This paper presents an empirical investigation of the two faces of the Italian labour market, the dark and the regular. Results from 'exhaustive' VAR/VEC models suggest that there are no connections (causal relationships, feedback, contemporaneous correlation) between them. In this sense, we...

This paper offers theoretical and empirical insights on the anecdotal 'buffer hypothesis', i.e. the view that the shadow employment functions as an improper tool for increasing the labor market flexibility. Official data for Italy support the premise. Although the contemporaneous correlation...