Abstract

The article focuses on the recent evolution of occupational and fiscal welfare in Italy by shedding light on some subtle, yet important, recent transformations of the Italian welfare state. First, it provides up-to-date information on the introduction of legislative changes in this policy field. Second, it investigates the policy-making processes that lead to such relevant policy changes, by focusing especially on the role of employers, trade unions, and policymakers, along with the relevant political exchange dynamics. The analysis shows that beyond having a specific distributional profile, these measures have been useful instruments to acquire the consensus among particular interest groups in a context of budgetary austerity, and stringent public expenditure control.