Regional Aspects of Unemployment in Europe and in Italy

Fiorella Kostoris Padoa Schioppa

No 2108, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Unemployment in Europe is a worrying phenomenon not so much because it hits 18 million people, but because it almost exclusively affects particular population segments. Italy represents a textbook case of a European country where labour market imbalances only weigh upon certain social components: namely long-term unemployed, women, young people, depressed areas and particularly the Mezzogiorno, a poor region within a rich country. In all European countries suffering from excess labour supply - with the only exception of France and Spain - some regions enjoy full employment, while others have a very high unemployment rate. Thus, understanding the Italian unemployment and finding effective solutions for it, is useful to understand and treat the main European labour market pathologies. An appropriate mix of demand and supply management policies, combined with strategies aimed at decreasing mismatch, appears advisable for Italy as a whole and for the reduction of its regional labour market differences. General employment policies are useful to solve regional problems too; the latter do not usually require ad hoc therapies. However, some regional industrial policies may have a positive impact on employment, provided their core consists of offering services to firms.

Keywords: Europe; Regions; Unemployment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H50 J21 J6 O57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999-03
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=2108 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:2108

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/ ... ers/dp.php?dpno=2108
orders@cepr.org

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by (repec@cepr.org).