A minimum income in Italy

Due to the worsening of economic crisis across European countries, the problem of poverty and the ways to tackle it returned at the centre of political and scientific debate. The level of poverty increased after the crisis, especially in Mediterranean countries such as Italy, Spain and Greece. One of the main measures to protect individuals against poverty and social exclusion is Minimum Income (MI). Since 1992 the European Commission, with the Council Recommendation 92/441/EEC, called for the introduction in all Member States of a guaranteed MI. In 2010, as part of the Europe 2020 Strategy, a resolution of the European Parliament emphasized the role of MI in fighting poverty and promoting an inclusive society. Almost all EU countries adopted a MI with different rules and approaches, but Italy still lacks a universal form of protection against poverty and social exclusion. Accordingly, this paper has two main aims: first, to study European experiences of MI; second, to estimate costs and benefits of a proposal for a MI in Italy. In order to achieve these goals EUROMOD, the tax-benefit microsimulation model for the European Union, will be used

Federalismo fiscale e redistribuzione: l'effetto distributivo dei benefici in-kind a livello regionale. Un'applicazione a due regioni italiane

- Indice #3- Introduzione #5- Metodologia, dati e risultati #9- Simulazione dei trasferimenti in-kind #15- Conclusioni #29- Riferimenti bibliografici #3

IrpetDin: A Dynamic Microsimulation Model for Italy and the Region of Tuscany

IrpetDin is a dynamic microsimulation model, developed by IRPET (Regional Institute for Economic Planning of Tuscany) to study the future socio-demographic structure of the population and to evaluate the effects of social security programmes in Italy and in Tuscany over the medium to long-term. The model, based on the Eurostat Survey on Income and Living Conditions, makes projections from 2009 to 2050 and it is organised in modules: demography, education, labour and income and social security. IrpetDin produces realistic projections even for the Region of Tuscany and models education and labour with details. Probabilities and rates are estimated differently for Italy and Tuscany, trough regional administrative data. Education careers are completely simulated, from the choice of secondary school to drop-out, from university enrolment to graduation. Labour supply is endogenously determined while labour demand is driven from IRPET’s macro model. The matching of labour supply and demand is modelled by sector of activity and education, in order to estimate the quantitative and the qualitative mismatch

Global public spending efficiency in Tuscan municipalities

The paper presents a Data Envelopment Analysis aimed at studying the efficiency of Tuscan municipalities' public expenditure. Five strategic functions of Tuscan municipalities are first considered carrying out a non-aggregate analysis; then the overall expenditure composition of each municipality and the global spending efficiency are analysed by a proposed composite indicator. The main determinants affecting the municipalities' efficiency were further investigated. In particular, the obtained results may be consistently included in the long-standing debate on the municipal size, proving that the bigger the municipality, the greater its level of public expenditure efficiency

The French do it better. The distributive effect of introducing French family fiscal policies in Italy.

Italy has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. A solution, often advocated to incentivize fertility, could be to reform the Italian tax and benefit system taking inspiration from the French fiscal family treatment. This would imply to introduce the quotient system, where taxation is not on an individual basis, as in Italy, but the tax applies to the family as a whole, and to introduce the cash- benefits provided in France to families. The purpose of our paper is to assess the distributive effects of such a fiscal reform. We estimate these effects using MicroReg, a static microsimulation model able to predict the first order effects of tax and benefit system reforms. We show that a shift to the French income tax system would lead to decreased income inequality and a substantial tax reduction for households with three children, especially those who are medium- high income. The new income tax would result in a substantial disincentive to female labour supply, albeit mitigated by greater progressivity in favour of low income groups with children. Moreover, adopting French- style family benefits would further reduce inequality and increase disposable income for households with at least two children. However, those with just one child would be slightly worse off