Dear colleagues,
Stefano Sacchi (University of Milan) and I will be chairing a panel on labour market reforms at the annual meeting of the Italian Political Science Association (SISP), to be held in Milan, 15-17 September 2016. For this conference panels are selected without pre-assigned papers, so we would like to invite you to submit papers to our panel or to pass on this message to anyone who may be interested. Please see the Call for Papers below. Papers can be submitted here: http://www.sisp.it/convegno2016/ The deadline is 5th June.
Best wishes,
Georg Picot
- Call for Papers: Italian labour market reforms in comparative perspective -
Panel 7.6 at the Annual Meeting of the Italian Political Science Association (SISP)
In the last four years there have been two major labour market reforms in Italy: in 2012 the so-called Fornero reform (L 92/2012) and in 2014/2015 the so-called Jobs Act (L 183/2014 and its eight implementing decrees). Both, in particular the Jobs Act, deregulated dismissal protection and extended unemployment protection to an extent that seemed impossible in previous decades. The Jobs Act, moreover, aimed at restructuring and improving public employment services in Italy, equally a measure that has long been recommended by labour market experts. Yet, the reforms were not only shaped by policy experts, but to a large extent they were conditioned by politics. At the European level they responded to requests by EU institutions for structural reforms. At the domestic level, the Fornero reform was a balancing act of a technocratic government nevertheless in need of domestic legitimacy, while the Jobs Act exemplifies Matteo Renzi's strategy of re-orienting ideology and electoral appeal of the Partito Democratico.
This panel is dedicated to recent research on Italian labour market reforms. We invite paper proposals on three types of questions. First, research that examines the political processes that made far-reaching reforms possible and influenced their content. Second, analyses of the labour market outcomes that these two reforms have led to. Third, at a more general level we invite papers that investigate how changes in the labour market (e.g. long-term unemployment, non-standard employment, new forms of self-employment, or female labour force participation) impact political preferences and, thus, electoral politics.
Papers focusing on Italy are welcome. At the same time, we encourage contributions to take a comparative perspective. In the same period as the Italian labour market reforms, other European states also adopted drastic labour market reforms in the shadow of the Eurozone crisis. What are similarities and differences between those reforms? In yet other countries such reforms have not been undertaken. Where and by what actors were reforms blocked? Often governments, including the current Italian government, refer to the German Hartz reforms as an example to follow. To what extent did the Hartz reforms actually affect policy changes elsewhere and is this warranted from a prescriptive point of view?
Papers in Italian or in English are welcome.
Chairs: Georg Picot, Stefano Sacchi
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Dr Georg Picot
Associate Professor
Department of Comparative Politics
University of Bergen
P.O. Box 7800
5020 Bergen, Norway
+47-555-82696
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