PSL Quarterly Review This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Non-Commercial – No Derivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ vol. 74 n. 297 (June 2021) Dignity of work and full employment ANNAMARIA SIMONAZZI * Abstract: The paper offers a brief reconstruction of the varying fortunes of the Charter of Workers’ Rights, interpreted in light of the evolution of economic thinking on the role of the market – especially of the labor market – and on the reversal that has been made of the role of labor policy in relation to macroeconomic policy. It is argued that much of the problems facing our economies today are due to this reversal of roles. The author concludes that industrial relations and the world of work should enter in the remit of industrial policy due to the importance that the accumulation of individual and collective knowedge within firms have for the innovation of companies and the economic system of a country, as well as for reasons of justice. National Council for Economics and Labor, email: annamaria.simonazzi@uniroma1.it To cite the article: Simonazzi A. (2021), “Dignity of work and full employment”, PSL Quarterly Review, 74 (297), 115- 126. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13133/2037-3643/17562 JEL codes: J5; J23; E24 Keywords: employment; welfare Journal homepage: http: //www.pslquarterlyreview.info In July 1950, Einaudi wrote: “The existence of unemployment is a theoretical absurdity. At a certain wage, entrepreneurs are always willing to absorb all the workforce available on the market. If they don’t absorb it, if there are loads of unemployed workers, this is due to the fact that worker’s leagues in some regions and in some industries keep wages above the market level”. 1 Einaudi reminds the reader of other obstacles created by the state: both obstacles to job mobility—limitations on internal migration, on workers moving from one factory to another, firing freezes, minimum hiring quotas—and obstacles to the free circulation of goods— customs duties, import quotas, etc. “The first duty of the state”, he admonished, “is to not create unemployment” (Einaudi, [1950] 1956, quoted in Ginzburg, 1978, p. 125). This belief, as Andrea Ginzburg reminds us, re-asserts the thesis “typical of the traditional pre-keynesian marginalist theory, according to which in an economy of free competition, market forces tend to ensure the full employment of all the so-called ‘factors of production’” (ibid.). Conversely, the keynesian analysis of the savings-investment relationship shifts the * Presented in a contribution to the conference titled “Lo Statuto dei lavoratori compie cinquant’anni” [The Charter of Workers’ Rights turns fifty], organized by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in collaboration with Economia civile and the Brodolini Foundation, held on December 4th, 2020. All translations from original Italian are our own. 1 “La Pira in difesa della povera gente”, letter sent after having read the article by Hon. La Pira (Einaudi, 1956). Symposium: Italy’s “Charter of Workers’ Rights” turns fifty