The theme of the 7th edition: Life cycles and intergenerational relationships

2012 Festival of Economics: 31 May to 3 June

From 31 May to 3 June 2012 speakers of international renown will come to Trento to meet and exchange ideas on the subject of "Life Cycles and Intergenerational Relationships". For the seventh time Trento will play host to protagonists of significant research in the field, who will expound their theories and promote debate on this extremely topical subject. They will interact with a lively and increasingly large Festival public, colloquially known as the "people of the squirrel". As usual, the Festival programme will be presented a few weeks before the beginning of the three-day event in Trento.
"The Great Recession, especially if followed by another decline or an extended period of Japanese style stagnation, is bound to leave deep scars on the generations which are approaching the work force at this critical juncture. Negative events often leave lasting marks on people's behaviour, jeopardising their careers, the length of time it takes them to form a family, and exposing them to future risks of unemployment. Many years down the road even their health can be affected." These were the considerations directed by Tito Boeri, Scientific Coordinator of the Festival of Economics, at the next protagonists of the Festival and his by now extensive and loyal audience. While we are in the process of tackling the dramatic situation related to management of the more immediate future, with regard to the results of national and European Community policy and global management of the economy, such considerations recall the medium and long-term consequences of what we are deciding today for ourselves but also for future generations.

"Life Cycles and Intergenerational Relationships", the theme chosen for the seventh edition, demonstrates and confirms that the organisers' concern is not to add their voices to the general din accompanying the dispute about "here" and "now" but rather to consider future prospects, anticipating questions about both the nearer and more distant time to come.
"There is an important line of contemporary economic research which studies precisely the long-term effects of events, either negative or positive, that occur in the life of an individual, and how negative shocks can accumulate over a lifetime", continued Boeri "and the legacy of this crisis will also be a high public debt whose burden will weigh heavily on the generations now entering the workplace."
The generations will coexist in this future, in so much as intergenerational transfers do not regard "a succession of lives", Boeri proceeded: "we live and we die. Then it is the turn of the next generation. The fact on which few reflect seriously is that the generations that follow each other do not, in reality, lead such a different existence from the previous or next one. We often say and think "in my day" or "in my parents' day" as if we did not actually live in the same century and as if a large portion of our existence did not overlap with others, with plenty of opportunity for contact." The truth is that "the lives of the new generations depend to a large extent on the destiny that is reserved to them not by those who have completed their life cycle before their appearance, but by the very people who today are making decisions on their behalf.
For many years now", continued Boeri "economic theory has contributed to our understanding of how age influences spending and saving decisions, the allocation of time among work, leisure and the family, the hunt for employment and even our investment profiles. At the 2012 Festival of Economics, we will discuss what we are deciding for the next generations and what type of future we are laying the foundations for, considerably limiting the freedom of choice of those approaching employment, the forming of a family and the government of society".
The appointment with the 7th edition of the Festival of Economics, on "Life Cycles and Intergenerational Relationships" is in Trento, from 31 May to 3 June 2012.

Presentation (PDF)