fondazione Rodolfo DeBenedetti

MISSION

Fondazione Ing. RODOLFO DEBENEDETTI was founded in 1998 as an independent non-profit research institute dedicated to the memory of Rodolfo Debenedetti (1892-1991), father of Franco Debenedetti and Carlo De Benedetti.

Our purpose is to promote applied and policy oriented research on labour markets and welfare systems in Europe. Specifically, we support research activities and organize events on the following main topics:

  • The reform of public pension systems in light of demographic trends and the ongoing transformation of capital markets and of the political economy limits tof the reforms;
  • The causes of European unemployment, its social costs and the political feasibility of strategies aimed at liberalising EU labour markets;
  • The co-ordination of social and immigration policies in the European Union as a precondition for effective labour mobility across EU countries;
  • The dynamics of poverty and inequalities and the role played in this respect by the welfare systems.

We also offer updated datasets on social policy reforms and EU labour markets. These resources can be useful to researchers and students working on dissertations in these fields. If you are interested, please visit the dedicated page.

For any additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@frdb.org.

ACTIVITIES

Fondazione Ing. RODOLFO DEBENEDETTI promotes the following initiatives:

Workshops

The fRDB Workshops envisage the presence of experts from countries that have recently implemented important reforms of its social welfare system and labour market. The experts are asked to describe these experiences, devoting particular attention to policy implementation and enforcement issues, including the gathering of the necessary social consensus around the reform package.

The aim is to draw positive lessons to be borne in mind when reforming the Italian labour market and social welfare system. However, in some cases, even negative lessons are proposed as experiences not to be repeated in Italy. Experts come from national administrations or research centres involved in the monitoring and evaluation of reforms.

Annual European Conferences

The fRDB Annual European Conferences are based on reports prepared by teams composed of senior academicians, professional economists operating in international organisations and advisors to policy-makers. The team members work in close co-operation with the Fondazione, which co-ordinates the various working groups. The topics of the conferences are defined in the framework of a two-year plan of the Fondazione’s activities.

MILLS - Milan Labour Lunch Seminars

In the area of Milan, there is a considerable concentration of labour economists, particularly among PhD students and junior faculty members, scattered around the various universities and research institutes located in and around the city. The MILLS aim at exploiting the potential of such concentration, by encouraging cooperation and interactions.

The MILLS adress in particular young researchers since they have an opportunity to present their work in progress and receive comments and feedback from colleagues. These seminars take place in a very informal context with no overlappings with the regular departmental seminars of the sponsoring universities.

The MILLS are jointly organised by:

and co-sponsored by Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti.

Organization

The MILLS usually take place once per month. The location rotates among the organising institutions (Bicocca, Bocconi, Statale e Cattolica). The local organisers are responsible for advertising the details of the location and for providing instructions about how to reach it. Lorenzo Cappellari and Simone Moriconi (Università Cattolica), Marco Leonardi (Università Statale), Laura Pagani (Università di Milano Bicocca) and Paolo Pinotti (Università Bocconi) are the local organisers.

Advertisement and calendar

The MILLS are advertised through a mailing list, kept and updated by the organizers. Besides, each university uses its regular procedures to advertise the seminars internally. The Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti hosts on its web site a dedicated page for the MILLS. Here, one can find past presentations and the updated calendar of upcoming seminars.

Those interested in receiving information about the MILLS are invited to contact fRDB (info@frdb.org) or to write an email to the organisers:

Rodolfo Debenedetti Lectures

The Rodolfo Debenedetti Lectures are public lectures by leading scholars on cutting edge topics of the economic research. The main purpose of these events is to present to a non-technical readership new and evolving research on topics, such as:

  • the implications of the ageing of populations;
  • long-term trends in income distribution;
  • the changing size and composition of welfare states in an integrated Europe;
  • labour market reforms and the transitions across employment, unemployment and inactivity, as well as the spread of temporary work;
  • international and regional migration;
  • the future of trade unions and collective bargaining;
  • the political economy of social welfare reform.