The subject of the book is a review of the literature on the economic role of the welfare state with reference to the Italian situation. The reforms of social policies already implemented in the last decade and the problematic changes in a federal administrative frame of the State have both to be taken into account. The first part of the book contains an overview of the theory and institutions of the welfare state, and pays particular attention to newer approaches that introduce the correctives to the information failure of the market institutions as a major strategic task of the welfare state in a modern prospective. Asymmetric information makes individual decisions inefficient and ineffective and the presence of widespread macroeconomic uncertainty and of forms of risk that can not be measured in an actuarial contest, introduces new strategic functions in the traditional welfare state frames. The second part of the book addresses the theoretical debate on the concept of inequalities in income and welfare distributions and introduces the empirical methodologies to measure concepts of inequality based on alternative structures of social welfare functions and synthetic inequality indicators. Many analyses have underlined the increasing share of government expenses for social purposes in many European countries and the need to reform many of the traditional instruments of the welfare state, especially in the Mediterranean area. Before introducing social reforms, it is crucial to evaluate the effectiveness of any single instruments of the Italian welfare state in terms of reducing inequality, poverty and social exclusion of individuals and families. This could mean, first, to analyze the mechanisms of incentives that can produce efficient and effective results in redistribution and in the reduction of the poverty levels and, second, to address the process of institutional review of social policies along these lines. In this sense, the final chapter studies the reform of social policies introduced in Italy in the period 2000/2005. In the first part contains a review of the literature on incentives in the procedures of targeting of social policies to combat poverty, with particular attention to issues relevant for the Italian economy. The second part describes the introduction of social policy reforms in a federal frame of the central government and discusses the difficulties for the subsequent application of the relevant critical interventions at the local level. This federal approach can represent a transformation of the traditional central welfare state into new forms of local welfare institutional frames, especially in some Italian regions of the North.

Oggetto di questo volume è una rilettura della letteratura sul ruolo economico dello Stato sociale con riferimento alla situazione italiana e dunque inquadrandolo all’interno del dibattito sulle riforme delle politiche sociali già attuate e sugli snodi problematici che le trasformazioni in senso federale dello Stato hanno messo in evidenza. La prima parte del volume contiene una rassegna della teoria e delle istituzioni dello Stato sociale e pone particolare attenzione sugli approcci più recenti che vedono quale principale funzione strategica dello stato sociale quella di risposta al fallimento informativo che rende le decisioni individuali non ottimali e inefficaci nella risposta a bisogni condizionati dall’assunzione di rischi non misurabili e alla presenza di incertezza macroeconomica diffusa. La seconda parte del volume affronta il dibattito teorico sul concetto di diseguaglianza economica e sulle metodologie di misurazione del grado di diseguaglianza basate su strutture alternative di funzioni del benessere sociale e di indicatori di sintesi che possano consetire una comparazione ed un ordinamento. In quest’ambito viene anche valutata l’efficacia dei singoli strumenti dello stato sociale italiano dal punto di vista del contributo alla riduzione delle diseguaglianze e del grado di povertà che caratterizza la popolazione. Questo ha significato, in primo luogo, riprendere soprattutto la letteratura teorica ed empirica di riferimento sulla povertà e sui meccanismi di incentivo per introdurre sussidi efficienti ed efficaci e, in seconda battuta, affrontare il processo di revisione istituzionale delle politiche sociali che ha interessato il welfare state italiano. In questo senso, il capitolo conclusivo del volume ha un taglio più istituzionale. Contiene nella prima parte una rassegna della letteratura sugli incentivi nelle procedure di targeting delle politiche contro la povertà, con particolare attenzione per le problematiche rilevanti dell’economia italiana. La seconda parte descrive invece il percorso istituzionale e normativo che ha condotto alla riforma delle politiche sociali in senso federale e discute le ragioni delle successive criticità nell’applicazione dei relativi interventi a livello locale. Analizza in modo dettagliato le problematiche teoriche concernenti il legame tra welfare locale e federalismo fiscale per la realtà italiana, con particolare attenzione alle politiche familiari e assistenziali di alcune regioni.

Malerba, G., Lezioni di Economia del Welfare, ISU - Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano 2007: 317 [http://hdl.handle.net/10807/26138]

Lezioni di Economia del Welfare

Malerba, Giuseppina
2007

Abstract

The subject of the book is a review of the literature on the economic role of the welfare state with reference to the Italian situation. The reforms of social policies already implemented in the last decade and the problematic changes in a federal administrative frame of the State have both to be taken into account. The first part of the book contains an overview of the theory and institutions of the welfare state, and pays particular attention to newer approaches that introduce the correctives to the information failure of the market institutions as a major strategic task of the welfare state in a modern prospective. Asymmetric information makes individual decisions inefficient and ineffective and the presence of widespread macroeconomic uncertainty and of forms of risk that can not be measured in an actuarial contest, introduces new strategic functions in the traditional welfare state frames. The second part of the book addresses the theoretical debate on the concept of inequalities in income and welfare distributions and introduces the empirical methodologies to measure concepts of inequality based on alternative structures of social welfare functions and synthetic inequality indicators. Many analyses have underlined the increasing share of government expenses for social purposes in many European countries and the need to reform many of the traditional instruments of the welfare state, especially in the Mediterranean area. Before introducing social reforms, it is crucial to evaluate the effectiveness of any single instruments of the Italian welfare state in terms of reducing inequality, poverty and social exclusion of individuals and families. This could mean, first, to analyze the mechanisms of incentives that can produce efficient and effective results in redistribution and in the reduction of the poverty levels and, second, to address the process of institutional review of social policies along these lines. In this sense, the final chapter studies the reform of social policies introduced in Italy in the period 2000/2005. In the first part contains a review of the literature on incentives in the procedures of targeting of social policies to combat poverty, with particular attention to issues relevant for the Italian economy. The second part describes the introduction of social policy reforms in a federal frame of the central government and discusses the difficulties for the subsequent application of the relevant critical interventions at the local level. This federal approach can represent a transformation of the traditional central welfare state into new forms of local welfare institutional frames, especially in some Italian regions of the North.
2007
Italiano
Monografia o trattato scientifico
ISU - Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Malerba, G., Lezioni di Economia del Welfare, ISU - Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano 2007: 317 [http://hdl.handle.net/10807/26138]
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10807/26138
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact