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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
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    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

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