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Can employment subsidies and greater labour market flexibility increase job opportunities for youth? Revisiting the Italian On-the-job Training Program

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  • Tattara, Giuseppe
  • Valentini, Marco

Abstract

The CFL (On-the-job Training) programme was introduced in Italy in 1985 with the aim of reducing youth unemployment. The new programme offered employers two main advantages: it exempted them almost completely from payment of payroll taxes and it provided them with virtually the only opportunity to employ people on a basis of fixed term contracts. The paper looks at the employment impact of the programme among a subgroup of eligible workers and finds that firms taking part increased employment more than non-participating firms by almost 5%. Employers had a strong positive reaction to the tax subsidies and to the softening of the rigid employment code. The overall effect of the programme on youth employment was however limited, registering only a 1% increase, mainly because about 80% of firms never participated.

Suggested Citation

  • Tattara, Giuseppe & Valentini, Marco, 2008. "Can employment subsidies and greater labour market flexibility increase job opportunities for youth? Revisiting the Italian On-the-job Training Program," MPRA Paper 10370, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:10370
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    Cited by:

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    2. Begoña Cueto Iglesias & Fermín López Rodríguez, 2019. "The Apprenticeship Contract: An Evaluation," Hacienda Pública Española, IEF, vol. 231(4), pages 15-39, December.
    3. Andrea Albanese & Lorenzo Cappellari & Marco Leonardi, 2021. "The effects of youth labour market reforms: evidence from Italian apprenticeships," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 73(1), pages 98-121.
    4. Werner Eichhorst & Núria Rodríguez-Planas & Ricarda Schmidl & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2015. "A Road Map to Vocational Education and Training in Industrialized Countries," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 68(2), pages 314-337, March.
    5. Floreani, Vincent Arthur, 2014. "Fixing Europe's youth unemployment and skills mismatch, can public financial support to SMEs be effective? The case of the European Commission and European Investment Bank joint initiatives," MPRA Paper 55849, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Chiara Natalie Focacci, 2020. "“You reap what you sow”: Do active labour market policies always increase job security? Evidence from the Youth Guarantee," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 373-429, June.
    7. Hans Dietrich, 2013. "Youth unemployment in the period 2001–2010 and the European crisis – looking at the empirical evidence," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 19(3), pages 305-324, August.
    8. Eichhorst, Werner & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria & Schmidl, Ricarda & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2012. "A Roadmap to Vocational Education and Training Systems Around the World," IZA Discussion Papers 7110, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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