The author argues that the persistent and growing inequality in income distribution and relative social immobility of households in Italy depend not only on the specific, dualistic, features of its economy but on its social (particularly family) and welfare arrangements: in terms of the...

Fertility rates are below replacement level in most industrialised countries. There are, however, substantial cross-country differences. On the basis of an ample demographic and sociological literature and of comparative data, the author argues that the Southern European countries, and...