Can parents’ education lay the foundation for reducing the inactivity of young people? A regional analysis of Italian NEETs

The problem of young NEETs (not in education, employment and training) strongly affects countries where youth unemployment is high and investment in human capital is scarce, such as Italy. The share of young NEETs in Italy is double the European average in post-2007 crisis values and approximately 4–6% greater than precrisis values. We suggest that the local human capital endowment forms an educational and cultural base that can discourage the status of inactivity among young people, i.e., those at risk of becoming NEETs during the years of the postcrisis recession. The effect of parents’ education is confirmed in Italy, and this effect is stronger when considering parents’ advanced education (proxied by the tertiary education of the adult population) in urging young people to complete their studies or to enter the labor market. Furthermore, a control analysis that tests the regressors’ effects on the parallel phenomena of youth unemployment and school dropout suggests common ground on which to base appropriate policy interventions.