HYSTERESIS AND THE REGIONAL NAIRUs IN ITALY

This paper investigates the determinants of regional unemployment disparities in Italy. Relying on panel unit root tests and data over the 1977–2003 years, we reject the hysteresis hypothesis and then proceed to estimate the non‐accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) for each of the 20 Italian regions. Our estimates of the regional NAIRUs turn out to be fairly precise and allow us to draw two interesting conclusions. First, the hypothesis of constant regional NAIRUs between 1977 and 2003 is supported by the data. Second, we find that there is a significant degree of heterogeneity among the regional NAIRUs.     

THE PUBLIC SECTOR PAY GAP IN FRANCE, GREAT BRITAIN AND ITALY

We investigate public–private pay determination using French, British and Italian microdata. While traditional methods focus on parametric methods to estimate the public sector pay gap, in this paper, we use both non-parametric (kernel) and quantile regression methods to analyze the distribution of wages across sectors. We show that the public–private (hourly) wage differential is sensitive to the choice of quantile and that the pattern of premia varies with both gender and skill. In all countries the public sector is found to pay more to low skilled workers with respect to the private sector, whilst the reverse is true for high skilled workers. When comparing results across countries, we find that where pay formation is more regulated (i.e. as in France and Italy) the public sector pay gap is smaller; whilst where market factors play a larger role in pay determination (i.e. as in Great Britain) the public sector pay gap is larger—particularly in the lower part of the wage distribution—and females are much better off in the public sector as compared to the private sector.     

SOCIAL COOPERATIVES AND WORK INTEGRATION IN ITALY

ABSTRACT * : The paper presents and analyses the birth and evolution of social cooperatives for work integration in Italy. Born spontaneously in response to the failure of policies for the employment of disadvantaged workers, this particular entrepreneurial form was recognized and regulated in 1991 by enactment of a special law. The paper sets out the main results of recent research studies, results which enable quantification of the phenomenon and illustration of its principal features, as well as providing preliminary information on the effectiveness of this type of cooperative in the integration of disadvantaged workers into the internal or open labour market and on the variables that influence their results. The paper therefore highlights both the advantages and the drawbacks of these initiatives. Overcoming these drawbacks seems to be conditional on recognition of social cooperatives for work integration as instruments of employment policy.