the labour market. experience appears to show that policies designed to foster cultural and social inclusion and to attract foreign workers who are highly attached to the labour market can increase the efficiency of job matching for. 7 a key issue in the debate about migration is the effect of migrant labour on local employment and wages, even if only in the short run ; one of the papers in this workshop argues that much depends on competitive conditions in the labour market. 8 see f. carta, f. d ’ amuri and t. m. von wachter, workforce aging, pension reforms, and firm outcomes, nber working paper, 28407, 2021 ; f. carta and m. de philippis, working horizon and labour supply : the effect of raising the full retirement age on middle - aged individuals, bank of italy working paper, 1314, 2021 ; n. bianchi, g. bovini, j. li, m. paradisi and m. powell, career spillovers in internal labor markets, review of economic studies, forthcoming ; m. de philippis, the dynamics of the italian labour force participation rate : determinants and implications for the employment and unemployment rate, bank of italy occasional papers, 396, 2017. see m. foged, j. nielsen arendt, i. bolvig, l. hasager, g. peri, language training and refugees ’ integration, nber working paper, 26834, 2020. another recent paper ( h. rapoport, s, sardoschau, a. silves, migration and cultural change, iza discussion paper series 14772, 2021 ) makes the interesting point that cultural influences seem to run more from the host to the home country than vice versa ; in other words, that, as an effect of migration flows, societal values change more in the country of origin of migrants than in immigration countries. m. amior and j. stuhler, immigration and monopsony : evidence across the distribution of firms. women women can be another large untapped source of labour supply, especially in italy, the country in the european union with the lowest female labour force participation rate. this is surely economically wasteful ( not to mention other, non - economic considerations ). what keeps ( or drives ) women out of the labour force? the evidence points to the role of motherhood and stresses the importance of supporting female employment after maternity leave. 9 in italy,

aged 0 to 6 in childcare facilities and pre - schools by more than 260, 000 units. see also welcome address by luigi federico signorini to the bank of italy - cepr conference on labour market participation : forces at work and policy challenge, 2018. based on data from istat, italian labour force survey, 2019 and 2021. without pay and, often, with little social - security protection ; 14 they may entail human capital losses that further reduce career prospects. temporary workers who would like to have a permanent job may not be able to find one because employers try to avoid higher hiring / firing / regulatory costs. the right balance of job protection in various segments of the labour market is a much - debated policy issue. perhaps less often discussed is the role of market competition ( or lack thereof ) in determining the equilibrium in the labour market. interestingly, one paper in this workshop argues that the degree of market power that employers enjoy influences their ability to shift demand uncertainty onto workers by forcing them to accept less protected types of employment. 15 another lively debate concerns statutory minimum wages, an institution that exists in many countries to protect low - wage workers. italy, as many in the audience will know, has no statutory minimum wage ; the constitutional right to “ proportioned and sufficient ” pay has so far been enforced by the courts indirectly, through reference to collective bargaining clauses. from an economic point of view, the level of the statutory minimum wage is critical : there is, once again, a trade - off between protecting the most vulnerable and avoiding negative employment effects. and, once again, the degree of market competition does appear to matter. in fact, a paper to be presented today argues that the terms of the trade - off depend on the degree of product and labour market power that the employer enjoys. 16 in turn, professor lindner ’ s influential contributions explore the issue of the extent to which wage increases can be passed on by firms to consumers via higher prices. 17 one final theme is the design of social safety nets. the concern here is to ensure protection from poverty without discouraging participation in the labour market. market incentives are obviously central to this debate. as an example, a paper that will be presented tomorrow shows that the design of child benefits affects women ’ s employment. 18 professor hoynes ’ research has also highlighted the labour supply implications of inwork credits, as well as their impact on poverty, health and well - being. 19 see f. d ’ amuri