RIVISTA INTERNAZIONALE DI SCIENZE SOCIALI - 2006 - 4

Italy is among the OECD countries with both the highest ratios of older persons per worker and the lowest female participation rates. As the Mediterranean health-care system is based on the crucial support provided by the fifty year-old women in the family, the two processes are strictly intertwined. In this paper, the compatibility between the growth of female employment rate and the increase in the demand for the care of old people is analysed. The number of middle-aged women will diminish considerably in the next few decades, whereas the non-autonomous old population will grow exponentially. Some foreseeable scenarios are discussed using both macro-demographic sources and data from a recent Istat Survey. The empirical evidence emphasizes that adult women find themselves caught in between the requirements of the labor market on the one hand and family tasks on the other. Policy implications are finally discussed.

This paper examines the relationship between inequality and growth in the Italian regions in the period 1990-2004. Our results support the conjecture, formulated by the most recent economic theory, that greater inequality in the distribution of personal incomes reduces real growth. Furthermore, a detailed examination of the possible influence mechanisms of inequality on growth shows that both the credit rationing and the social instability channel are relevant in explaining the empirical evidence considered. Our analysis ultimately suggests that a decrease in income inequality in the Southern regions, achieved through adequate redistributive policies in the area, might contribute to reducing the lag in the economic development of the Mezzogiorno.

According to the EU water framework directive 2000/60, water tariffs should be based on the full cost recovery principle, including scarcity and external effects. To disregard these two aspects is not only conceptually misleading, as we try to show, but also leads to a wrong, distorted tariff. Our attempt to measure such distortion with respect to the italian case shows, for example, that water tariffs should be up to three times higher than the actual ones. That is to say, a significant correction in water prices is needed to achieve efficiency.

Recent studies analyse the dynamic of administered prices. However, the concept of administered prices is not clearly defined in economic literature, and a common approach is missing. This paper gives a brief description of the reasons for administered prices. Moreover, it focuses on the difference between administered and regulated prices. Two relevant and unsolved cases are analysed: telecommunication network industries and the rental market. A particular emphasis is addressed to the regulatory frameworks within these sectors. It is investigated whether they do affect price behaviours. In conclusion, the paper provides guidelines to identify the impact of the regulatory framework on consumer price indices.

In this paper we present a model of spatial competition that highlights firms’ customization strategies in an imperfect competitive environment. The nature of competition in markets with products designed according to consumer preferences is discussed both in a framework of exogenous and endogenous set-up costs. Set-up costs are considered endogenous when technology is such that reductions in variable customization costs are feasible at additional set-up costs. It is shown that when set-up costs are exogenous, strategic interaction induces firms to choose the most efficient customization technology, though the latter entails a reduction in prices and profits and a more concentrated market structure. When set-up costs are endogenous, the incentive to choose strategically a more efficient customization technology depends on the possibility to cheaply transfer the customization costs into the set-up costs. This explains why customization is more frequently observed for information goods and in digital markets.