IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/irapec/v13y1999i3p395-415.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

'Young In, Old Out' Revisited: New Patterns of Employment Replacement in the Italian Economy

Author

Listed:
  • Bruno Contini
  • Fabio Rapiti

Abstract

This paper, based largely on data from the Italian social security (INPS) records, shows that recent employment trends in Italy have been marked by large job and worker turnover and a new and strong process of renewal and substitution of labour in industry. Entries of young workers have shown a remarkable increase, mainly through the application of work and training contracts ('contratti di formazione e lavoro') that provide firms with a means to cut labour costs. Meanwhile many workers in their 40s with considerable seniority, but still perfectly fit to go on working, found themselves squeezed out. The exit of this generation of mature workers was eased through subsidised early retirement, golden handshakes and a wide application of the 'cassa integrazione guadagni' (wage supplementation fund). This pattern of labour force replacement in industrial production, described as 'young in, old out', is at odds with the frequent ranking of Italy among the industrial countries hampered by rigid labour markets and questions theories of unemployment based on 'insider-outsider' hypotheses.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno Contini & Fabio Rapiti, 1999. "'Young In, Old Out' Revisited: New Patterns of Employment Replacement in the Italian Economy," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 395-415.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:irapec:v:13:y:1999:i:3:p:395-415
    DOI: 10.1080/026921799101607
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/026921799101607
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/026921799101607?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bertola, Giuseppe, 1990. "Job security, employment and wages," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 851-879, June.
    2. Edward P. Lazear, 1990. "Job Security and Unemployment," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Yoram Weiss & Gideon Fishelson (ed.), Advances in the Theory and Measurement of Unemployment, chapter 9, pages 245-267, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Edward P. Lazear, 1990. "Job Security Provisions and Employment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(3), pages 699-726.
    4. Samuel Bentolila & Giuseppe Bertola, 1990. "Firing Costs and Labour Demand: How Bad is Eurosclerosis?," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 57(3), pages 381-402.
    5. Contini, Bruno & Revelli, Riccardo, 1997. "Gross flows vs. net flows in the labor market: What is there to be learned?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 245-263, September.
    6. Assar Lindbeck & Dennis J. Snower, 1989. "The Insider-Outsider Theory of Employment and Unemployment," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026262074x, April.
    7. Blanchard, Olivier J. & Summers, Lawrence H., 1987. "Hysteresis in unemployment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-2), pages 288-295.
    8. Emerson, Michael, 1988. "Regulation or deregulation of the labour market : Policy regimes for the recruitment and dismissal of employees in the industrialised countries," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 775-817, April.
    9. Oswald, Andrew J, 1982. "The Microeconomic Theory of the Trade Union," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(367), pages 576-595, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pietro Checcucci, 2019. "The Silver Innovation. Older workers characteristics and digitalisation of the economy," Working Papers 0040, ASTRIL - Associazione Studi e Ricerche Interdisciplinari sul Lavoro.
    2. Luca Zanin & Raffaella Calabrese, 2017. "Interaction effects of region-level GDP per capita and age on labour market transition rates in Italy," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-29, December.
    3. Michela Bia & Roberto Leombruni & Pierre-Jean Messe, 2009. "Young in-Old out: a new evaluation based on Generalized Propensity Score," LABORatorio R. Revelli Working Papers Series 93, LABORatorio R. Revelli, Centre for Employment Studies.
    4. Francesco Devicienti & Andrea Borgarello, 2001. "Trends in the Italian Earnings Distribution, 1985-1996," LABORatorio R. Revelli Working Papers Series 2, LABORatorio R. Revelli, Centre for Employment Studies.
    5. Bruno Contini & Federico Revelli, 2004. "On the Welfare Effect of a Wage Subsidy on Youth Labor: Italy’s CFL Program," LABORatorio R. Revelli Working Papers Series 36, LABORatorio R. Revelli, Centre for Employment Studies.
    6. Annamaria Simonazzi & Paola Villa, 1999. "Flexibility and Growth," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 281-311.
    7. Bruno Contini & Roberto Leombruni, 2006. "From work to retirement: a tale of bumpy routes," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 359-378.
    8. Sarit Cohen-Goldner & M. Daniele Paserman, 2006. "Mass Migration to Israel and Natives' Employment Transitions," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 59(4), pages 630-652, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski & Przemysław Włodarczyk, 2012. "Wpływ prawnej ochrony zatrudnienia na rynek pracy w warunkach negatywnego szoku ekonomicznego," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 11-12, pages 1-23.
    2. Kyota Eguchi, 2000. "Employment Protection Regulations and New Hiring," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-88, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    3. Lars Ljungqvist, 2002. "How Do Lay--off Costs Affect Employment?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(482), pages 829-853, October.
    4. Kjell Erik Lommerud & Odd Rune Straume, 2012. "Employment Protection Versus Flexicurity: On Technology Adoption in Unionised Firms," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(1), pages 177-199, March.
    5. Brown, Alessio J. G. & Snower, Dennis J., 2009. "Incentives and complementarities of flexicurity," Kiel Working Papers 1526, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    6. Kirchner, Armin H., 2004. "Verringerung von Arbeitslosigkeit durch Lockerung des Kündigungsschutzes : Die entscheidende Einflussgröße," Tübinger Diskussionsbeiträge 277, University of Tübingen, School of Business and Economics.
    7. E. Galdon-Sanchez, Jose & Guell, Maia, 2003. "Dismissal conflicts and unemployment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 323-335, April.
    8. Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski & Przemysław Włodarczyk, 2017. "Employment Protection Legislation and Its Impact on the Elasticity of Employment in OECD Countries," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 3, pages 29-53.
    9. John T. Addison & Paulino Teixeira, 2003. "The Economics of Employment Protection," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 24(1), pages 85-129, January.
    10. Andrea Vindigni & Simone Scotti & Cristina Tealdi, 2015. "Uncertainty and the Politics of Employment Protection," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(1), pages 209-267.
    11. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pc:p:2985-3028 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Boeri, Tito & Jimeno, Juan F., 2005. "The effects of employment protection: Learning from variable enforcement," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(8), pages 2057-2077, November.
    13. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2291-2372 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Andrea De Michelis, 2004. "Sand in the wheels of the labor market: the effect of firing costs on employment," International Finance Discussion Papers 796, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    15. Parsons, Donald O., 2011. "Mandated Severance Pay and Firing Cost Distortions: A Critical Review of the Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 5776, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Kanniainen, Vesa & Vesala, Timo, 2005. "Entrepreneurship and labor market institutions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 828-847, September.
    17. Salvatore D'Acunto, 2003. "Efficienza microeconomica versus efficienza "sistemica"? Note in margine al Libro Bianco del Ministero del Lavoro," Stato e mercato, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 2, pages 287-312.
    18. Modesto, Leonor & Thomas, Jonathan P., 2001. "An analysis of labour adjustment costs in unionized economies," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 475-501, September.
    19. Tito Boeri & Jan van Ours, 2013. "The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets: Second Edition," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10142.
    20. John Martin & Stefano Scarpetta, 2012. "Setting It Right: Employment Protection, Labour Reallocation and Productivity," De Economist, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 89-116, June.
    21. Alain Delacroix, 2003. "Transitions into Unemployment and the Nature of Firing Costs," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 6(3), pages 651-671, July.
    22. Gross, Dominique M. & Ryan, Michael, 2008. "FDI location and size: Does employment protection legislation matter?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 590-605, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:irapec:v:13:y:1999:i:3:p:395-415. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CIRA20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.