The multifaceted rise of “Corporate Welfare” in Italy

The Italian welfare state has been going through, at least in the last two decades, a period of deep transformations. Our paper focuses on a phenomenon, partly new,  which concerns the growth of supplementary welfare provisions as a result of collective bargaining (both at the national/industry and/or decentralized level), or even of unilateral initiatives by companies. In the paper we use the label “Corporate Welfare”. The aim of the essay is to understand which traits this phenomenon is taking, while shading light on the role played by this in the more general transformations of the Italian welfare state. In order to do so, the article does mix different types of literature: the one on the welfare state, that on industrial relations and the one on corporate decisions and Varieties of Capitalism. The paper will look at the potential mixed effects of the Corporate Welfare: on the one hand, the improvement of welfare benefits/services for workers and their families; and , on the other hand, the resurgence of social and occupational inequalities.