Lavoro e diritti

Although the central banks of the world’s main economies have implemented expansionary monetary policies to bring down interest rates and therefore stimulate investments, the results have not been up to expectations. Monetary policy has not had the desired effects on the real economy, since the aggregate demand remained weak. The inequalities in income distribution and the ageing of population are related to the secular stagnation.

In Basilicata oil and gas extraction has been under way for over 20 years; the article aims to analyse the relation of this with the national consumption trends and oil production and the consequences on the local economy and employment, specifically in the area mainly involved in new business ventures in recent years, Val d’Agri. Lastly, the analysis considers the change in demographic structure and the limits of National and local planning.

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The General Confederation of Italian Industry maintains that wages are too high while business profitability is at a low, with negative effects on growth. It calls for profit and investment share to be remedied by compressing the wage share. This article shows instead that underlying the increase in wage share there are phenomena closely tied to the negative trends in demand and GDP and that decreasing it would further worsen the situation of crisis already present.

University reforms of recent years have aimed at increasing efficiency by reducing funding and adopting competition between universities. This study shows instead that the system of allocating resources penalizes Southern universities above all because it does not take into account their difficult socio-economic context. It would therefore be necessary to adopt indicators that do not penalize universities merely because they operate in less advanced socio-economic settings.

On the international scene, Italy is one of the countries with the highest underground economy. On the issue of tax evasion various studies based on empirical evidence show that the causes include both the high tax rates and psychological and moral elements. The article shows that despite the seriousness of the evasion, Italy has managed to combat the phenomenon thanks to the new government’s measures on tax compliance.

The leading position of Italy’s agro-food sector is threatened because of the Agromafia with the rise of organised crime in the sector. The article shows that criminal activities cause market distortion leading to an increase in prices and a loss of consumer buying power which depresses the economic cycle due to the fall in demand. The agro-food sector should therefore be protected and defended especially because it is capable of attracting large amounts of capital and of triggering processes of constant growth.