include France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK. This project was financed by of EQUALSOC Network of Excellence funded by the European Union’s Sixth Framework Programme.
3) Change in the post-industrial occupational structure and social inequality
The aim of this project is to investigate the implications of occupational change towards a post-industrial society for social inequality. In particular, it investigates whether a new type of unskilled service class is likely to emerge as a distinct social class. It starts by focusing on the Spanish case. First occupational class coding are update and harmonized over time and then they applied to the Spanish Labour Force data since the late 70s to analyse trends in the occupational and class structure. Second, the analysis is extended to other EU countries using EU Labour force data.
This project is part of a larger project funded by the Spanish Government Agency CICYT , “Occupational stratification and educational performance in Spain: Job-skills match, immigration, and retirement”, 2010-2012, director: Luis Garrido (UNED).
Other work in progress
Compensation effect and inequality in educational opportunities
This project focuses on mechanisms underlying inequality in educational opportunities. It studies how the family of origin might activate in order to compensate for a ‘false step’ in the early stage of young people’s educational careers. This compensatory effect of social background can be described as the likelihood of having ‘a second chance’ for further educational attainment in case of failure to complete a given educational level on time, early placement in non-academic tracks or, more generally, achievement of bad grades.
Divorce and methods to deal with sample selection bias in event history analysis
This project focuses on the reversal of educational gradient on marriage dissolution (ie highly educated women were more likely to divorce in the past and are less and less likely to divorce in recent cohorts). This study raises methodological challenges due to the fact due to self-selection into marriage based on some unobserved characteristics that might also affect the risk of marriage dissolution.
Bernardi, F. (2011, forthcoming), “Unequal transitions: selection bias and the compensatory effect of social background in educational careers”, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, accepted for publication. Advanced access:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0276562411000394
Bernardi, F. and Martínez-Pastor, J.I (2011, forthcoming), “Female education and marriage dissolution: is it a selection effect?”, European Sociological Review, accepted for publication. Advanced access:
http://esr.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2010/07/08/esr.jcq031.short?rss=1
Bernardi, F. and Martínez-Pastor, J.I (2011), “Divorce risk factors and their variation over time in Spain”, Demographic Research, 24, 771-800.
http://www.demographic-research.org/Volumes/Vol24/31/default.htm
Bernardi, F., Garrido, L. and Miyar, M. (2011), “The recent fast upsurge of immigrants in Spain and their employment patterns and occupational attainment, International Migration, 49, (1), 148-187.
Bernardi, F. and Martínez-Pastor, J.I (2010), “Female education and marriage dissolution: is it a selection effect?”, European Sociological Review, (accepted for publication). Advanced access:
http://esr.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2010/07/08/esr.jcq031.short?rss=1
Bernardi, F. and Martínez-Pastor, J.I (2010), “Falling at the bottom: Unskilled jobs at entry in the Labour Market in Spain over time and in a comparative perspective”, International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 51 (4) 289-307.
http://cos.sagepub.com/content/51/4/289.abstract?rss=1
Ballarino, G., Bernardi, F. Schadee, H. and Requena, M. (2009), “Persistent Inequalities? Expansion of education and class inequality in Italy and Spain”, European Sociological Review, Vol 25, (1), 123-138.
http://esr.oxfordjournals.org/content/25/1/123.abstract
Bernardi, F, (2009) “Globalizzazione, individualizzazione e morte delle classi sociali: uno studio empirico su 18 paesi Europei”, Polis, 2, 195-220.
http://www.uned.es/dpto_so2/bernardi/documentos/01_Bernardi.pdf
http://www.mulino.it/rivisteweb/scheda_articolo.php?id_articolo=30068
Bernardi, F. and Garrido, L. (2008), “Is there a new post-industrial proletariat? Post-industrial employment growth and social inequality in Spain”, European Sociological Review, 24 (3), 299-313.
http://esr.oxfordjournals.org/content/24/3/299.full.pdf+html
Workshop: Inequality in Educational Returns, 21-22 June 2012
Seminar: Family Dynamics and Inequality , Winter 2012 (with Martin Kohli)
Seminar: Introduction to Quantitative Methods (Autumn 2011)
Workshop: Panel Data Analysis , 6-7 June 2011
Workshop: Event-history Analysis , 9-11 May 2011
Seminar: Social inequality in comparative perspective , Winter 2011
Seminar: Research Design for Quantitative Analysis , Autumn 2010 (with Mark Franklin)
Seminar: Elementary Data Analysis with STATA , Autumn 2010 (with Mark Franklin)
Workshop: Wellbeing and its various measurements , 21-22 April 2010
Workshop: Level and Inequality in Educational Returns in Europe (EDUREU), 12-13 March 2010
Seminar: Intermediate Data Analysis with STATA (with Mark Franklin), Winter 2010
The working group defines inequality in a very broad sense. We have presentations on the following non-exhaustive list of topics related to social and economic inequality: inequality of educational opportunities, post-industrial class structure, gender inequality, ethnic penalties in education and in the labour market, labour market transitions, happiness, poverty and family dynamics. We welcome participation and presentations from fellows and researchers of other departments working on related topics. (Chair professor: Fabrizio Bernardi. Student organizer: Juana.Lamote@gmail.com .)
For more information and schedule of past and upcoming presentations:
http://www.eui.eu/Personal/Researchers/Hansson/Inequality%20Working%20Group.htm
Berkay Özcan (Post-doctoral associate, CIQLE, Yale University), The Effects of Marital Transitions and Spousal Characteristics on Economic Outcomes, UPF 2008.
Alvaro Martinez Perez (Research Fellow, IRVAP, Trento), Couple relationships: the effect of education on gender equality, ISER Essex, 2010.
Jonas Radl (Post-doctoral researcher, UNED, Madrid), Retirement Timing and Social Stratification: A Comparative Study of Labor Market Exit and Age Norms in Western Europe, EUI 2010.