Italian Labour Market Research Articles

The Italian Labor Market: Stylized Facts, Institutions, and Directions for Reform

This paper provides a synthesis of existing and new empirical perspectives on the structure of the Italian labor market, using data at different levels of disaggregation. The analysis indicates that aggregate data mask considerable disparities in labor market outcomes across regions and demographic groups. The evolutions of sectoral wage and employment structures also point to some dimensions of labor market rigidities. A micro data set with individual data is then used to highlight key structural problems that affect labor supply and demand. The implications of these different strands of empirical analysis for the formulation and effective implementation of labor market policy are then discussed.

The Italian Labor Market: Stylized Facts, Institutions, and Directions for Reform

This paper provides a synthesis of existing and new empirical perspectives on the structure of the Italian labor market, using data at different levels of disaggregation. The analysis indicates that aggregate data mask considerable disparities in labor market outcomes across regions and demographic groups. The evolutions of sectoral wage and employment structures also point to some dimensions of labor market rigidities. A micro data set with individual data is then used to highlight key structural problems that affect labor supply and demand. The implications of these different strands of empirical analysis for the formulation and effective implementation of labor market policy are then discussed.

Labour Turnover and Unionism in Italy

Recent research on the functioning of labour markets has placed great emphasis on the role of job turnover. Turnover rates have important implications for wage determination, work organisation, career prospects and various other aspects of the employment relationship. A topic which has not received much attention in the literature is concerned with the impact of unions on firms' accession-separation decisions. Union practices are deemed to have a significant impact on firms' turnover rate influencing both hiring and quits-dismissals decisions. The present paper attempts to explore union effects on turnover in the context of the Italian labour market. Different theoretical implications for the analysis of accessions and separations rates within the establishment is presented and discussed. The empirical model is then specified and estimated using establishment level data for the Italian metal-mechanical engineering industry. In the attempt to ascertain the different routes through which union presence affects turnover rates, a different treatment of the various sources of separations (quits, incentivated separations, dismissals) is proposed. Empirical evidence suggests that Italian trade unions have succeeded in reducing turnover.

Wage Dispersion and Unionism: Do Unions Protect Low Pay?

Existing research concerning the impact of unions on relative wages provides evidence for the existence of significant union/non‐union wage differentials. However, union practices are deemed to have a more pervasive effect on the overall distribution of wages, reducing wage differentials across and within establishments. Attempts to explore union effects on wage dispersion in the context of the Italian labour market. Several indicators of wage dispersion are computed, using both industry and establishment level data, in the attempt to ascertain the different routes through which union presence affects the structure of wages. The empirical evidence shows that Italian trade unions have pursued “egalitarian” objectives and have succeeded in shaping pay policies which, through central and local negotiations, raise low wages and reduce wage differentials both among skill categories and across establishments.

Evaluating the effectiveness of employment programs: can existing statistical methods be applied to the italian labour market and institutional context?

In the first part of the paper we provide a brief summary of the statistical approach that has emerged as the paradigm for evaluating employment programs in the United States. We discuss the role that longitudinal data and methods play in this approach. In the second part of the paper we take on a more challenging task, motivated by the view that the appropriate statistical methods used for evaluation purposes should be tailored to the institutional context in which the program operates. We discuss three directions in which the U.S. evaluation paradigm should be developed if it has to be applied to a labour market context such as the one prevailing in Italy: (I) shifting the attention away from repeatable outcomes, such as earnings or repeated spells of unemployment, which characterize the U.S. approach and provide the basis for the use of longitudinal methods: because of the characteristics of the Italian labour market, very few meaningful repeatable outcomes can be found to evaluate the success of employment programs; (II) broadening the range of programs to be evaluated, with respect to the U.S. practice of focusing evaluations on training programs targeted to disadvantaged individuals; (III) broadening the objectives of the evaluation, from an emphasis on absolute effectiveness, to other types of evaluation questions, such as the effectiveness of service providers, and the issue of the adverse effects of interventions.

Non-EEC Nationals and the Italian Labour Market: The Institutional Framework

Non-EEC Nationals and the Italian Labour Market: The Institutional Framework

Recruitment, Reform and the Italian Labour Market

The restrictive legislation on recruitment in Italy is a well‐known example of state control of a labour market; the means Italian companies employ to get round the legislation is, if anything, even more interesting. Problems are recognised by the government and in mid‐1991 the legislation was “reformed”. A detailed study of the working of the old legislation and the situation which led to its reform concludes that although the latest law is a step forward it amounts to a missed opportunity.

State, Market and Social Regulation: New Perspectives on Italy, by Peter Lange and Mario Regini

List of Contributors Preface Introduction: interests and institutions - forms of social regulation and public policy-making Peter Lange and Marino Regini Part I. Models of Regulations: 1. Unregulated regulators: parties and party government Gianfranco Pasquino 2. Politics and policies in Italy Bruno Dente and Gloria Regonini 3. Protest and regulation: the interaction of state and society in the cycle of 1965-74 Sonia Stefanizzi and Sidney Tarrow Part II. Regulation of the Economy: 4. Politics, institutional features, and the government of industry Maurizio Ferrera 5. The Italian labor market: between state control and social regulation Emilio Reyneri 6. The divorce of the Banca d'Italia and the Italian treasury: a case study of central bank independence Gerald A. Epstein and Juliet B. Schor Part III. Industrial Relations and its Actors: 7. Criteria of regulation in Italian industrial relations: a case of weak institutions Gianprimo Cella 8. The representation of business interests as a mechanism of social regulation Antonio Chiesi and Alberto Martinelli Part IV. The Welfare State: 9. Public and private in the Italian welfare system Massimo Paci 10. Public intervention and health policy: an analysis of tendencies in progress Elena Granaglia Conclusion: the Italian case between continuity and change Peter Lange and Marino Regini Bibliography Index.

Wage Discrimination and Female Occupational Intensity

AbstractThe analysis presented in this paper attempts to shed some light, in the context of the Italian labour market, on wage based gender discrimination effects and on the potential impact of gender occupational distribution on wage determination. The results obtained provide some useful insights for Equal Pay legislation and on the efficacy of Comparable Worth (CW) type policies. The wage equation estimates are broadly in line with results obtained elsewhere in the literature. A discrimination effect of nearly 17|X% results when an exclusively male occupational structure is considered. The gender wage gap showed to decrease as female intensity increases. In terms of the framework used, two competing interpretations have been proposed and their implications discussed. The implication of different policy measures which, in recent years, generated much discussion among scholars and in political arenas have been considered, namely: CW and Affirmative Action (AA) policies. Future research should consider a structural model of discrimination so as to discriminate between competing models and policy options.

The Principal Statistical Sources for the Labour Market in Italy

ABSTRACT: The state of disequilibrium which the labour market in Italy (as in all the major industrialised countries) presents, has been the centre of debate in political and economic circles for many years now. How should this disequilibrium be interpreted, considering the complexity of the phenomena found in the labour area? Can they be modeled into global explanatory schemas of general economic theory? The authors believe the complexity of these phenomena can neither be ignored nor simplified, but accepted as a distinguishing feature of the labour market, and thus have to be interpreted on the basis of numerous and often contradictory control variables.This paper hence outlines the principle sources of Italian labour market data available, in order to provide a rational and critical guide to interpreting the available indicators. The sources examined are both institutional (the ISTAT and Ministry of Labour surveys) and private (the employers associations of Confindustria, Assolombarda and Federmec‐canica). The paper outlines the areas covered, the methodology, and the qualities and drawbacks that these surveys present.

Labour Mobility in Italy: An Empirical Investigation

ABSTRACT: In this paper the author presents a model of unemployment inflows and outflows for the Italian labour market. The flows that the author attempts to estimate are the unemployment inflows and outflows from and to employment. The aggregate estimation suggests that a crucial role is played by the aggregate demand and wage variables, and by the structural change variable. The paper also presents intersectoral estimations of SURE, which take into consideration the flows between Industry and Services. The results are along the lines of those obtained at the aggregate level. An important factor which should be underlined, however, is the asymmetric pattern of the wage variable in the industrial and services sector.

A Stock‐Flow Model to Analyse and Forecast Labour Market Variables

ABSTRACT: In confronting problems of employment and unemployment, students of the labour market, and economists in general have focused mainly on the determination of the level of such variables.Much less attention has been paid to such questions as: how many persons have entered the area of employment and the labour force in various time periods, and how many have exited; their sex and age distribution; and the determinants of the level and structure of flows amongst the various labour market conditions. Yet it appears superfluous to underscore the relevance of such questions. To illustrate, suffice it to recall that in Italy, the present level of employment is essentially the same today as it was in 1961‘; but this has not prevented whole generations of young people from 'stably’entering the employment area, albeit with varying degrees of difficulty in different periods.As for the numerous statistical surveys of labour market flows in a range of countries, and as for the works of job search theorists2, it should be observed that such surveys and analyses essentially concern conjunctural phenomena. Consequently, these authors have paid no attention to the distinction between short‐run turnover and generational turnover, or to the extremely singular characteristics of the statistical data on flows. An attempt to construct labour market models that present an integrated version of the 'structural’aspects of the market in terms of stock and flows is therefore lacking.The present study sets forth various objectives and is divided into two parts.In the first, an analysis of several controversial terminological aspects of the concepts of stock and flow is presented, and an attempt is made to point out those theoretical structures which have been responsible for the long‐prevailing neglect of the labour market flows, particularly long‐run flows. Then the problem of defining the concepts of short‐run and generational turnover will be confronted in light of an analysis of the statistical methods used in the surveys; finally, a methodology for measuring generational flows is proposed.In the second part of the paper a model based on generational flows, as previously defined, will be presented together with a computational procedure capable to produce long run estimates of alternative scenarios of labour demand and supply and of the structure of employment by sex and age. A brief summary of some of the empirical results obtained applying our model and forecasting procedure to the Italian labour market will also be discussed in the final part of the paper.

Facts and Theories of the Italian Labour Market (1970‐1985): A Time Series Analysis of Wages, Employment and Prices

ABSTRACT: ln this paper an attempt is made to determine whether observed patterns of intertemporal variability in a number of Italian labour market characteristics are consistent with the predictions forthcoming from three prominent models of aggregate labour market behaviour. The behavioral models included in the analysis are: a) intertemporal substitution labour supply, b) staggered wage contracts, and c) intertemporal labour demand with adjustment costs. The empirical results provide relatively more support for the validity of the adjustment cost model.

An Aggregate Disequilibrium Model of the Labour Market: An Empirical Investigation for the Italian Economy

ABSTRACT: This paper develops a partial disequilibrium model for the Italian economy. After a brief description of the theoretical framework adopted, the empirical model is specified and estimated. The hypothesis that the Italian labour market, in the period considered, was characterized by‘equilibrium’is tested and rejected.Amongst other factors, the unions‘pushfulness’played a very influential role in wage determination.

Monetarist and Keynesian Policies for the Italian Labour Market: An Application of Interactive Control Methods

ABSTRACT: This paper aims at analysing the effects of monetarist and keynesian policies on Italian unemployment rate. Furthermore, it examines whether an optimal policy exists such that unemployment can be lowered without negatively affecting other policy targets (inflation or balance of trade). To answer these questions, interactive control methods are applied to a simple, intermediate‐run, disequilibrium model of the Italian economy. A comparison between actual and optimal policies is also provided.

The industrial reserve army, segmentation and the Italian labour market

The industrial reserve army, segmentation and the Italian labour market

El mercado laboral italiano y la crisis

The Italian labour market is characterized by deep gender differences and regional variability. The data show that the crisis lead to an increase in the gap of female employment rates and women's inactivity rates with respect to Europe. The North of Italy experienced a higher increase in unemployment than the South, where many people withdrew from the labour market because of poor employment prospects. Moreover, in Italy, the increase in unemployment has been mitigated by the increase in the number of workers having access to the wage supplementation fund who are not computed within the unemployed. Using a micro simulation technique, we estimate the effect of the crisis on income distribution and poverty and find that at the national level, the population showed a reduction in equivalized household income by about 1 percent. The use of wage supplementation fund, together with a higher involvement of youth living in their birth family, brought about the observed limited increase in the poverty rates. The heterogeneity in the system of unemployment benefits increased inequalities amongst the unemployed. This calls for a reform of the system of unemployment benefit and safety net in Italy that has been long postponed.