IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/italej/v10y2024i2d10.1007_s40797-023-00263-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Employment Effects of the Italian Minimum Guaranteed Income Scheme Reddito di Cittadinanza

Author

Listed:
  • Maria Luisa Maitino

    (IRPET Regional Institute for Economic Planning of Tuscany)

  • Marco Mariani

    (IRPET Regional Institute for Economic Planning of Tuscany)

  • Valentina Patacchini

    (IRPET Regional Institute for Economic Planning of Tuscany)

  • Letizia Ravagli

    (IRPET Regional Institute for Economic Planning of Tuscany)

  • Nicola Sciclone

    (IRPET Regional Institute for Economic Planning of Tuscany)

Abstract

The Italian guaranteed minimum income programme is the topic of a heated debate scarcely supported by empirical evidence. We investigate the effects of the programme on the number of days worked by different types of vulnerable jobseekers who receive the related income transfer in 2019 and are subject to activation attempts by employment services. We use data from Tuscany, in many ways a typical Italian region. To draw causal claims, we adopt a difference-in-differences approach with multiple time periods and staggered treatment adoptions. Our findings suggest that the programme has very limited heterogeneous effects among different types of users but also that, all in all, it is rather employment-neutral, in the sense that it neither creates significant disincentives to work nor succeeds in creating sufficient employment opportunities to solve the problem of job insecurity. An anti-poverty strategy that does not feed further welfare dependency would require a qualitative leap forward in activation efforts by employment services.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria Luisa Maitino & Marco Mariani & Valentina Patacchini & Letizia Ravagli & Nicola Sciclone, 2024. "The Employment Effects of the Italian Minimum Guaranteed Income Scheme Reddito di Cittadinanza," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 10(2), pages 649-681, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:italej:v:10:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s40797-023-00263-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s40797-023-00263-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40797-023-00263-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s40797-023-00263-1?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. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultfœuille, 2020. "Two-Way Fixed Effects Estimators with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(9), pages 2964-2996, September.
    2. Massimo Baldini & Giovanni Gallo & Lorenzo Lusignoli & Stefano Toso, 2019. "Le politiche per l’assistenza: il Reddito di cittadinanza," Department of Economics 0147, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    3. Trine Filges & Geir Smedslund & Anne‐Sofie Due Knudsen & Anne‐Marie Klint Jørgensen, 2015. "Active Labour Market Programme Participation for Unemployment Insurance Recipients: A Systematic Review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(1), pages 1-342.
    4. Kluve, Jochen, 2010. "The effectiveness of European active labor market programs," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 904-918, December.
    5. Barbara Sianesi, 2004. "An Evaluation of the Swedish System of Active Labor Market Programs in the 1990s," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 133-155, February.
    6. Annamaria Nifo & Gaetano Vecchione, 2014. "Do Institutions Play a Role in Skilled Migration? The Case of Italy," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(10), pages 1628-1649, October.
    7. Terracol, Antoine, 2009. "Guaranteed minimum income and unemployment duration in France," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 171-182, April.
    8. Alberto Abadie, 2005. "Semiparametric Difference-in-Differences Estimators," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(1), pages 1-19.
    9. Gerard J. van den Berg & Johan Vikström, 2022. "Long‐Run Effects of Dynamically Assigned Treatments: A New Methodology and an Evaluation of Training Effects on Earnings," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(3), pages 1337-1354, May.
    10. Trine Filges & Lars Pico Geerdsen & Anne‐Sofie Due Knudsen & Anne‐Marie Klint Jørgensen & Krystyna Kowalski, 2013. "Unemployment Benefit Exhaustion: Incentive Effects on Job Finding Rates: A Systematic Review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(1), pages 1-104.
    11. Callaway, Brantly & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C., 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 200-230.
    12. Conny Wunsch, 2016. "How to minimize lock-in effects of programs for unemployed workers," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 288-288, September.
    13. Jaap H. Abbring & Gerard J. van den Berg, 2003. "The Nonparametric Identification of Treatment Effects in Duration Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(5), pages 1491-1517, September.
    14. Fitzenberger, Bernd & Volter, Robert, 2007. "Long-run effects of training programs for the unemployed in East Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 730-755, August.
    15. McCall, Brian P, 1996. "Unemployment Insurance Rules, Joblessness, and Part-Time Work," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(3), pages 647-682, May.
    16. Massimo Baldini & Giovanni Gallo & Lorenzo Lusignoli & Stefano Toso, 2019. "Le politiche per l’assistenza: il Reddito di cittadinanza," Center for the Analysis of Public Policies (CAPP) 0166, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    17. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra E. Todd, 1997. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator: Evidence from Evaluating a Job Training Programme," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(4), pages 605-654.
    18. Eskil Heinesen & Leif Husted & Michael Rosholm, 2013. "The effects of active labour market policies for immigrants receiving social assistance in Denmark," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-22, December.
    19. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    20. Huber Martin & Lechner Michael & Wunsch Conny & Walter Thomas, 2011. "Do German Welfare-to-Work Programmes Reduce Welfare Dependency and Increase Employment?," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 12(2), pages 182-204, May.
    21. Melvin Vooren & Carla Haelermans & Wim Groot & Henriëtte Maassen van den Brink, 2019. "The Effectiveness Of Active Labor Market Policies: A Meta‐Analysis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 125-149, February.
    22. Sara Rica & Lucía Gorjón, 2019. "Assessing the impact of a minimum income scheme: the Basque Country case," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 251-280, November.
    23. Hugo Bodory & Martin Huber & Lukáš Lafférs, 2022. "Evaluating (weighted) dynamic treatment effects by double machine learning [Identification of causal effects using instrumental variables]," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 25(3), pages 628-648.
    24. Sun, Liyang & Abraham, Sarah, 2021. "Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 175-199.
    25. Giovanni Gallo, 2021. "Regional Support for the National Government: Joint Effects of Minimum Income Schemes in Italy," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 7(1), pages 149-185, March.
    26. Imai, Kosuke & Kim, In Song, 2021. "On the Use of Two-Way Fixed Effects Regression Models for Causal Inference with Panel Data," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 29(3), pages 405-415, July.
    27. Sianesi, Barbara, 2008. "Differential effects of active labour market programs for the unemployed," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 370-399, June.
    28. Imbens,Guido W. & Rubin,Donald B., 2015. "Causal Inference for Statistics, Social, and Biomedical Sciences," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521885881, December.
    29. Manuela A. de Paz-Báñez & María José Asensio-Coto & Celia Sánchez-López & María-Teresa Aceytuno, 2020. "Is There Empirical Evidence on How the Implementation of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) Affects Labour Supply? A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-36, November.
    30. Luis Ayala & Magdalena Rodríguez, 2010. "Explaining welfare recidivism: what role do unemployment and initial spells have?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 23(1), pages 373-392, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Roth, Jonathan & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Bilinski, Alyssa & Poe, John, 2023. "What’s trending in difference-in-differences? A synthesis of the recent econometrics literature," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 2218-2244.
    2. Dmitry Arkhangelsky & Guido Imbens, 2023. "Causal Models for Longitudinal and Panel Data: A Survey," Papers 2311.15458, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    3. Chabé-Ferret, Sylvain & Reynaud, Arnaud & Tène, Eva, 2021. "Water Quality, Policy Diffusion Effects and Farmers’ Behavior," TSE Working Papers 21-1229, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    4. Baker, Andrew C. & Larcker, David F. & Wang, Charles C.Y., 2022. "How much should we trust staggered difference-in-differences estimates?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 370-395.
    5. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2023. "Simple approaches to nonlinear difference-in-differences with panel data," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 26(3), pages 31-66.
    6. Li, Daiyue & Jin, Yanhong & Cheng, Mingwang, 2024. "Unleashing the power of industrial robotics on firm productivity: Evidence from China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 500-520.
    7. Mark Kattenberg & Bas Scheer & Jurre Thiel, 2023. "Causal forests with fixed effects for treatment effect heterogeneity in difference-in-differences," CPB Discussion Paper 452, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    8. Melnik, Walter & Smyth, Andrew, 2024. "R&D tax credits and innovation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    9. Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Britto, Diogo & Pinotti, Paolo & Sampaio, Breno, 2021. "Job Displacement, Unemployment Benefits and Domestic Violence," IZA Discussion Papers 14543, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Albanese, Andrea & Nieto, Adrián & Tatsiramos, Konstantinos, 2022. "Job Location Decisions and the Effect of Children on the Employment Gender Gap," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1113, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    11. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D’Haultfœuille, 2023. "Two-way fixed effects and differences-in-differences with heterogeneous treatment effects: a survey," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 26(3), pages 1-30.
    12. Ridwan Ah Sheikh & Sunil Kanwar, 2024. "Revisiting the Impact of TRIPS on IPR-intensive Export Flows: Evidence from Staggered Difference-in-Differences," Working papers 351, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    13. Dalia Ghanem & Pedro H. C. Sant'Anna & Kaspar Wuthrich, 2022. "Selection and parallel trends," Papers 2203.09001, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2024.
    14. Schoner, Florian & Mergele, Lukas & Zierow, Larissa, 2024. "Grading student behavior," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    15. Callaway, Brantly & Li, Tong, 2023. "Policy evaluation during a pandemic," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 236(1).
    16. Athey, Susan & Imbens, Guido W., 2022. "Design-based analysis in Difference-In-Differences settings with staggered adoption," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 226(1), pages 62-79.
    17. Callaway, Brantly & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C., 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 200-230.
    18. Gregory Faletto, 2023. "Fused Extended Two-Way Fixed Effects for Difference-in-Differences With Staggered Adoptions," Papers 2312.05985, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2025.
    19. Vinish Shrestha, 2025. "Revisiting the effects of cigarette taxation on smoking outcomes," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 68(3), pages 1429-1475, March.
    20. Hampton, Matt & McNamara, Scott, 2022. "The impact of educational rewards on the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Minimum income schemes; Unemployment; Welfare;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

    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:spr:italej:v:10:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s40797-023-00263-1. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.