PRIN 2020 - Research Projects of Significant National Interest

Scientific Leader: Mirella Pellegrini

This research aims to advance the academic and public policy debate surrounding the Capital Markets Union (CMU) and its implementation in Italy in two ways. Firstly, the aim is to develop and reconcile various theoretical approaches that can provide useful insights when examining the structural changes the CMU is bringing about. The project therefore adopts what is known as the “law in context” approach, which involves “addressing legal matters in a comprehensive way, drawing on material from other social sciences and from any other discipline that helps to explain how the subject in question operates in practice”. Secondly, the project identifies the current shortcomings in Italy's financial legislative framework and demonstrates how these can impede the creation of a single capital market in Europe. The pioneering nature of the proposed research project lies in three key aspects: 1) The project will contribute to the debate on the CMU by adopting an innovative analytical perspective, one that focuses on regulatory fragmentation; 2) It aims to integrate various disciplines, methodologies, and approaches, thereby incorporating concepts from economics, finance, and computer science/engineering into the legal discourse; 3) The project will fill the gap in the literature concerning the interaction between the CMU and national regulatory frameworks, as well as the main regulatory obstacles to the creation of an integrated market.

Scientific Leader: Aldo Sandulli

The RE.S.TO.R.E project – Recovering the State Towards a Reformed Economy – aims to achieve five interconnected objectives: to examine how European institutions act, and the specific weight of their actions, in the general redefinition of public intervention in the economy, with particular reference to NextGenerationEU and how it is interpreted in different countries; to analyse the circumstances and timing of the institutional management of Italy's Recovery and Resilience Plan, which should form the basis for the revival of the national economy over the next five years; An investigation into the specific contribution of the state in promoting and developing infrastructure as essential enablers for all other major long-term investments; a mapping and critical examination of the various instances in which public authorities take action to safeguard economic systems from predatory takeovers, with a particular focus on the different national and supranational frameworks governing 'golden power'; an analysis of the Italian system of state-owned enterprises and its overall redefinition, also in light of the new role that key national institutions, such as Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and local authorities, can play during the recovery period.

Scientific Leader: Maria Rita Testa

Although traditional research on social stratification has extensively considered the geographical dimensions of social inequalities, in recent decades a surprisingly small number of studies have focused on how spatial arrangements influence the intergenerational reproduction of social inequalities. GESI (Geography and Social Inequality in Italy) is the first comprehensive study to investigate how an individual's geographical area of origin influences various aspects of their life course and, in turn, affects social inequalities in life outcomes in Italy. The project examines the multidimensional and cumulative nature of social stratification, focusing on various aspects of individuals' life chances: educational and occupational opportunities, pathways of social mobility, family dynamics, and internal geographical mobility. Four objectives are pursued: to investigate the effects of geographical origin on individuals' life outcomes; to study how geographical origin intersects with other dimensions of social inequality (e.g., education, social class of origin, etc.); to examine how internal geographical mobility reinforces existing social inequalities; and to gather new and original data on the various aspects of social and geographical inequalities.

Scientific Leader: Pierpaolo Benigno 

The aim of JUMPS is to study the effectiveness of the current combination of monetary and fiscal policies, along with its potential trade-offs and risks, focusing on distributional issues and the political economy considerations that may influence its implementation. The proposal can be divided into six themes that will be pursued in an integrated and coordinated manner: 1) Monetary policy stimulus: studying the effectiveness of the PEPP compared to alternative strategies, such as helicopter money and enhanced forward guidance; analysing the sovereign debt risk arising from the winding down of the PEPP. 2) Fiscal policy stimulus: to provide a quantitative assessment of structural investments from both a micro and a macro perspective, developing a new generation of models that integrate the macro-dynamic approach with fiscal microsimulation. 3) Effects of reallocating public investment across sectors: to study the effects of reallocation and the cross-cutting spillover effects of adopting new technologies, skills-oriented technological change, and the complementarities between capital and skills. 4) Regional effects of public investment: to explain the variation in policy multipliers, to measure the misallocation of capital across European regions, and to investigate how public investment can influence this. 5) Political feasibility: To examine the sentiment of the European population in the post-COVID era regarding public interventions, redistributive rights, and intergenerational policies, with the aim of identifying a social welfare function needed to evaluate policy proposals that not only enhance efficiency but are also politically viable. 6) Policy recommendation: Identify a set of policy recommendations that should guide the post-COVID recovery. The findings of JUMPS will be distilled into a set of policy proposals that will enhance the project's social impact.

Scientific Leader: Maria Isabella Leone 

This research project examines the conditions that could help develop a new generation of public governance capable of engaging effectively in multi-stakeholder collaborative processes aimed at promoting and generating social impact. The reference is to the public governance of open social innovation, as the public sector can act as the promoter of these processes and as a leading player among a variety of stakeholders who are addressing the most pressing social needs. The project addresses the following research questions: 1) What are the key components and characteristics of open social innovation processes that can be incorporated into the design of a new, place-based model of public governance? (co-definition) 2) What are the governance-enabling factors that support the ecosystem of open social innovation? (experimentation) 3) How can open social innovation be institutionalised as a new governance framework for the next generation of place-based public governance? (development and institutionalisation).

Scientific Leader: Lorenzo de Sio 

The recent wave of disruptive political change in the Western world – Brexit, Trump, competing parties across Europe, and the emergence in 2018 of Italy's first "populist" government in Western Europe – has profoundly challenged theories about voting behaviour and party competition. As a result, most scholars have turned to broad explanations rooted in populism and an irrational public opinion. However, current research only examines the possible process of de-ideologisation superficially, lacking a focus on the process itself (and it does not address the impact of the Covid crisis, which could potentially lead to further changes). POSTGEN addresses this gap by providing – with regard to the Italian case, which is at the forefront of disruptive political change – an in-depth analysis of the mechanisms and dynamics of a possible de-ideologisation. It adopts a generation-aware perspective (necessary for understanding change), with an emphasis on younger generations and an innovative focus on: time – tracing the (memories and) dynamics of how political attitudes are formed (at the individual, generational, and collective levels) and their impact on political behaviour; the meanings associated with various political issues, and the (lack of) an overarching ideological organisation of them; and non-political actors and influencers, and their growing influence in an era marked by a crisis of epistemic authority.