Maurizio Ferrera

Bio: Maurizio Ferrera is an academic researcher from University of Milan. The author has contributed to research in topics: Welfare state & European integration. The author has an hindex of 35, co-authored 127 publications receiving 6475 citations. Previous affiliations of Maurizio Ferrera include University of Pavia & Bocconi University.

The 'Southern Model' of Welfare in Social Europe:

Abstract: This article tries to identify some common traits of the welfare states of Italy, Spain, Por tugal and Greece, with special attention to in stitutional and political aspects.

The Boundaries of Welfare: European Integration and the New Spatial Politics of Social Protection

Abstract: To what extent has the process of European integration re-drawn the boundaries of national welfare states? What are the effects of such re-drawing? Boundaries count: they are essential in bringing together individuals, groups, and territorial units, and for activating or strengthening shared ties between them. If the profile of boundaries changes over time, we might expect significant consequences on bonding dynamics, i.e. on the way solidarity is structured in a given political community. The book addresses these two questions in a broad historical and comparative perspective. The first chapter sets out a novel theoretical framework which re-conceptualizes the welfare state as a 'bounded space' characterized by a distinct spatial politics. This reconceptualization takes as a starting point the 'state-building tradition' in political science and in particular the work of Stein Rokkan. The second chapter briefly outlines the early emergence and expansion of European welfare states till World War II. Chapters 3 and 4 analyse the relationship between domestic welfare state developments and the formation of a supranational European Community between the 1960s and the 2000s, illustrating how the process of European integration has increasingly eroded the social sovereignty of the nation-state. Chapter 5 focuses on new emerging forms of sub-national and trans-national social protection, while Chapter 6 discusses current trends and future perspectives for a re-structuring of social protection at the EU level. While there is no doubt that European integration has significantly altered the boundaries of national welfare, de-stabilizing delicate political and institutional equilibria, the book concludes by offering some suggestions on how a viable system of multi-level social protection could possibly emerge within the new EU wide boundary configuration.

Home Ownership and the Welfare State: Is Southern Europe Different?

Abstract: This article starts from the hypothesis that private expenditure on home ownership and public expenditure on aged pensions represent alternative and, to some extent, mutually exclusive mechanisms of life-time saving for old age. The paper identifies Greece, Italy and, to a lesser degree, Spain as being amongst the only advanced nations in which home ownership is extensive and social insurance age pensions extremely generous. The paper goes on to identify features of southern European society which make it possible to combine these features, but points to the fiscal and demographic problems that result from a policy-mix which privileges the old at the expense of the young.

Rescued by Europe?: Social and Labour Market Reforms in Italy from Maastricht to Berlusconi

Abstract: Als een gevolg van de politieke en economische onrust gedurende lange tijd in de naoorlogse periode, werd Italie gezien als het 'zwarte schaap' binnen de Europese Gemeenschap. Scherpe ideologische tegenstellingen, chronische bestuurlijke instabiliteit, een inefficiente bureaucratie, abrupte sociaal-economische ontwikkelingen, georganiseerde misdaad en onevenwichtige overheidsfinancien droegen alle bij aan een negatief imago. Midden jaren negentig kondigde Italie echter een grondige economische en sociale reorganisatie aan om zodoende aan de bekende voorwaarden van Maastricht te voldoen en lid te worden van de Economische en Monetaire Unie (EMU). In Rescued by Europe? onderzoeken Ferrera en Gualmini dit proces aan de hand van de gevolgen ervan voor het bestuurlijk en sociaal beleid. De auteurs betogen dat de beperkingen en de kansen die voortkwamen uit de Europese integratie de drijvende kracht zijn geweest achter de positieve ontwikkeling van Italie, maar dat Italie nog een lange weg te gaan heeft voor volledige integratie. "Two of Italy's foremost public policy specialists, Ferrera and Gualmini, are well placed to tell the story of how Italian political elites, long oriented towards buying off opposition and vested interests by expanding a bloated public debt, were finally confronted with reality by EMU membership criteria. Rescued by Europe? is both a fascinating narrative of how governments, employers and unions responded to the EMU imperatives and an in-depth analysis of how Italy's idiosyncratic labor markets and welfare system function, both for good and ill." Martin Rhodes, european University Institute, Florence, Italy

Socioeconomic Inequalities in Health in 22 European Countries

Abstract: A b s t r ac t Background Comparisons among countries can help to identify opportunities for the reduction of inequalities in health. We compared the magnitude of inequalities in mortality and self-assessed health among 22 countries in all parts of Europe. Methods We obtained data on mortality according to education level and occupational class from census-based mortality studies. Deaths were classified according to cause, including common causes, such as cardiovascular disease and cancer; causes related to smoking; causes related to alcohol use; and causes amenable to medical intervention, such as tuberculosis and hypertension. Data on self-assessed health, smoking, and obesity according to education and income were obtained from health or multipurpose surveys. For each country, the association between socioeconomic status and health outcomes was measured with the use of regression-based inequality indexes. Results In almost all countries, the rates of death and poorer self-assessments of health were substantially higher in groups of lower socioeconomic status, but the magnitude of the inequalities between groups of higher and lower socioeconomic status was much larger in some countries than in others. Inequalities in mortality were small in some southern European countries and very large in most countries in the eastern and Baltic regions. These variations among countries appeared to be attributable in part to causes of death related to smoking or alcohol use or amenable to medical intervention. The magnitude of inequalities in self-assessed health also varied substantially among countries, but in a different pattern. Conclusions We observed variation across Europe in the magnitude of inequalities in health associated with socioeconomic status. These inequalities might be reduced by improving educational opportunities, income distribution, health-related behavior, or access to health care.

Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany.

Abstract: Preface Introduction: Traditions of Nationhood in France and Germany I. The Institution of Citizenship 1. Citizenship as Social Closure 2. The French Revolution and the Invention of National Citizenship 3. State, State-System, and Citizenship in Germany II. Defining The Citizenry: The Bounds of Belonging 4. Citizenship and Naturalization in France and Germany 5. Migrants into Citizens: The Crystallization of Jus Soli in Late-Nineteenth-Century France 6. The Citizenry as Community of Descent: The Nationalization of Citizenship in Wilhelmine Germany 7. \"Etre Francais, Cela se Merite\": Immigration and the Politics of Citizenship in France in the 1980s 8. Continuities in the German Politics of Citizenship Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

The 'Southern Model' of Welfare in Social Europe:

Abstract: This article tries to identify some common traits of the welfare states of Italy, Spain, Por tugal and Greece, with special attention to in stitutional and political aspects.

Handbook of Economic Growth

Abstract: Volumes 2A and 2B of The Handbook of Economic Growth summarize recent advances in theoretical and empirical work while offering new perspectives on a range of growth mechanisms, from the roles played by institutions and organizations to the ways factors beyond capital accumulation and technological change can affect growth. Written by research leaders, the chapters summarize and evaluate recent advances while explaining where further research might be profitable. With analyses that are provocative and controversial because they are so directly relevant to public policy and private decision-making, these two volumes uphold the standard for excellence in applied economics set by Volumes 1A and 1B (2005). It offers definitive theoretical and empirical scholarship about growth economics. It empowers readers to evaluate the work of other economists and to plan their own research projects. It demonstrates the value of empirical testing, with its implicit conclusion that our understanding of economic growth will help everyone make better decisions.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Abstract: What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.