The notion of family caregiver, rooted in Anglo-American discourse, gained traction in sociological research in the 1990s, particularly within feminist literature that emphasized the gendered dimension of unpaid family care.

In our presentation, we will examine informal care—provided by family members or close networks rather than formal, professional workers—for vulnerable elderly people, in a comparative perspective between Italy, France, and Spain. We will focus on how welfare retrenchment and austerity-driven policies have led to the progressive externalisation of care work, placing the burden of provision and coordination on households, often with limited public support.

In the Italian context, we will explore how recent initiatives, such as the 2017 introduction of a national fund (Fondo per il sostegno del ruolo di cura e di assistenza del caregiver familiare) and the 2023 enabling law (n. 33), signal a growing recognition of the caregiver’s role. However, public measures to support families in this shift remain limited and insufficient. We will also underline a core contradiction in the Italian legal framework: although family caregivers frequently coordinate with healthcare and social services, assuming de facto representational roles, they often lack formal legal authority.

We will then examine the French legal context, which is progressively recognizing caregivers’ involvement through tools like the habilitation familiale and the mandat de protection future. Finally, we will discuss the Spanish figure of the guardador de hecho (de facto caregiver).

Through this comparative lens, our presentation will reflect on how different civil law systems are gradually adapting to demographic ageing and evolving family structures.

This chapter argues that active pro-natalist policies are not merely a matter of social justice, but a functional necessity to preserve the viability of advanced societies facing demographic decline. Using Italy as a case study, it identifies three major consequences of ageing populations: unsustainable pension systems, rising healthcare costs, and economic slowdown due to a shrinking labour force.

The chapter critiques the liberal egalitarian paradigm in political philosophy for its inability to address the depth of this crisis, as its emphasis on individual rights, state neutrality, and limited political intervention discourages public support for parenthood. In contrast, it proposes a realist approach grounded in empirical analysis and focused on systemic risks.

By treating reproduction as a public good essential to societal continuity—rather than a private preference—it reframes birth rate policies as instruments of collective survival. The current delegation of reproductive responsibility to market forces reflects a broader neoliberal drift, one that has directly contributed to today’s structural demographic crisis.

We investigate how gender and age biases affect managerial decisions in
Italian small and medium enterprises. Analyzing survey data from 827 managers, we find
little evidence of bias in task assignments, but younger employees — particularly young
women — are favored for training program allocation. Additionally, female employees
tend to receive higher bonuses for promotable tasks. These findings reveal that while
explicit gender or age bias is limited in some areas, implicit preferences persist in others,
shaping workforce development and reward distribution.

The Great Recession of 2008 and the subsequent sovereign debt crisis had far-reaching effects on many aspects of life in Italy, including health (Egidi & Demuru, 2018). This study focuses on the well-being of the older population, aiming to provide a long-term perspective on the impact of these crises and assess how enduring their effects have been. Given the broad nature of well-being, we draw on data from the “Aspects of Daily Life” (AVQ) survey conducted by Istat between 1993 and 2021. The AVQ survey offers detailed information on Italians’ health over nearly three decades, along with a wide range of socio-demographic characteristics.

We focus on individuals aged 55 and over, using as dependent variables several indicators linked to individual well-being (Istat, 2024). These cover different dimensions: health, economic well-being, social relations (isolation and participation), and cultural participation. We analyze the data using interrupted time series models (Linden, 2015) and regression models.

The goal is to assess the long-term effects of the Great Recession. Prior studies have shown a social gradient across well-being dimensions—from health (Cardano, 2008) to cultural consumption (Chan & Goldthorpe, 2017), economic status (Brandolini & Smeeding, 2011), and social relations (Vergolini, 2011). Moreover, economic crises tend to disproportionately impact disadvantaged groups (Sarti & Vitalini, 2016; Istat, 2018). We aim to investigate whether such a gradient exists among those over 55 and to understand the long-term dynamics across social groups. We also explore possible mechanisms through which the crisis may have influenced well-being, including both negative and potentially positive effects (Burgard & Kalousova, 2015).

The international migration of Italian retirees is often interpreted as a “privileged” choice, mainly motivated by tax breaks. However, this interpretation risks obscuring, on the one hand, the precarious conditions that may precede or sometimes even result from the decision to migrate and, on the other, the regulatory friction and institutional fragmentation that shape the experience of mobile ageing in the European context and, in particular, in the Euro-Mediterranean context.

Through qualitative research conducted in four countries (Albania, Portugal, Spain/Canary Islands and Tunisia), this paper analyses how contextual factors – including welfare systems, public policies and, in particular, OECD-based tax regulations – influence the life trajectories, relocation choices and conditions of stay of Italian pensioners abroad.

Fiscal asymmetry between states, disparities between public and private pension schemes (e.g. former INPDAP), and the limited portability of social rights generate potential inequalities between individuals with similar income and biographical profiles. Pension mobility is thus not a homogeneous experience, but a socially stratified space where access to rights is conditioned by bureaucratic constraints, individual resources and institutional capital. People in mobility find themselves negotiating their position within a fragmented system, in which their actual residence and the rights associated with it are not fully recognised by either their country of origin or their host country. The paper offers a critical reflection on the transnational governance of ageing, highlighting the regulatory, relational and biographical complexity that characterises pension migration, starting from the life trajectories of these citizens.

In Italy, General Practitioners (GPs) play a key role as gatekeepers to secondary healthcare, coordinating care pathways and helping contain national health system costs. Their ability to detect patients’ needs and ensure continuity of care is essential to prevent avoidable hospitalizations. These include admissions for Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions (ACSCs), a key indicator of accessibility, quality, and effectiveness of primary care, especially for older adults. Despite this, evidence on GPs’ impact on such hospital outcomes remains limited and inconclusive.
This study investigates how GP characteristics influence avoidable hospitalization outcomes: risk of planned or emergency admissions, length of stay, readmission rates, and in-hospital mortality.
We use administrative panel data on Lombardy residents aged 65+ with chronic conditions from 2010 to 2019. Individual demographic, clinical, and healthcare utilization data are linked with information about their assigned GP. To identify causal effects, we exploit physician retirement as an exogenous shock. Patients reassigned to a new GP due to retirement are compared with those who keep their original physician, enabling counterfactual analysis.
Findings reveal that GP characteristics influence patient outcomes. No substantial differences are found when patients are reassigned to GPs of different gender. However, assignment to younger GPs after retirement is associated with higher rates of avoidable hospitalizations, suggesting that physician experience plays a crucial role in care quality.
These results support the need for policies aimed at managing physician turnover, strengthening professional development, and ensuring an experienced and well-distributed GP workforce. Future research will explore the impact of GP practice profiles (e.g., prescribing patterns, screening behavior, list size).