Research Areas
Temporary work represents a growing share of the employed workforce in many European countries. Several reasons stand behind this development. From the employers perspective, the availability of temporary jobs is tantamount to a reduction of wage and firing costs, which is particularly valuable in an uncertain environment where ordinary jobs are characterized by high employment protection.
Wages and Inequality
Wages differ across countries, periods, sectors, firms and types of workers, reflecting both market forces and a variety of labor market institutions. Investigating the determinants of the wage structure, and its changes over time, is crucial for a better understanding of the way the labor market functions and, ultimately, affects workers’ well-being. Not surprisingly, many aspects of wages are the subject of an intense research activity carried out at the LABORatorio Revelli, such as:
Most Oecd Countries are experiencing a rapid population ageing that will yield serious consequences in the next future: crises of social security systems and chronic shortage of workforce. Italy adds to this picture a very low labour market participation of the elders especially among women.
Previsioni macro / Analisi di scenario / Valutazione ex-ante di politiche
Una ulteriore area di attività del LRR riguarda la creazione di modelli per effettuare previsioni macro dell’andamento del mercato del lavoro, al fine di condurre analisi di scenario e valutazioni ex-ante dell’impatto di specifiche politiche e di progetti di riforma (ad esempio delle regole per l’accesso alla pensione).
Promotion of the quality of work relationships and career paths has become a key element in modernisation of the European social model.
The research issues. Economic theory suggests that labor market deregulation is of key importance to competitiveness, growth and employment. The intuition is that as firms are left free to hire and fire at low costs, they can improve the average quality of matches between workers and jobs, move to most promising specializations, increase their productivity and profits, and hence improve the overall competitiveness of the economic system, its growth potential and employment score.