About Mario Pianta

Mario Pianta is Professor of Economic Policy at Roma Tre University and has been a member of the Centro Linceo Interdisciplinare of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Italy’s Academy of Sciences. He has been research fellow at the European University Institute, London School of Economics, Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Columbia University. He has worked on economic growth, inequality, innovation, economic and industrial policy in Europe.

Lib-Pop Politics: Why Italy’s New Government Is More Neoliberal Than Populist

by Mario Pianta on 21st May 2018

A new Italian government is in the making, with an unprecedented alliance between the Five Stars Movement (33% of votes in the March 2018 elections; 36% of seats in the House of Deputies) and the Lega (17% of votes; 20% of seats). The view that ‘populist barbarians have conquered Rome’ is a gross misunderstanding. Lega […]

Fear, Loathing And Poverty: Italy After The 2018 Elections

by Mario Pianta on 6th March 2018

The post-election map of Italy has two main traits: fear and poverty. Northern and Central regions have gone to a Centre-Right-wing coalition where the leader is not anymore Forza Italia’s Silvio Berlusconi but the League’s Matteo Salvini, who dropped its previous ‘Lega Nord’ emphasis to turn it into a nationwide Le Pen-style National Front. In […]

Market Innovation? Four Questions On The Lamy Report

by Mario Pianta on 11th December 2017

The future of European research and innovation policy is under discussion after the publication of the ‘Lamy Report‘. It sets out to provide the vision shaping the final years of Horizon 2020 and the program that will follow. The report contains 11 recommendations. Some rightly aim at strengthening Europe’s Research and Innovation (R&I) system, doubling […]

Time for substantial minimum wage rises and a European minimum wage policy

Minimum wages in most European Union (EU) countries were increased at the start of 2019, with an median increase of 4.8 % compared with the previous year, continuing the recent trends towards faster minimum wage growth. Much of this is accounted for by substantial increases in Eastern Europe together with efforts to undertake permanent and structural increases in minimum wage levels in countries such as Spain. There is also a growing debate over the role of minimum wages for the concept of Social Europe, which is expected to play a significant role in the 2019 European Parliament elections. In this context, the German government has indicated that one of its priorities during its EU Council Presidency in the second half of 2020 will be elaborating a framework for a European minimum wage policy.

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A New Analytical Approach Towards Sustainable Development

Co-sponsored by the S&D through its Progressive Society Initiative, the Independent Annual Sustainable Economy Survey is an alternative vision of the Commission's Annual Growth Survey. In addition to its usual in-depth analyses of economic and social developments in Europe, the new iASES broadens its scope and addresses environmental sustainability. To this end, it provides the first ever evaluation of Europe's ‘climate debt’, i.e. a computation of the investments needed for EU Member States to achieve the climate targets set out in the COP 21 agreement.

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Webinar: Flexible working in the digital age - Is everyone a winner?

On 13 June 2019 from 15.00 – 16.30 CET, Eurofound will host a webinar about its latest research findings on the growing number of ICT-based mobile workers, or workers who are not tied to a particular work location as they use a tablet, laptop or phone to connect the company network via Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). By registering for this webinar, attendees will be able to take part in the live Q&A session and send in questions and reactions via the live chat.

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Zygmunt Bauman was a towering intellectual who saw and analysed – right up to his death in early 2017 – the great socio-political changes, often convulsive, in modern western society long before his peers. Here we highlight his prescient insights into what he dubbed ‘liquid modernity’ with 24 chapters on topics ranging from online loneliness via precarity/poverty/inequality to migration, fear of the ‘Other’ and the decline of the nation state. Chronicle of Crisis, 2011-16, written by one of the great chroniclers of our times, will be read and re-read for decades and more to come.

‘Algorithm breakers’ are not a different ‘species’: attitudes towards trade unions of Deliveroo riders in Belgium

This working paper investigates a rare case of platform work performed in the realm of regulated employment and explores the attitudes of platform workers towards collective representation. Using a case study of Deliveroo, a food delivery platform, the paper argues that platform workers are not essentially different to their peers in their attitudes towards trade unions. The paper finds that the riders do not generally hold negative views towards unions, and do not consider unions incompatible with platform work. Instead, there has been a lack of union activity in reaching out to riders as a reason for their non-membership.

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