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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.
During the middle third of the 20th century, workers in most industrialized countries secured a substantial measure of job security, whether through legislation, contract or social practice. This “standard employment contract,” as it was known, became the foundation of an impressive array of rights and entitlements, including social insurance and pensions, protection against unsociable working conditions, and the right to bargain collectively. Recent changes in technology and the global economy, however, have dramatically eroded this traditional form of employment. Employers now value flexibility over stability, and increasingly hire employees for short-term or temporary work. Many count...
This book examines the concept of the single employment contract, tracing it from its genesis and evaluating its pros and cons in the context of the current labour market problems in selected European countries. The book adopts a comparative approach to examining the single employment contract, highlighting its virtues and revealing its inherent contradictions. The authors set out the general framework within which the current debate has developed by outlining the origins that gave rise to the proposal of a single employment contract. They then review the debate on labour market segmentation and the flexicurity proposal, and examine the key characteristics of the single employment contract as well as the arguments put forward both for and against it. Case studies show how the idea has been taken up in France, Italy and Spain. The book concludes with a concise review of contractual arrangements in EU labour markets and of possible future projections and developments. The book is aimed at academics and practitioners interested in labour market and labour legislation reforms. The book is a co-publication between Hart Publishing and the International Labour Organization.
This book provides a stimulating presentation of the Italian administrative system through an empirical and critical perspective on the processes of administrative reform at the national level. It focuses on some of the most recent changes developed during the years of austerity and fiscal crisis and offers an updated perspective on the attempts made by Italian governments to modernize national public administration through the ‘new public management’ and ‘governance’ paradigms. These frameworks have been suggested as models to enhance efficiency, transparency, accountability and public participation. The book studies international and supranational influence, policy diffusion, domestic politics and institutional dynamics, administrative traditions, and functional explanations—all determinants of policy outputs and outcomes, and possibly of policy learning as well. This book is the first to set out such a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis for non-Italian readers.
The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the weaknesses of globalisation, exposed the fragility of the current growth model, and accelerated the ongoing tech revolution. This book is an in-depth analysis of these weaknesses and fragilities in the context of sustainability. Economist Marco Magnani suggests the possibility of pursuing a more balanced, environmentally and socially sustainable growth while defusing today’s apocalyptic alarmism about climate change, energy and demographic constraints, and the future of work. To make the global economy work for everyone.
In the early 1980s, many observers, argued that powerful organized economic interests and social democratic parties created successful mixed economies promoting economic growth, full employment, and a modicum of social equality. The present book assembles scholars with formidable expertise in the study of advanced capitalist politics and political economy to reexamine this account from the vantage point of the second half of the 1990s. The authors find that the conventional wisdom no longer adequately reflects the political and economic realities. Advanced democracies have responded in path-dependent fashion to such novel challenges as technological change, intensifying international competition, new social conflict, and the erosion of established patterns of political mobilization. The book rejects, however, the currently widespread expectation that 'internationalization' makes all democracies converge on similar political and economic institutions and power relations. Diversity among capitalist democracies persists, though in a different fashion than in the 'Golden Age' of rapid economic growth after World War II.
This book uses surveys to bridge the gap between studies into European economics and policymaking in Europe. It is also available as open access.
Part II is devoted to the managerial class.
This set is designed to capture both the complexity of the field of industrial relations globally, as well as bringing out the continuing relevance of competing theoretical approaches to the subject.
Thirty-three distinguished authorities in the field of labour and industrial relations law gather here to enhance and complement the work of the late Marco Biagi, a man who, at the time of his violent and untimely death, had shown himself to be the most insightful and committed international scholar in this complex and controversial and, as it proved, even dangerous field. The topics covered range over many of Professor Biagi's special interests, including the following: the formulation of a new basis for labour law that could resolve new issues; employee protection in corporate restructuring; the trend toward individual 'enterprise bargaining'; a new European employment policy and what it might entail; the growing phenomenon of 'flexibilisation'; the effects of an aging workforce; the crucial nexus of free trade, labour, and human rights; the promise of EU enlargement; and protection of part-time workers. There is a lot of insight, innovation, and just clear thinking in this wide-ranging and far-reaching book. It will be of exceptional value to scholars, lawyers, and others concerned with the extensive and unpredictable changes under way in today's world of work.