Compared with other European countries, the Italian labour market stands out for the low level of both female participation and fertility. In this paper we focus on the employment patterns of Italian mothers around the time of childbirth. Our hypothesis is that the difficulties involved in...

The 1993 Income Policy Agreements (concertazione) reformed wage setting institutions in Italy. This change introduced a relevant ability in absorbing macroeconomic shocks and a curb in inflation- ary expectations, at the cost of stagnant aggregate real wages. The firm-level wage premia remained...

The book brings together a series of research papers presented at the conference entitled "Infrastructure in Italy", held in Perugia on 14-15 October 2010. The papers analyse the relationship between public investment and economic growth; the endowment and quality of infrastructure across the...

This paper highlights some drawbacks in the planning of infrastructures and public works in Italy. The major flaws lie in the overlapping of competences and failure to implement effective coordination mechanisms among the different levels of government, together with the lack of a clear...

This paper proposes a taxonomy of the main regional transport infrastructure indicators available in Italy and discusses the principal merits and limitations of each of them. The indexes show scant correlation and may offer contrasting data on the infrastructure endowment of a given area. As a...

In the past decade, several countries, notably France, Spain and Germany, have experienced a joint increase in female participation and fertility, mainly because of national policies aimed at balancing work and family life. In Italy, by contrast, fertility has remained relatively stable (after a...

The chapter analyses the broad picture emerging from the 1993 incomes policy agreement in Italy as well as other policy actions (and omissions). The agreement was successful in producing a remarkable moderation of the relative price of labour - despite the reduction of the user cost of capital...