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In Italy, small-scale entrepreneurship and self-employment have long characterised the country’s entire productive system. In the past 20 years, major changes in the economy and the labour market have favoured the growth of new forms of entrepreneurship and self-employment in many respects different from the more traditional ones. In recent years the debate has mostly concentrated on the introduction of different criteria with which to distinguish dependent employment from self-employment, ways to simplify bureaucratic procedures, and reform of social security provisions for self-employed workers and micro-entrepreneurs. Overall, the forms of entrepreneurship considered by the ERM study have been the object of sporadic debate in Italy, while quantitative and qualitative data on such forms are generally scarce.

The questionnaire

Part I: Public/policy discussion

General policy discussions and policy approach

Do the public/policy discussions specifically deal with the different forms of business activities, since when and for how long?

For each of the entrepreneurship/business activities covered by policy discussions, which policy domains are they covered in? Please indicate with an ’X‘ where relevant.

In which media and forum do the public debate and policy discussions about the different types of entrepreneurship take place?

Specific topics to describe the different types of entrepreneurship

What has motivated the public debate?

In general, the main issues that have motivated public debate in recent years have concerned the growth and spread of ‘new generation’ forms of self-employment. It has therefore been necessary to define new criteria with which to differentiate among persons in self-employment. The search for these new criteria has often been driven by the emergence of the lack of income protection and social security coverage for the ‘new generation’ of self-employed workers not protected by the professional orders.

The debate has also been frequently motivated by the demands for administrative simplification raised by self-employed workers not affiliated to professional orders, small-scale entrepreneurs and professionals with VAT positions, and the organisations representing their interests.

In this regard, the debate has recently focused on two measures introduced by the government in May and June 2010 and intended to reduce the burden of bureaucratic procedures for businesses, and particularly for medium and small-sized enterprises (SMEs). The measures envisage the extension to the Regions and to independent administrative authorities of the measurement system, the reduction of administrative requirements (through the creation of business agencies as accredited private subjects), the introduction of ex ante recognition of the informative obligations that weigh on enterprises, streamlining of the obligations relative to the treatment of employees’ personal information, and reform of the one-stop counters for businesses.

What has been the focus of the policy discussion?

In general, the debate has concentrated on the introduction of policies designed both to reduce the abuse of forms of self-employment and quasi-subordinate work, and to increase the rights and protections of these workers. Moreover, the debate on the new entrepreneurial forms has often concerned the need for policies better able both to sustain the birth and growth of new businesses and to encourage the regularisation of entrepreneurial activity in the underground economy. Accordingly, the attention has focused on the need for policies designed to simplify bureaucratic procedures for businesses and to reduce their tax burden. Also emphasised is the need to provide greater support for young and female entrepreneurs.

As regards business transfers, especially in the crafts sector, attention has focused on the need for services able to prevent the difficulties that often arise in business transfers, especially in the case of small family enterprises. Moreover, the debate has highlighted the need for services able to act in all the areas involved in business transfers, i.e. fiscal, managerial, administrative, psychological and social.

Has the public discussion resulted in a concrete outcome/impact?

As regards support for new businesses and self-entrepreneurship, in existence for some years have been specific norms at both national and regional level (following reform of Title V of the Italian Constitution, which led to the devolution of various powers concerning work and employment from the state to the regional administrations, according to the Constitutional law no. 3 of 18 October 2001. (IT0212107F).

At national level, legislative decree 185/2000 sets out a series of measures intended to promote and support new entrepreneurial initiatives in the form of self-employment and micro-enterprise.

At regional level, some regions have approved measures intended to foster the birth of new businesses. Such initiatives are often targeted on young people and women. For example, in the early months of 2010, the Lombardy regional government issued a legislative decree (no. 1040) intended to harmonise regional initiatives for entrepreneurship, especially in regard to women and young people. The decree provided for the opening of an agency for the start-up of new businesses and self-employment, and the creation of a fund to disburse subsidies for such activities.

In the economically weaker areas of the country, in some cases, regional laws have been enacted with the purpose of fostering self-entrepreneurship and the emergence of entrepreneurial activity from the underground economy. In general, these laws do not make explicit reference to the forms of entrepreneurship treated in this study, but rather to micro-entrepreneurship and forms of self-employment not regulated by the professional orders.

As regards social security, the main measures approved in most recent years have concerned the introduction of norms regulating economically dependent self-employment and, in general, forms of atypical work (IT0404303F; IT0712029I; IT0707019I). Moreover, among the measures adopted by the government to counter the negative effects of the economic crisis, decree law 78/2009 introduced, for the years 2009 and 2010, incentives for workers on benefits to start up new businesses. The incentives consist in the lump-sum payment of income support (i.e. Wages Guarantee Fund schemes or unemployment benefit) for a number of monthly allowances equal to those authorized, but not yet received.

In general, the birth of new forms of entrepreneurship, but especially the changes that have taken place in the broad and heterogeneous category of self-employment not regulated by professional orders, have generated ample debate on the possibility of modifying the legislation regulating these forms of work and, more specifically, the distinction among dependent employment, self-employment, and business activity. The debate has given rise to various proposals for reform, some of which have been formalised in parliamentary bills. These proposals have not yet been converted into law. They concern the draft bill on the “Statute of Self-employed workers”, presented by the main opposition party (Democrat Party - Partito Democratico, PD) to the Italian Senate in April 2010. The proposal, besides defining the bill’s range of application (physical persons habitually engaged in professional work on a self-employed basis), lays down guidelines for the state, regional governments and local authorities in promoting and supporting the business activities of small entrepreneurs, crafts-persons, traders, and professionals. Among the measures envisaged by the document are: (1) support for training and retraining in the skills necessary for the activity; (2) support for the start-up and consolidation of the business activity; (3) promotion of mobility; (4) support for training courses; (5) new forms of income protection in the case of temporary inactivity or cessation of activity; (6) forms of support for social security and supplementary health insurance; (7) simplification of administrative procedures; (8) guarantees for debt and credit collection. The second part of the draft bill is devoted to economically dependent self-employment.

Also at regional level, a number of bills concerning a ‘statute on self-employment and small business’ have been proposed: for example, bill no. 433/2009 presented to the Veneto Regional Council by the Lega Nord Party.

Recent months have seen measures to solve, or at least to reduce, the problems of scant visibility and representation that have often emerged in discussions on self-employment, micro-entrepreneurship, and new forms of entrepreneurship. Created in May 2010 was the Network of Italian Firms (Rete Imprese Italia), a body representing the five main confederations promoting the interests of traders, artisans and small firms (Confcommercio, Confersercenti, Confartigianato, CNA and Casartigiani). These are organisations that jointly represent around 2 million firms (around 14 million employees, equal to 60% of the Italian labour force).

Also the main Italian trade-union confederations have recently proposed new forms of representation. In February 2010, the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, Cgil) inaugurated its Consulta del Lavoro Professionale, a body representing professionals enrolled with the professional orders, workers engaged in unregulated professional activities, and self-employed workers economically dependent on a single contractor. This body has presented a first bargaining platform which proposes benefits (for illness, accident, pregnancy and unemployment) for professionals with 70% of their earnings from a single contractor; tax exemptions for individual workers with non-business VAT positions; and reform of the system of ‘social shock absorbers’. In October 2009, the Italian Confederation of Workers’ Trade Unions (Confederazione italiana sindacati lavoratori, Cisl) founded the Federation of Temporary-Agency Workers, Self-employed and Atypical Workers (Federazione Lavoratori Somministrati Autonomi Atipici, FELSA) resulting from the merger between the Association of atypical and temporary-agency workers (Associazione Lavoratori Atipici e Interinali, Alai-Cisl) and the Coordination of Independent Workers in Commerce and Services (Coordinamento lavoratori autonomi del commercio e servizi, Clacs-Cisl). The new federation has around 50,000 members. It has recently proposed a number of changes, especially in (1) social security, with the aim to reach the same contributions for workers with VAT positions and quasi-subordinate workers; (2) the creation of a fund to disburse sickness and maternity benefits; and (3) the creation of a supplementary healthcare fund.

Overall assessment

Within the last couple of years, to which extent has the public and policy discussion been more focused on the following different types of entrepreneurship compared to the business policy/entrepreneurship debate in general?

Please list the main sources of information in the search for the above

Part II: Standardised structural data

Which standardised business statistics are available covering the different forms of entrepreneurship/business activities (explicitly or implicitly, i.e. also data that could be used to describe these forms of entrepreneurship without being published with this specific objective/heading)?

Moreover, the National Institute of Statistics (Istituto nazionale di statistica, Istat) participated the European survey ‘Factors of Business Success’ (FOBS). The survey included firms that were born in 2002 and survived in 2005 (Istat, Le nuove attività imprenditoriali, 2005).

Is it possible to crosstab or merge the demographic data identifying the individual persons running any of the five forms of entrepreneurships/business activities with the company data specified in question 9 in a common database for analytical purpose?

No.

Is the data freely accessible or does it require registration, payment and/or a special effort to access the data? Please explain the accessibility for each of the forms of entrepreneurs/business activities and datasets referred to above.

Part III: Research

Please describe studies and research available nationally for each of the forms of entrepreneurs/business activities.

Diego Coletto, Università degli Studi di Milano