EDF 2014: The Missing Sources for Growth. The Economic and Financial Document (EFD) 2014 for Italy describes a country which does not grow and will hardly grow even in the near future. The document announces a programme of structural reforms in the labour market and for competitiveness which...

Agenda Monti is the electoral programme of the Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti for the next national election, due in 2013 spring. In this paper we discuss a specific issue of this Agenda: Performance Related Pay. We argue that the concept of flexible wage through firm level bargaining is a...

La Legge di Stabilita' 2014-2016 elaborata dal governo italiano e' volta al rispetto dei vincoli previsti dai Trattati europei, e non alla crescita del reddito e dell'occupazione. Cio' nonostante, la Commissione Europea non ha ritenuto di dare "semaforo verde", in quanto il rientro dal debito...

The way forward for Italy, within a Europe that has to change. A Europe that is too economics-minded and not politically-minded enough, where growth and employment are stifled by tight budgets. Yet another path is possible, if we still keep the single currency but if we change regulations and...

Wages, productivity, and the "rule of lead" of the ECB The ECB suggests that hourly nominal wages should increase in line with real hourly labour productivity, and not exceed it. The "vicious" countries which do not follow this rule loose progressively competitiveness. This is the "rule of lead"...

The crisis of work in Europe and in Italy. Towards a radical change The economic crisis since 2008 has reduced income and destroyed jobs, and the economic recovery announced in 2014 will not reabsorb unemployment especially in Europe. ILO and IMF forecast a jobless recovery. Nevertheless, the...

In this paper we discuss three issues which the CGIL New Labour Plan (NLP) arises and are worthily to be stressed. The first issue is general, and regards the European context in which the Plan is placed, and in particular in the present European economic crisis in which austerity policy is...

The no-reform of the Italian labour market. Many different and passionate comments have been published in the past weeks about the Italian labour market reform. The topic is for sure very relevant from the economic and political perspective, and it is also a sort of “litmus paper†of...

Several empirical works have shown the robust and positive relation between growth and innovation at macroeconomic level and between firm economic performance and innovation at microeconomic level. However, the economists have had less opportunities to study such linkages during severe global...

The shifting of labour demand towards relatively more skilled workers has been a hot issue in the economic field for many years. A consolidated explanation for the upskilling phenomenon is that technological-organisational changes have driven the labour demand with detrimental consequences for...