The Political Economy of Italy's Decline

Capussela, Andrea Lorenzo

doi:10.1093/oso/9780198796992.001.0001

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…For example, supporting greater labour market flexibility in the Scandinavian context appears to be a sustainable political and economic strategy, because these countries also invest in human capital so there are certain institutional complementarities between the welfare state and the high skill driven economic policies that these countries pursue (see Amable 2003 for a discussion of institutional complementarities between the welfare state and the rest of the economy). On the other hand, the implications of flexible working arrangements are very different in the Italian context, where investment in education is very low and where the structure of the economy does not demand high skill work (Capussela 2018). In such circumstances, encouraging flexible working arrangements may lead to greater precarisation of the workforce.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dynamism of the New Economy: Non-Standard Employment and Access to Social Security in EU-28

Avlijaš

2019

SSRN Journal

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This paper examines the prevalence of non-standard workers in EU-28, rules for accessing social security, and these workers' risk of not being able to access it. It focuses on temporary and part-time workers, and the self-employed, and offers a particularly detailed analysis of their access to unemployment benefits. It focuses on eligibility, adequacy (net income replacement rates) and identifies those workers which are at the greatest risk of either not receiving benefits or receiving low benefits. It offers a special overview of foreign non-standard workers, who may be particularly vulnerable due to the absence of citizenship in the host country. The paper also analyses access to maternity and sickness benefits for these three groups of workers, as well as their access to pensions. Its key contribution is in bringing together the different dimensions of disadvantage that non-standard workers face vis-à-vis access to social protection. This allows us to comprehensively assess the adaptation of national social security systems across EU-28 to the changing world of work over the past 10 years. The paper shows that there is a lot of variation between the Member States, both in the structure of their social security systems, as well as the prevalence of non-standard work. Most notably, the paper concludes that: i) access to unemployment benefits is the most challenging component of welfare state provision for people in non-standard employment; ii) policy reforms vis-à-vis access to social benefits have improved the status of non-standard workers in several countries, while they have worsened it in others, particularly in Bulgaria, Ireland and Latvia; iii) some Eastern European countries can offer lessons to other Member States due to their experiences with labour market challenges during transition and the subsequent adaptations of their social security systems to greater labour market flexibility. The paper also implies that a country's policy towards nonstandard work cannot be examined in isolation from its labour market conditions, as well as its growth model, and that uniform policy solutions for non-standard work cannot be applied across EU-28.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dynamism of the New Economy: Non-Standard Employment and Access to Social Security in EU-28

Avlijaš

2019

SSRN Journal

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“…A low degree of financialization is reflected in the low penetration of private financial markets into pension and housing provision and in the reduced support for investment in innovation and the knowledge economy, which would be facilitated through a market for new financial products and services (see Hassel and Palier this volume). The absence of strong competitive pressure from global trade also discourages innovation, both at firm and state level, which exacerbates the vicious circle of pro-protectionist and anti-innovation policies (Capussela 2018).…”

Section: Publicly Financed Domestic Demand-based Growth Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Italian economy has been characterized by low expenditure on R&D, technological and organizational regress, and weak competition in domestic product markets (Capussela 2018).…”

Section: Italy: Permanent Stagnation and The Impossibility Of Reformi...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Growth Strategies and Welfare Reforms in Europe

Avlijaš¹,

Hassel²,

Palier³

2020

Growth and Welfare in Advanced Capitalist Economies

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This chapter shows that welfare reforms are institutionally and politically linked to countries’ growth strategies, i.e. the policies implemented by governments to boost growth and jobs creation since the 1980s. The chapter starts by identifying five growth strategies according to the engine of growth chosen and the type of welfare reform: export of dynamic services; export of high-quality manufacturing products; FDI-financed exports; domestic consumption driven by financialization; and domestic consumption driven by wages and welfare spending (which has transformed into “competitiveness through impoverishment” under pressure from the EU). We show that these five growth strategies can be associated with five types of welfare state reform: dualization of welfare, social investment, fiscal and social attractiveness, commodification of welfare, and social protectionism. The detailed account of the cases of the UK, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Baltic and Visegrád Eastern European countries, Italy and France underlines the actual connections between growth strategies and welfare reforms. The cases reveal that these strategies are not mutually exclusive and that more than one strategy might be pursued in a country. The chapter contributes to an understanding of how countries’ growth regimes change, by identifying the transformative feedback effect that the implementation of growth strategies has on them. The chapter concludes on the politics of growth strategies and welfare state reforms and the respective roles of producer coalitions and electoral politics.

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“…Queste considerazioni suggeriscono dunque una possibile interpretazione del malessere del paese (interpretazione che ho tentato di articolare in Capussela 2018Capussela , 2019. I difetti istituzionali che deprimono la crescita derivano sono in larga parte riassumibili nell'ampio scarto tra le istituzioni formali dell'Italia, generalmente adeguate, e le sue istituzioni reali, sensibilmente meno eque ed efficienti: scarto che è illustrato nella Figura 4.…”

Section: Due Obiezioniunclassified

Un'analisi Istituzionale Del Declino Dell'economia Italiana

Capussela

2020

LETTERE

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This paper attempts an interpretation of Italy’s recent economic decline, which began two decades before the Great Recession. It argues that its deeper roots lie in the political economy of growth. This interpretation is illustrated through a discussion of Italy’s recent growth trajectory and of its politico-economic equilibrium. The emphasis is placed on the country’s convergence to the productivity frontier and TFP performance, and on the evolution of its social order and institutions. The lens through which this case is reviewed, to illuminate the origins and evolution of the current constraints to growth, is drawn from institutional economics and Schumpeterian growth theory. It is exemplified by analysing two alternative reactions to the insufficient provision of public goods: an opportunistic one—employing tax evasion, corruption, or clientelism as means to appropriate private goods—and one based on enforcing political accountability. From the perspective of ordinary citizens and firms such social dilemmas can typically be modelled as coordination games, which have multiple equilibria. Self-interested rationality can thus lead to a spiral, in which several mutually reinforcing vicious circles lead society onto an inefficient equilibrium characterized by low political accountability and weak rule of law.

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The Political Economy of Italy's Decline

Cited by 12 publications

References 0 publications

The Dynamism of the New Economy: Non-Standard Employment and Access to Social Security in EU-28

The Dynamism of the New Economy: Non-Standard Employment and Access to Social Security in EU-28

Growth Strategies and Welfare Reforms in Europe

Un'analisi Istituzionale Del Declino Dell'economia Italiana

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