Poverty and Unemployment: The Cases of Italy and Spain

This paper sets out to detect the costs of joblessness in Italy and Spain, two countries that show major differences in labour market structure and in their reaction to the crisis. We describe the different unemployment insurance systems in the two countries and how the crisis has hit the two labour markets. A multivariate analysis is then carried out to provide an initial estimate of the possible effects of the current crisis on Spanish and Italian households’ well-being by using the European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Surveys for Italy and Spain. Our results indicate that the unemployed experience a higher degree of income poverty and costs in terms of people’s reduced likelihood of being able to access medical or dental treatment and their being able to afford a week’s holiday in both countries. These costs also change on the basis of people’s employment status prior to unemployment.