Call for Papers

The Italian Society of Public Economics (SIEP) announces its XXXIII Annual Conference, to be held at the University of Bari “Aldo Moro” (Italy) on September 16th and 17th, 2021.

The general theme of the Conference is:
“The pandemic’s effects and scenarios for the economy and public finance”.

The economic role of the State, which has significantly declined over the last three decades, is now re-gaining momentum due to the COVID-19 pandemic emergency. The need to share risks and adverse economic effects of the pandemic are challenging many long-established scientific and political ideas. Both production processes and consumption behaviours are changing dramatically in conditions of uncertainty, a process that markets have proved incapable to handle in the past.
Almost all concerned countries have adopted discretionary fiscal policies that are unprecedented in history. Addressing health problems, welfare losses of families, and survival of businesses, are all high on the political agenda worldwide. There is a need of both emergency interventions and socioeconomic measures capable to re-launch and sustain growth in the medium and long run. As aware of the common fragility, the European Union has pointed to create a support system including a
number of monetary and financial instruments nested in a variety of programs, which are now highly debated both in scientific and institutional contexts, particularly as regards deeply indebted countries.

The social and economic policies, to be targeted to sustain demand and supply, must necessarily be differentiated across economic sectors. Yet, they must be fine tuned to form an overall coherent system of interventions, including for household and firm taxation, economic inequality, labour supply and demand. Furthermore, particularly in the economic sectors that are more affected by the crisis, there is a need to design new business plans, as meant to meet the European targets of environmental sustainability and digital transition.
The quality and efficacy of the economic interventions can also be expected to affect the evolution and perspectives of democratic institutions. As the economic crisis weakens the role of national parliaments, and paves the way for the rise of various forms of populism, accountability becomes of paramount importance. Governments need to implement novel public policies as transparently as possible, being based on the available outcomes and evaluation of the measures adopted during the initial phase of the pandemic crisis.
To investigate this complex scenario, the Scientific Committee of the Conference calls for submissions of both theoretical and empirical papers addressing issues falling within the following specific topics, or more broadly related to the general theme of the Conference:
1. Household taxation
2. Corporate taxation
3. National and sub-national public expenditure
4. Fiscal federalism
5. Health policy
6. Environmental policy
7. Infrastructure investments and public procurement
8. Market regulation and competition policy
9. Cultural policy
10. Education
11. Labour market
12. Social welfare
13. Economic inequalities and poverty
14. European fiscal and monetary policies
15. Public choice and democracy.

The Scientific Committee calls also for submissions of papers falling within the general topics of public economics and public finance.
The Scientific Committee of the Conference is chaired by Vito Peragine and composed by Giuseppe Di Liddo, Andrea Morone, Massimo Paradiso, Francesco Porcelli, Ilde Rizzo, Annalisa Vinella. In addition, the following scholars have kindly accepted to collaborate with the Scientific Committe: Alessandra Casarico (Bocconi University), Vincenzo Carrieri (Catanzaro University Magna Graecia), Alessio D’Amato (Tor Vergata University of Rome), Conchita D’Ambrosio (University
of Luxembourg), Fabio Fiorillo (Marche Polytechnic University), Carlo Fiorio (University of Milan), Giacomo Pignataro (University of Catania and Polytechnic University of Milan), Antonio Scialà (Roma Tre University), Edilio Valentini (d’Annunzio University of Chieti – Pescara).
Contributors must submit their papers from February 10th and not later than May 15th 2021 through the following link: http://editorialexpress.com/conference/SIEP2021/
Submitted papers should include an abstract, JEL codes and keywords. Only completed papers will be considered.
The Scientific Committee will inform authors about the acceptance of papers by June 6th, 2021. All participants need to register and pay the SIEP association and participation fee to the Conference by July 2nd, 2021. Registration form and fee payment instructions will be available at the following
link: https://www.siepweb.it/siep/it/xxxiii-conferenza-2021
Young authors may benefit of a waiver on SIEP association and participation fee and register to the Conference for free. At the time of the submission, they should send to info@siepweb.it a declaration of their PhD supervisor certifying that they are doctoral students or obtained their doctoral degree after January 1st, 2020.
The preliminary program of the Conference will be posted by July 18th, 2021. Final papers should be submitted to the previous link (as an update of the early submission) by September 8th, 2021.
The 2021 edition of the SIEP prize is open to authors under the age of thirty-five. All authors of the paper must satisfy this requirement. To compete for the prize, authors must declare their intention at the time of the submission or registration, and upload the final version of the paper by July 2nd, 2021.
The Conference will also host the granting of the Etta Chiuri Prize. This prize is reserved to economists under the age of forty who have submitted papers on household decision-making process, housing market imperfections, illegal migration. All the details about the prize will be available at: https://www.siepweb.it/siep/it/premi/premio-etta-chiuri