Documents Pavolini, Emmanuele 22 results

"The LTC labour market contains mostly workers with a medium educational level, although the increasingly complex skills required in the sector point to the need to improve initial and continuing training and qualifications. Labour shortages are a major challenge in all Member States, and labour shortages in this sector are among the most acute in the EU labour market as a whole. Wages and other indicators of job quality are low when compared to healthcare and the average situation of workers in the whole economy."

"To what extent and in what ways do welfare state policies and cultural values affect the employment patterns of mid-life women with care responsibilities toward a frail parent? The study draws on Eurobarometer micro-data integrated with country-level information to respond to this question. Performing a multilevel analysis across 21 European countries, it considers macro factors that influence the decisions of mid-life women to give up or reduce paid work in order to care for a frail elderly parent. The results show that, while the overall level of expenditure on long-term care is not influential, settings characterized by limited formal care services, and strong norms with regard to intergenerational obligations, have a negative impact on women's attachment to the labour market. Policies and cultural factors also influence the extent to which women are polarized: in more defamilialized countries, regardless of their level of education, female carers rarely reduce their level of employment."

"Occupational Welfare (OW) schemes in Italy have experienced an increase in coverage and level of protection since the 1990s. Yet, despite this upward trend, these schemes still cover a minority of workers, usually play a supplementary role to statutory schemes and provide marginal protection against social and labour market risks. Occupational pensions are the most significant type of OW both in terms of expenditure and strength, followed by schemes related to health care provisions and education and training. Unemployment protection and prevention is very fragmented and data are scarce. In recent decades, policymakers have tried to reconfigure the interplay of statutory schemes (both unemployment benefit and short-time working schemes) and occupational protection through bilateral bodies (enti bilaterali) (AA.VV. 2003). The latter are of growing importance in addressing the gaps in statutory unemployment protection. The present report is based on the review of the most relevant research, official documents produced by the relevant Parliamentary committees and social partners, statistical and administrative data, interviews with key stakeholders, and the analysis of collective agreements."

"Decentralisation was one of the most relevant trends in the institutional development of the Spanish and Italian welfare states up to the onset of the economic crisis. The present article tries to answer two questions. How have central government – sub-national government relationships and models of welfare governance evolved? What has happened to territorial inequalities in access to welfare state provision before and after the onset of the crisis and the introduction of austerity policies? Before the crisis, territorial differences in the operation of the welfare state across regions were more pronounced and intense in Italy than in Spain. With the onset of the crisis and austerity, the differences between territorial clusters in Spain have remained relatively stable or have decreased, whereas in Italy they have oft en increased. In both cases, regional governments have, in recent years, been more dependent on central government. In fact, to receive support or extra funding, regional governments have accepted the conditions imposed by central government. Sub-national governments have been forced to accept significant cuts and greater control or supervision of their budgets. As the largest part of the regional budget is spent on social policies, regional welfare systems have inevitably been affected both in scope and in the way in which decisions are made."

"By looking at the main welfare state reforms undertaken by the Italian and Spanish governments since the outbreak of the financial crisis, this article explores changes resulting from the implementation of austerity policies. In light of the way in which unpopular fiscal adjustment measures have been introduced in both countries, especially since 2010, we call for a revision of the existing literature on welfare retrenchment and political strategies. We argue in this article that under conditions of ‘permanent strain', bold retrenchment policies and cuts in social spending have been justified by the Italian and Spanish governments through a ´there is no alternative´ or TINA legitimation strategy, which creates limited interaction space between social and political actors. We tentatively conclude that this political strategy does not entirely fit the notions of blame avoidance or credit claiming as currently formulated in the specialist literature. We call for further empirical testing of the arguments made in this paper."

"Der Artikel befasst sich mit den Auswirkungen der Eurokrise auf die Gesundheitspolitik in Italien, Spanien, Portugal und Griechenland. Haben die Regierungen dieser Länder die Eurokrise ausschließlich zu einem drastischen Rückbau des staatlichen Gesundheitswesens genutzt, oder hat die Krise längerfristige Reformstrategien hervorgerufen, die auf eine nachhaltige Ausbalancierung fiskalischer Restriktionen mit dem Streben nach einer verbesserten Leistungsfähigkeit der Gesundheitssysteme gerichtet sind? Nach einer knappen Darstellung der Merkmale der einzelnen Gesundheitssysteme vor Ausbruch der Krise vergleichen wir die Bewältigungsstrategien der einzelnen Länder, die auf unterschiedliche Kombinationen von Ausgabenkürzung, Umstrukturierung und Neujustierung setzen, und analysieren die Auswirkungen der durch Sparzwänge bedingten Reformen auf aktuelle (und erwartete) Gesundheitsergebnisse. Wir schließen mit Überlegungen zur Zukunft der staatlichen Gesundheitsversorgung in Südeuropa."

"This article explores changes that took place in long-term care (LTC) policies during the last two decades in six European welfare states. In this regard, it addresses three issues: (1) why reforms took place, (2) the main actors and coalitions driving this process and the institutional mechanisms at work and (3) the main outcomes of reform processes. In order to analyse the development of LTC policies, the article applies theoretical concepts of historical institutionalism. Our interpretation is that institutional change in LTC policy has taken place through a protracted institutional dynamic in which continuity and discontinuity are inextricably linked and where tensions and contradictions have played a crucial role. With regard to outcomes, the article analyses coverage and citizens' social rights, working conditions in the care sector and trajectories of de-/re-familization of care. The final impact is that the level of universalism has generally increased in Europe, but that in part it has adopted a new form of ‘restricted universalism', characterized by universal entitlements to LTC benefits constrained by limitations in provision due to financial constraints and budget ceilings."

"Nei governi di centro-destra succedutisi nell'ultimo decennio è mancata la volontà di pro­muovere il Servizio pubblico per l'impiego. È prevalso il tentativo (parzialmente fallito in gran parte delle regioni) di legittimare e favorire canali paralleli di collocamento; la retorica della com­petizione e dell'arricchimento delle funzioni di policy cela la sfiducia nella capacità dei neonati Centri per l'impiego e la volontà di promuovere soggetti privati, per definizione ritenuti più effi­cienti. Ciò ha quindi portato, nelle politiche del lavoro, a mantenere e complicare le asimmetrie già insite nella storia economica, amministrativa e sociale del paese. La modifica del Titolo v della Costituzione stabilisce che allo Stato spetta ga­rantire i livelli di prestazione su tutto il territorio nazionale, alle Regioni spetta organizzare i sistemi integrati di interventi e servizi sociali. La cultura politica del centro-sinistra si è distinta da quella del centro-destra, ma è parsa perlopiù incapace di comprendere ed assorbire le principali inno­vazioni."

"Faced with the problems associated with an ageing society, many European countries have adopted innovative policies to achieve a better balance between the need to expand social care and the imperative to curb public spending. Although embedded within peculiar national traditions, these new policies share some characteristics: (a) a tendency to combine monetary transfers to families with the provision of in-kind services; (b) the establishment of a new social care market based on competition; (c) the empowerment of users through their increased purchasing power; and (d) the introduction of funding measures intended to foster care-giving through family networks. This article presents the most significant reforms recently introduced in six European countries (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK) as regards long-term care. It analyses their impact at the macro- (institutional and quantitative), meso- (service delivery structures) and micro-level (families, caregivers and people in need). As a result the authors find a general trend towards convergence in social care among the countries, and the emergence of a new type of government regulation designed to restructure rather than to reduce welfare programmes."