Non typical labour contracts are increasingly used all over Europe. Since the labour markets have been reformed only “at the margin”, an equilibrium has not been reached yet and it’s still not clear what’s the role of non typical jobs: will they substitute permanent ones or do they simply represent a cyclical employment buffer? From a theoretical point of view, the question seems to be easy: all things being equal, if firms can freely choose between a permanent and a temporary contract, they will choose temporary ones, and therefore a complete substitution should emerge. The goal of the first part of the thesis is to develop a job search model in which even if workers, firms and wage are equal, an equilibrium with both temporary and permanent contracts does exist. In the following sections the thesis turns to empirical analysis of the Italian labour market: what’s the role of non typical contracts at the beginning of a worker’s career? Is it a port of entry towards a permanent position, or a trap? Are they important in labour market segmentation? To answer these questions administrative data from the social security administration (WHIP database) and from public employment agencies will be used.
