Search

In Italy, as consequences of the recent economic crisis, the problem of unemployment has become central in the political debate. Scholars and policymakers have suggested the necessity of introducing flexibility measures in the labour market for improving employment performance, especially the youth one. The aim of this paper is to analyse empirically whether higher labour market flexibility was able to reduce youth unemployment in Italy during the period 2004-2014. Empirical results show that labour market flexibility had detrimental effects on youth unemployment. The results are confirmed also when a set of economic control variables were added to the model.

The last economic crisis has produced both a worsening of population socio-economic conditions and a decline of population health. Over decades, scholars have investigated the relationship between socio-economic conditions and individual health. However, most of these studies focus only one dimension (psychological or physical) of individual health. In this paper, we investigate the socio-economic determinants of individual health in Italy using an indicator that take into account three different dimensions of individual health. Using data drawn from Self-Reported Health Status for the year 2013, and applying the Instrumental variables method (IV), the paper shows two important results: 1) The perceived individual health is strongly correlated to income, economic status and life satisfaction, while the impact of aging is very low 2). The correlation between education level and individual health is negatively. This result can be explained considering individual labor status. Indeed, the difficulty to access to the labor market determines that individual’s expectation about job, wage, and quality of work are inconsistent with the “reality”. The consequence is that, individuals better-educated have higher expectations regarding their lives, but often, these expectations do not find correspondence in the Italian labour market, and this mismatch produces negative psychological effects, which contribute to reduce the general individual health.

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the increase in income inequality contributed to the decline of citizens’ trust national political institutions in European Union. Using Eurobarometer data for fifteen European countries from 2001 to 2014, econometric analysis show three main results: a) the growth of income inequality negatively affected citizens’ trust in national government; b) the impact of income inequality on trust became stronger in the crisis period; c) the increase in income inequality contributed to the reduction of political trust mainly in the PIIGS countries. The results are robust also after having controlled for a set of economic and financial variables.

The paper investigates the role of economic indicators as determinants of trust in the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Commission (EC) and the European Parliament (EP) in eleven countries of the Eurozone, from 1999 to 2013, using country level data from the European Commission’s Eurobarometer survey. This paper aims to shed light particularly on the role played by income distribution, together with standard economic indicators such as unemployment and inflation, in the consolidation of supranational institutions. The empirical analysis also controls for financial market shocks, including domestic bond yields and stock market returns. The additional contribution is to analyze whether the sensitiveness of trust has been strengthened during the recent crisis, associating binary dummies to explanatory variables. The main conclusions can be summarized as follows: a) income inequality negatively affects trust in the EC and the EP in normal times; in crisis times, this relation is strengthened and extended to the ECB for one of the two indexes of trust considered; b) inflation and unemployment significantly affect trust in all European Institutions after the crisis.

The present paper deals with the issue of the governance of migratory phenomena and the desertification processes of whole regions or macroareas. In particular, it studies the effects of immigration on income inequality, attempting to demonstrate, through a critical review of the most recent research on the relationship between migration and inequality and an empirical investigation related to the effects of new internal migration in the Italian case, how out-migration can increase income inequalities, thus hindering economic growth and exacerbating regional disparities, while immigration can reduce income inequalities and mitigate economic imbalances, according to the hypothesis of skilled immigration equalising, formulated in 2008 by Kahanec and Zimmermann. From the analysis of the Italian case emerge, moreover, some useful suggestions to help policy makers and lawgivers in the management of internal migratory phenomena and counteract the human and industrial desertification of whole regions or macroareas.

In the last decade, European countries have experienced increases in income inequality and this phenomenon has become a source of increasing social and political problems. Moreover, the recent economic crisis seems to have caused an increasing disaffection on the part of the citizenry towards national and European institutions. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether increases in income inequality affected citizens’ trust in political institutions in EU-15

Nel nostro paese, il problema della povertà ha raggiunto livelli tutt’altro che trascurabili, e richiede, soprattutto al Sud, l’adozione di misure di contrasto in grado di affrontare le differenze, talvolta assai marcate, tra le diverse condizioni di povertà. Una cosa è la condizione dell’anziano che vive di pensione – molto spesso di importo assai limitato - e per il quale sarebbero necessari tipi di interventi diversi dal microcredito, un’altra è quella del giovane, con un alto livello di istruzione, che non ha capitale per avviare un’attività imprenditoriale. In questo caso, la possibilità di usufruire di un finanziamento proveniente dal microcredito potrebbe rappresentare una via di uscita dalla povertà.

A number of scholars are currently arguing that migration may have an important role in the reduction of these inequalities. It has happened before and it may also happen in the future, as it is possible and desirable. However, migration in itself does not resolve the issue of the inequalities. At most, it would shift it forward, because redistribution through immigration does not exempt from previously creating a basic set of rules and institutions aimed at stimulating a major cooperation by countries to change the legal management systems of migration and correct their redistributive effects. In light of these studies, the need for additional in depth research on the impact of immigration on regional disparities and income inequalities has become evident, especially in the long run. The present paper moves, therefore, in this direction, focusing on the regional impact of internal migration and attempting to demonstrate, with reference to the Italian case, how out-migration can increase income inequalities, thus hindering economic growth, while immigration can reduce income inequalities and mitigate economic imbalances. From a juridical point of view, we study the regional restrictions related to residence workers protection, the free movement of European workers and the welfare benefits for migrants.

Il lavoro ha una natura eminentemente descrittiva e si occupa degli effetti della crisi sulla disoccupazione giovanile utilizzando la banca dati EU-SILC 2008-2010. Il problema della disoccupazione giovanile rappresenta, soprattutto per il Mezzogiorno, una piaga che comporta molte inefficienze e, soprattutto, il rafforzarsi di circoli viziosi di sottosviluppo che rischiano di rendere il Sud sempre più povero e dipendente. I giovani migliori, ad esempio, sono costretti molto spesso a scegliere tra restare disoccupati o emigrare: in entrambi i casi il territorio ne risulta impoverito. L’articolo mette a fuoco gli effetti della crisi economica sullo stato occupazionale dei giovani e lascia intravedere un dato interessante: più che restare pigramente ad assistere agli eventi, i giovani, anche meridionali, si sono dati da fare per cercare soluzioni. Se non hanno avuto successo in questa loro ricerca è, con ogni probabilità, la conseguenza dell’incapacità delle politiche locali, nazionali ed europee di aumentare la domanda di lavoro.

The respect of fiscal parameters is supposed to be – according to the official position of the European institutions – the best recipe for granting stability and growth. This optimistic view appears to be in contrast with the recent increase in poverty. The aim of this paper is to individuate the existence of a relation between governments’ decisions about fiscal policy and absolute poverty in 19 Eurozone countries from 2005 to 2017. The attempt is to answer the question as to whether the effect on growth generated by fiscal policy measures can account for the objective of poverty alleviation. The results support the conclusion that absolute poverty increases in the presence of a restrictive fiscal policy, while it decreases in the opposite case. During declining macroeconomic conditions, national governments belonging to the Eurozone appear to be unable to reconcile the objective of sound public finance with that of poverty alleviation.

The aim of the paper is to estimate the effects of increasing debt burden on the wage share of national income in the eurozone from 1999 to 2019 in the attempt to verify, through a dynamic panel data cointegrating technique, whether an increasing debt implies a redistribution of resources from workers to non-wage incomes. To deepen this analysis, the empirical investigation also distinguishes between change in primary public balance and interest payments to evaluate separately the effects of the two components of public debt on wages. The outcomes are consistent with a negative relationship between public debt as a whole and the wage share. However, when accounting for the two debt components, opposite results are registered as the debt service is negatively connected, while change in primary public deficit is positively connected with the wage share of national GDP. These results allow reflecting on the interaction between the monetary policy strategy and the national fiscal policies in the eurozone.

The rise of youth unemployment has been one of the most serious problems which policymakers have had to deal with over the last two decades. Neoclassical economic theory suggests that the deregulation (i.e. higher flexibility) of the labour market stimulates firms to hire young people and—therefore—reduces youth unemployment. The aim of this study is to empirically test the validity of this hypothesis, analysing data on youth unemployment and labour market regulation index (LMRI) for 28 European countries in the period between 2000 and 2018. The empirical results—using two different econometric techniques (time and fixed effects that allows to take into account the presence of heterogeneity of countries in the model and pooling mean group (PMG) estimator providing results about the short and long run relationship between LMRI and youth unemployment)—do not provide evidence in support of the neoclassical hypothesis. In particular, the effect of higher flexibility of the labour market is negative and statistically significant (at 1%) only when a dummy variable for the Eastern country group is included in the model. Vice-versa, the paper shows that higher economic growth and higher investment in active labour market policy represent the key variables to reduce the youth unemployment. In conclusion, the paper raises many doubts that the introduction of flexibility measures in itself can represent a useful tool to counteract the increase of youth unemployment in Europe.

The fight against unemployment has become one of the most important challenges that advanced European countries have faced in the last forty years. Economic literature suggests that the changes in labour market institutions—through the implementation of a set of flexibility measures—represent a useful tool to reduce unemployment. In this chapter, we estimate the short- and long-run effects of a change in the labour market institution on unemployment—using data about 28 selected European countries in the period between 2000 and 2017—with the aim of verifying the validity of the hypothesis that higher labour market de-regulation contributes to improving labour market performance. The empirical results—using the bias-corrected least square dummy variables (LSDVC) econometric techniques—do not show robust evidence that higher labour market de-regulation is correlated with a reduction of unemployment rate. The policy implication of this chapter is that, face the likely increase in unemployment rate in upcoming years, due to the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic, will require policymakers to implement different policies (investment in ALMPs and the adoption of ad hoc economic policies in order to increase the aggregate demand), rather than further reforms aiming to de-regulate the labour market.

Was the European Central Bank able to assure the relaunch of the European project after the weakening of the post-crisis period? To answer this question, this paper presents an empirical analysis connecting citizen trust in the European Union with a variable intended to be a measure of the monetary policy strategy of the European Central Bank, namely, the interest rate on government bonds extracted from the 1-year maturity yield curve. The dynamic panel technique, applied to nineteen Eurozone countries for the time span of 2004–2018, estimates the presence of a long-run common relationship between the variables despite allowing different short-run adjustment mechanisms. Results are revealed to be not univocal: the easy monetary policy strategy is associated for the whole period with a decline of trust, and therefore, despite its impressiveness, it was not sufficient to relaunch the European Union project. However, when considering the change in strategy of the post-2013 period, it seemed to have contributed to a slight inversion of the decline of trust. These results highlight the importance of non-conventional measures and call for further support from coordinated policy action as a response to the negative shock deriving from the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper tests whether, and to what extent, spatial factors increase gender discrimination in access to the labor market. To so, we employ a probit model controlling for individual characteristics and a number of social variables. Results show that the lack of adequate public transport reduces the chances for women to secure a job, contributing to their exclusion from the labor market.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of flexibility in the labour market on workers’ monetary poverty in 15 European countries in the time span 2005–2016. We estimate how the labour market regulation index (LMRI) affects workers’ monetary poverty through two empirical exercises: in the first one, we use an autoregressive distributed lag model and, in the second one, the generalized method of moments model. The results suggest that greater flexibility of the labour market is positively correlated with greater monetary poverty among employed people. The result does not change significantly when introducing the effect of the economic crisis and the interaction effect between the economic crisis and the LMRI. Therefore, we conclude that the outcome should be considered to be noticeable whatever the macroeconomic conditions occurring in the labour market.Key words: Labour market, Flexibility, Poverty, Dynamic panel data.JEL: C20, I30, J50.

The rise in the unemployment rate across European countries has been one of the most evident effects of the economic downturn. The aim of this paper is to investigate: 1) the impact of economic crisis on youth and adult unemployment in Italy; 2) whether the labour market reforms have mitigated or strengthened the negative effect of the economic crisis on youth unemployment; and 3) which economic and institutional variables contribute to reducing unemployment. Econometric results, using data from the twenty Italian regions from 2001 to 2016, confirm that the economic crisis has had detrimental effects mostly on young people. Moreover, the paper shows no evidence that greater labour market flexibility improves youth unemployment outcomes. Regarding the other control variables, the regional export, ALMPs, regional political participation, increase in average wages, private investment and regional productivity contribute to mitigating the impact of a recession on youth and adult unemployment.

After the 2007 financial crisis, some Eurozone countries were subject to adjustment programs, whose main content was the reduction of public expenditure in its structural component. The aim of the paper is to examine, through an error correction dynamic panel data technique, the relationship between structural public balance adjustment and poverty in selected Eurozone countries in the period from 2005 to 2015. The results suggest that restrictive measures increase poverty and social exclusion while expansive measure decrease it, eithe r when considering the population as a whole or when considering men and women separately. The introduction of additional variables considered to be relevant for poverty into the empirical model does not change the main conclusions of the paper. The objective of sound public finance seems to be gained at the expense of a higher number of people living in poverty.

This article highlights the relationship between labor market deregulation and the number of workers living in absolute poverty in 15 countries of the European Union.

The institutional and policy features of Eurozone represent a field of special interest to analyse the process of integration. The aim of this study is to investigate on the existence of a trade-off between the compliance to fiscal rules and trust as a proxy of institutional legitimacy in Eurozone. At this scope, the relation between trust in the European Central Bank and structural adjustment, together with unemployment and inflation in 11 Eurozone countries from 1999 to 2013, is tested. The empirical results showed that a) discretionary policy measures have an opposite sign impact on trust; b) in peripheral countries, the structural adjustment is the main variable affecting trust in ECB; c) unemployment plays a key role; and d) deviation from the objective of 2% of inflation is not significant. These outcomes prove the existence of a trade-off between the fiscal rules commitments and the European institutional consolidation process. Key words: Trust, ECB, Fiscal policy, Eurozone.JEL: E02, E31, E63, D63. Pridržavanje fiskalnih pravila i poverenje u institucije Evrozone: slucaj Evropske centralne banke Institucionalna i politicka obeležja Evrozone predstavljaju oblast od posebnog interesa za analizu procesa integracije. Cilj ove studije je da istraži postojanje trade-off-a između pridržavanja fiskalnih pravila i poverenja kao vestacke promenljive za institucionalni legitimitet u Evrozoni. U tom smislu, ispitan je odnos između poverenja u Evropsku centralnu banku (ECB) i strukturnog prilagođavanja, zajedno sa nezaposlenoscu i inflacijom u 11 zemalja Evrozone od 1999. do 2013. godine. Empirijski rezultati su pokazali da: (i) mere diskrecione politike imaju uticaj suprotnog znaka na poverenje; (ii) u perifernim zemljama, strukturno prilagođavanje je osnovna varijabla koja utice na poverenje u ECB; (iii) nezaposlenost igra kljucnu ulogu; i (iv) odstupanje od cilja od 2% inflacije nije znacajno. Rezultati dokazuju postojanje trade-off-a između pridržavanja fiskalnih pravila i procesa evropske institucionalne konsolidacije. Kljucne reci: Poverenje, ECB, fiskalna politika, Evrozona.

Since the unification, internal migration has characterized the economic and political debate in Italy. According to the labour market theory, several scholars claim that internal migration represents a useful tool to reduce income inequality. The present paper moves in this direction, focusing on the regional impact of internal migration and attempting to investigate – with reference to the Italian case – whether internal migration is able to reduce regional income inequalities and mitigate economic imbalances. In order to investigate the effect of internal migration on regional inequality, I use data concerning twenty Italian regions for the period between 2004 and 2015. Econometric results show that the migration from poorest to richest regions contributes to reduce the regional Gini coefficient. The results are robust also when a set of economic variables are added to the model.