This paper investigates depressive symptoms among employees using Italian microdata from the second wave of the European Health Interview Survey. The results show that in Italy, employees with permanent and full-time work suffer less from depressive symptoms than employees without permanent and full-time jobs. Furthermore, females suffer from overall depressive symptoms more than males when taking into account education, income, occupation, or the economic sector in which they work. Finally, there is a stronger positive association between weight status and depressive symptoms in the southern regions of Italy compared to the northern ones. The results suggest the need for economic and social policies in order to reduce differences between employees, genders and regions.
The Covid-19 pandemic had already changed the course of world history, opening up a number of scientific and political debates, when the war in Ukraine erupted. With the help of a broad literature, we go into depth about how much these events will influence the reshoring process that was already under way before the pandemic, and more generally the development of global supply chains (GSCs), especially in the EU. We discuss the definition, the data and the main sources of the reshoring process and how they will mix with the new situation to favour politically influenced and more regional supply chains. Finally, we debate the alternatives that policymakers face, concluding that trade wars will be fiercer and more frequent in a period of decoupling among economic blocks.
Financial literacy, women’s empowerment and food safety are important to the eradication of poverty, malnutrition and the economic development of a nation. This study examined financial literacy, female empowerment and food safety among farming households in Oyo state, Nigeria. The mean age of women in the study area was 42 ± 10 years, with the majority having a primary-level education. Most of the women in the study area were financially literate, but more than half were not empowered. The mean food safety index of 0.1 ± 0.01 shows that most households do not carry out food safety practices. Financial literacy is a major determinant of empowerment among the women. Majority of women are not empowered in comparison to their male counterparts. Monitoring and management of existing empowerment programmes for women should be the focus of government interventions to promote self-sufficiency and empowerment.