Economic well-being in Italy

Working Paper 2010-168

Abstract

This paper provides a measure of economic well-being for the Italian context. In the last two decades Italy experienced a sharp increase in labour market flexibility and a relative loss of command over resources of young generations with respect to older ones. We include new measures of temporary work and intergenerational inequality in the IEWB, and analyse its evolution in Italy and in Lombardy (the leading Italian region) over the 1995-2007 period. We find that well-being advanced at a slower rate than GDP, mainly because of the negative effect of a reduction in employment security and a rise in income inequality, which was more pronounced in Lombardy.

Authors: Gabriella Berloffa, Francesca Modena .