Finanziamento UE – NextGenerationEU PRIN 2022 "INWARD. IN-Work poverty, consumption And Regional Disparities in Italy" PNRR M4C2 investimento 1.1 Avviso 104/2022

In Europe, in-work poverty is a widespread and troubling phenomenon. According to Eurostat in 2019 almost 12% of all employed people in Europe were at risk of poverty. The percentage for Italy is even more dramatic, reaching 15.6% with relevant regional heterogeneity. For this reason, in-work poverty has become a widely investigated phenomenon. Although the literature is very rich, few studies consider the consequences of in-work poverty on households’ well-being and consumption patterns. Moreover, no research has investigated specifically people’s attitudes to in-work poverty and to different policies to reduce it. The project aims at filling these gaps in the literature and it has three main objectives. The first is to investigate the relationship between in-work poverty and household consumption. The second is investigating the attitudes towards in-work poverty and policies to reduce it in Italy. The third, transversal to the first two, is to highlight the territorial heterogeneity of the in-work poverty phenomenon and the views about poverty reduction policies, by considering the Italian macro regions. The project focuses only on Italy, as the high incidence of the phenomenon and the weakness of public policies to combat it makes Italy an interesting case study. Specifically, the project aims to answers to these questions: -How relevant is the choice of the economic indicator (income or consumption) in the estimate of in-work poverty? -Are there typical consumption patterns of working poor (defined in terms of income) compared to the non-working poor? -Do consumption patterns of the working poor change in relation to low pay, job continuity, part-time and work intensity at family level? How? -What would be the costs and benefits of reducing in-work poverty introducing either a minimum income or a minimum wage? -What is the general attitude of Italians towards in-work poverty? -Is public opinion more in favour of a minimum income or of a minimum wage considering the costs and the benefits involved? All these research questions will be answered considering regional differences, in order to investigate the influence of territorial context in the issue of in-work poverty. Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca MUR - BANDO 2022 The methodology is based on the quantitative analyses using different databases: It-Silc, SHIW, and HBS. Moreover, a survey on attitudes will be conducted on a sample of Italian adults. The survey will ask respondents what they think about the fact that a significant proportion of people are poor even if they work and whether they think in-work poverty should be a government priority. Finally, we will ask respondents how they think the reduction of in-work poverty can be achieved. The results of the project will contribute to a better knowledge of the phenomenon of in work-poverty, filling two relevant gaps in the literature. For Italy, the results will also provide indications for policies to fight in-work poverty.