Effects of the labour market flexibility in the long run: evidence from the italian case (1977-2009)

Journal title QA Rivista dell’Associazione Rossi-Doria
Author/s Stefano Alderighi, Enrico Ivaldi, Riccardo Soliani
Publishing Year 2014 Issue 2014/3 Language Italian
Pages 24 P. 87-110 File size 163 KB
DOI 10.3280/QU2014-003004
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Effects of Labour Market Flexibility in the Long Run: Evidence from the Italian Case (1977-2009) The present paper studies whether labour market deregulation is correlated with employment creation in Italy and the decline of trade union power. Our hypothesis is that the correlation does not hold, and that flexible contracts facilitated the dichotomy between industry and tertiary, without causing it. To test it, we first apply principal component analysis, then regression. The hypothesis is almost always confirmed. Flexible contracts are not correlated with youth employment creation, whilst trade union decline is correlated with macroeconomic indicators different from flexible contracts. These interventions facilitated a process already underway, caused by a structural change in the production paradigm. EconLit Classification: E240, J210

Keywords: Labour market, Labour flexibility, Trade unions, Unemployment, Italy, 1977-2009

  1. Bassanini A., Duval R. (2006), «Employment Patterns in OECD Countries: Reassessing the Role of Policies and Institutions», OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working papers, 35, Paris, France.
  2. Bentolila S., Bertola G. (1990), «Firing Costs and Labor Demand: How Bad is Eurosclerosis? », Review of Economic Studies, 57, 3, pp. 381-402.
  3. Bentolila S., Saint-Paul G. (1995), «A Model of Labour Demand with Linear Adjustment Costs», Labour Economics, 2, 1, pp. 105-105.
  4. Berton F., Devicienti F., Pacelli L. (2008), «Temporary Jobs: Port of Entry, Trap or Unobserved Heterogeneity?», Laboratorio Riccardo Revelli Working Papers, 79.
  5. Bertola G., Blau F.D., Kahn L.M. (2007), «Labour Market Institutions and Demographic Employment Patterns», Journal of Population Economics, 20, pp. 833-867.
  6. Bertola G., Garibaldi P. (2003), «The Structure and History of Italian Unemployment », CESifo Working Paper Series, 907.
  7. Blanchard O., Landier A. (2002), «The Perverse Effects of Partial Labour Market Reform: Fixed-Term Contracts in France», Economic Journal, 112, pp. 214-244.
  8. Blanchard O., Wolfers J. (1999), «The Role of Shocks and Institutions in the Rise of European Unemployment: The Aggregate Evidence», NBER Working Papers, 7282. Booth A. (1995), The Economics of the Trade Union, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (UK).
  9. Booth A.L., Francesconi M., Frank J. (2002), «Temporary Jobs: Stepping Stones or Dead Ends?», Economic Journal, 112, pp. 189-213.
  10. Carmeci G., Chies L. (2006), «Hysteresis in Unemployment: Do Structural Breaks and Aggregation Matter? First Results from Italy», Working Paper Università di Trieste, 106.
  11. Checchi D. (2012), «Labour Market Reforms and Inequality in Italy» in Magara H., Sacchi S. (eds.), The Politics of Social and Industrial Reforms: In Comparative Analysis of Italy and Japan, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
  12. Dellas H., Sakellaris P. (2003), «On the Cyclicality of Schooling: Theory and Evidence », Oxford Economic Papers, 55, pp. 148-177.
  13. European Central Bank (2000), Monthly Bulletin, October.
  14. Maravall A., Del Rio A. (2001), Time Aggregation and the Hodrick-Prescott Filter, Banco de España, Madrid.
  15. Dillon W., Goldstein M. (1984), Multivariate Analysis Method and Application, Wiley, Hoboken.
  16. Hodrick R., Prescott E.P. (1997), «Postwar Business Cycles: An Empirical Investigation », Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 29, pp. 1-16.
  17. Ichino P. (2000), «Il contratto di lavoro – volume 1», Trattato di diritto civile e commerciale, volume XXVII, t.2, Giuffré, Milano.
  18. Ichino A., Mealli F., Nannicini T. (2005), «Temporary Work Agencies in Italy: A Springboard Toward Permanent Employment?», Giornale degli economisti e Annali di Economia, 64, pp. 1-27.
  19. Ichino A., Mealli F., Nannicini T. (2008), «From Temporary Help Jobs to Permanent Employment: What Can We Learn from Matching Estimators and Their Sensitivity?», Journal of Applied Econometrics, 23, pp. 305-327.
  20. Jimeno J.F., Rodriguez-Palenzuela D. (2002), «Youth Unemployment in the OECD: Demographic Shifts, Labour Market Institutions, and Macroeconomic Shocks», ECB Working paper, 155.
  21. Maravall A., del Río A. (2007), «Temporal Aggregation, Systematic Sampling, and the Hodrick-Prescott Filter», Computational Statistics& Data Analysis, Elsevier, 52, 2, pp. 975-998, October.
  22. McDonald I.M., Solow R.M. (1981), «Wage Bargaining and Employment», American Economic Review, 71, pp. 896-908.
  23. Nickells S.J. (1982), «A Bargaining Model of the Phillips Curve», London School of Economics, Centre for Labour Economics Discussion Paper, 130.
  24. Nickells S.J., Andrews M. (1983), «Unions, Real Wages and Employment in Britain 1951-79», Oxford Economic Papers, 35, Supplement, pp. 183-206.
  25. O’Higgins N. (2012), «This Time Its Different? Youth Labour Markets During “The Great Recession”», Comparative Economic Studies, 54, 2, pp. 395-412.
  26. Oswald A.J. (1993), «Efficient Contracts Are on the Labour Demand Curve. Theory and Facts», Labour Economics, pp. 85-113.
  27. Ravn O.M., Uhlig H. (2002), «On Adjusting the Hodrick-Prescott Filter for the Frequency of Observations», Review of Economics and Statistics, 84, 2, pp. 371-375.
  28. Sakellaris P., Spilimbergo A. (2000), «Business Cycles and Investment in Human Capital: International Evidence on Higher Education», Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on PublicPolicy, Elsevier, 52, 1, pp. 221-256,
  29. Visser J. (2006), «Union Membership Statistics in 24 Countries», Monthly Labor Review, 129, January, pp. 38-49.

Stefano Alderighi, Enrico Ivaldi, Riccardo Soliani, Effects of the labour market flexibility in the long run: evidence from the italian case (1977-2009) in "QA Rivista dell’Associazione Rossi-Doria" 3/2014, pp 87-110, DOI: 10.3280/QU2014-003004