Growth and institutions in Paolo Sylos Labini's thought

According to Paolo Sylos Labini (1920-2005), it is vital for an economist to be acutely conscious of the responsibility to study society for the sake of promoting progress—the economic, social and civil progress of society—and not for personal interest. In his last book, Ahi serva Italia (2006), Sylos Labini spoke as a civic-minded economist to all those Italians who refuse to understand that respect for the rules is an absolute requirement for a market economy, and, in particular, that a market economy needs rules to defend the community against the unbridled expansion of positions of power. Within this analytical framework, our paper aims to discuss the role of institutions along different lines: the role of the market in the process of economic growth, public intervention in the economy and the process of institutional innovations.Paolo Sylos Labini, growth, institutions, regulation, innovations

The productivity of the public sector in OECD countries: eGovernment as driver of efficiency and efficacy

This article aims at illustrating a theoretical approach to the analysis of the dynamics of productivity in the public sector, and at presenting a preliminary application of it to the estimation of the impact on productivity of the recent development of e-Government processes in a number of OECD countries. Our analysis serves a twofold purpose: at the microeconomic level, we set out to provide individual public administrations (PAs) with an instrument to evaluate the benefits, in terms of output, of alternative projects, particularly through a more efficient organisation of the relevant information. At the macroeconomic level, the aim is to highlight a significant relationship between e-Government and economic growth, as an indicator of social wellbeing.e-Government, ICT, public sector, productivity growth

Pluralism at Risk? Heterodox Economic Approaches and the Evaluation of Economic Research in Italy

We analyze Italy's recent research evaluation exercise (VTR) as a salient example in discussing some internationally relevant issues emerging from the evaluation of research in economics. We claim that evaluation and its criteria, together with its linkage to research institutions' financing, are likely to affect the direction of research in a problematic way. As the Italian case documents, it is specifically economists who adopt unorthodox paradigms or pursue less diffused topics of research that should be concerned about research evaluation and its criteria. After outlining the recent practice of economic research in Italy and highlighting the relevant scope for pluralism that traditionally characterizes it, we analyze the publications submitted for evaluation to the VTR. By comparing these publications to all the entries in the EconLit database authored by economists located in Italy, we find a risk that the adopted ranking criteria may lead to disregarding historical methods in favor of quantitative and econometric methods, and heterodox schools in favor of mainstream approaches. Finally, by summarizing the current debate in Italy, we claim that evaluation should not be refused by heterodox economists, but rather that a reflection on the criteria of evaluation should be put forward at an international level in order to establish fair competition among research paradigms, thus, preserving pluralism in the discipline. © 2010 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc

Thinking of Sylos Labini

This note reflects upon the methodological principles that Paolo Sylos Labini (1920-2005) brought to his work as a political economist. Sylos Labini drew upon history, political science, sociology and philosophy in order to explain economic processes, and he insisted that an interdisciplinary approach was essential to formulating effective policy responses to modern social problems

Equal Pay and Pension Gap

The principle of equal pay is anchored in the EEC founding Treaty of 1957. Directive 2006/54/EC was a recast of secondary law dating back to 1975 pursuing gender equality in (access to) employment and it ‘consolidated’ case law in this area developed by the European Court of Justice. In many resolutions, the European Parliament has called for rendering legislation more effective in reducing or eliminating the persistent gender pay gap (GPG) and, more generally, in guaranteeing equal conditions for men and women at work and equal opportunities for access to work. For this European Implementation Assessment, input was received from four independent groups of experts on discrete aspects of the application of the Recast Directive: - legal aspects and in particular direct and indirect discrimination (Prof.Dr Susanne Burri, Utrecht School of Law); - effectiveness of the Directive in tackling the equal pay and pension gap (Prof. Dr Marcella Corsi, Sapienza University of Rome); - proper consideration of the role of job evaluation and classification systems (Prof. Dr Isabell M. Welpe, Dr Prisca Brosi, Dipl.- Psych. Tanja Schwarzmüller,Technische Universität München); - necessary protection of pregnancy and the role of maternity leave and related schemes in view of gender equality at work and for careers (Dorota Szelewa PhD, University of Warsaw). The introduction compares the findings of the Commission’s impact assessment of 7 March 2014 to the Commission's recommendation of 7 March 2014 on reducing the GPG. Then the findings and recommendations of the research papers are presented in a condensed form. The conclusion is that there is a very strong case for immediate and vigorous actions at EU level, going beyond voluntary measures, in line with EP resolutions. The four research papers are included in full as annexes

How to reduce the androcentric bias in economics

Teaching heterodox economics in a feminist perspective requires to reduce the androcentric bias in economic ideas and also rethinking the pedagogical method