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tax credit policy and firms' behaviour: the case of subsidy to open-end labour contract in italy

Author

Listed:
  • cipollone piero

    (Bank of Italy , Economic research department)

  • Anita Guelfi

    (confindustria, research department)

Abstract

In the past decade fixed-term contracts have been widely used to ease the regulatory burden in several European labour markets. Because there is some concern that they might be a dead-end for many worker, policy makers have intervened to increase transitions from fixed-term to open-end contracts. The effects of these interventions have not been thoroughly studied. This paper is a contribution to fill the gap. We look at a recent Italian policy designed to foster hiring with open-end rather than with fixed-term contracts. Our results seem to indicate that most of the financial support was wasted because of the large dead-weight loss associated to the program. Firms used the subsidy primarily to hire under open-end contracts workers who would have been hired under such contracts regardless of the subsidy, albeit after a short transition into temporary employment

Suggested Citation

  • cipollone piero & Anita Guelfi, 2003. "tax credit policy and firms' behaviour: the case of subsidy to open-end labour contract in italy," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 471, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
  • Handle: RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_471_03
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Andrea Brandolini & Piero Casadio & Piero Cipollone & Marco Magnani & Alfonso Rosolia, 2007. "Employment Growth in Italy in the 1990s: Institutional Arrangements and Market Forces," AIEL Series in Labour Economics, in: Nicola Acocella & Riccardo Leoni (ed.), Social Pacts, Employment and Growth. A Reappraisal of Ezio Tarantelli’s Thought, edition 1, chapter 4, pages 31-68, AIEL - Associazione Italiana Economisti del Lavoro.
    2. Giorgio Gobbi & Roberta Zizza, 2007. "Does the Underground Economy Hold Back Financial Deepening? Evidence from the Italian Credit Market," CEP Discussion Papers dp0789, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    3. Tito Boeri & Pietro Garibaldi, 2007. "Two Tier Reforms of Employment Protection: a Honeymoon Effect?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(521), pages 357-385, June.
    4. Piero, Casadio, 2003. "Wage formation in the Italian private sector after the 1992-93 income policy agreements," MPRA Paper 29396, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Tito Boeri & Andrea Brandolini, 2004. "The Age of Discontent: Italian Households at the Beginning of the Decade," Giornale degli Economisti, GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University, vol. 63(3-4), pages 449-487, December.
    6. Emanuele Ciani & Guido de Blasio, 2015. "Getting stable: an evaluation of the incentives for permanent contracts in Italy," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-29, December.
    7. J. Ignacio García-Pérez & Yolanda F. Rebollo Sanz, 2009. "The use of permanent contracts across Spanish regions: Do regional wage subsidies work?," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 33(1), pages 97-130, January.
    8. cipollone piero & Anita Guelfi, 2006. "The value of flexible contracts; evidence from an italian panel of industrial firms," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 583, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    9. Piero Cipollone & Corrado Di Maria & Anita Guelfi, 2004. "Hiring Incentives and Labour Force Participation in Italy," Giornale degli Economisti, GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University, vol. 63(2), pages 161-203, November.
    10. Aparicio Fenoll, Ainoa, 2011. "The Effect of Product Market Competition on Job Instability," IZA Discussion Papers 5669, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Schömann, Klaus & Siarov, Liuben & van den Heuvel, Nick, 2006. "Managing social risks through transitional labour markets," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Labor Market Policy and Employment SP I 2006-117, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    12. Andrea Caggese & Vicente Cuñat, 2008. "Financing Constraints and Fixed‐term Employment Contracts," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(533), pages 2013-2046, November.
    13. Paolo Sestito & Eliana Viviano, 2016. "Hiring incentives and/or firing cost reduction? Evaluating the impact of the 2015 policies on the Italian labour market," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 325, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    tax credit; open-end contracts; fixed-term contracts; evaluation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J38 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Public Policy

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