Business Commons^™

Le ultime elezioni politiche ci parlano di un disagio sociale crescente, che le politiche di austerità implementate dal governo Monti non bastano a spiegare. Alla radice della rabbia e della frustrazione di una parte consistente dell’elettorato italiano c’è infatti la realtà di un paese in cui, da più di vent’anni, le disparità nella distribuzione del reddito e in quella della ricchezza sono andate aumentando costantemente, fino a configurare una situazione da paese feudale.

In the analysis of inequality in advanced countries it is often argued that the wide array of changes in economic activities, labour markets and public policies result in a complex picture of changes in individual incomes that escape any general interpretation. In this paper the available data on the functional and personal distribution of income are examined and the results of the literature are surveyed providing an interpretation of developments in inequality in Italy, compared to other European countries. The argument is that there is strong evidence that most benefits of the (modest) economic growth of the last decade have …

In searching for the causes of the general increase of inequality in Europe over the past two decades, technological change and increasing international integration are major forces that need to be investigated. While they have affected the overall changes in economic structures with complex – direct and indirect – influences on income distribution, we focus here on their specific impact on three issues: a) inequalities between profits and wages; b) the polarisation of employment by professional skills; c) wage polarisation.

Inequality is a multidimensional phenomenon involving both economic and social processes, and regulated by a variety of political processes and policies. Measures of economic inequality, in terms of income and wealth, however, provide an effective picture of broad patterns of inequality. Between the end of the 1970’s and mid-2000’s, such indicators have documented a general growth in inequalities within and between countries, highlighting a major aspect of economic development over that period.

In this article we improve on the literature dealing with the polarising effects of technological change on wages by proposing more rigorous definitions of wage dispersion within industries and of the different types and effects of innovation. We carry out an analysis across 10 manufacturing and service sectors in seven European countries (France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK), for two time periods. In addition to structural economic variables, we draw data from two waves of the Community Innovation Surveys (CIS 2, 1994–1996 and CIS3, 1998–2000) and from two waves of the European Community Household Panel (ECHP, …

This paper investigates the dynamics of wages and profits and the influence innovation strategies have on them. The relationships between innovation, productivity, and distribution are modeled and estimated by employing panel data techniques. Two European innovation surveys (1994–96 and 1998–2000) are used with data at both the country and industry levels. Innovation is found to have positive effects on income dynamics beyond the role it has on productivity gains; it may weaken the distribution constraint posed by the competition between profits and wages. Profits are driven by both the Schumpeterian effects of new products and the diffusion effects of new …