Anticipating and Managing Restructuring. National Background Paper: Italy

This paper provides an illustration of the main measures devised to anticipate and cope with industrial restructuring in Italy, after a brief overview of recent trends and developments in the domestic employment and economic structure and in restructuring. Some specific instances of anticipating and managing change and industrial restructuring are then presented to provide more detailed examples of experience in practice. The concluding remarks will provide an overall assessment of the effectiveness of the various measures presented and suggest the transferability potential and the scope for reform. Detailed analysis and discussion of the issues raised by restructuring appear particularly timely at a time where the European economies are facing a substantial downturn in the levels both of activity and employment (EUROSTAT 2009), the consequences of which for medium-term growth prospects and the production structure could be significant.