The relationship between health, work, and economic dynamics represents a crucial dimension for the sustainable development of contemporary societies. Health, employment, equal opportunities, social and organizational inclusion, and individual and collective well-being are fundamental rights that must be protected in an integrated manner, particularly in a context marked by profound technological, demographic, and environmental transformations.
In this framework, the adoption of a multidisciplinary approach is essential to analyze and guide the ongoing changes in the world of work and in welfare systems. The research area connecting work, health, environment, disability, and care aims to design and evaluate economic, social, organizational, and regulatory interventions that can generate a positive impact on workers, families, and society as a whole.
This approach aligns with the objectives of Mission 6 of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), promoting models that integrate public health, quality of work, organizational innovation, and social sustainability. Particular attention is devoted to the concept of work sustainability, understood not only in terms of employment continuity or environmental compatibility, but also as a balance between organizational effectiveness and efficiency, psycho-physical well-being, quality of working conditions, and the inclusion of vulnerable groups. Sustainable work is, in fact, work that protects health, values diversity, prevents risks, and enables the reconciliation of private and professional life, also through the regulation of new forms of digital and flexible employment.
The thematic areas under investigation include: constitutional rights to health, environment, and work; labor flexibility and its implications for health and work-life balance; well-being at work and the prevention of psychosocial risks; the inclusion of people with disabilities or in conditions of vulnerability; mental health, social protection, and welfare; the environmental sustainability of business activities; and innovative forms of organizing social and health services.
In summary, this research area seeks to develop knowledge and tools to support public policies and organizational practices towards a more equitable, resilient, and sustainable society, in which work, health, and the environment are recognized and promoted as interdependent common goods.
In this perspective, the following topics are of particular interest:
WORK, ENVIRONMENT, AND HEALTH
• Constitutional and social rights to health, the environment, and work
• Digital and flexible work: consequences for health and organizational inclusion
• Safety, prevention, and accident protection in remote work
• Well-being, work-life balance, and flexibility: models of legal and organizational regulation
• Relationship between well-being, organizational effectiveness and efficiency, and innovation
• Determinants of organizational inclusion and their impact on workplace well-being
• Development of composite indicators of individual, relational, and organizational well-being
• Reasonable accommodations, inclusion, and employment of vulnerable workers
• Models and techniques for preventing health risks within the workplace
• Dynamic safe assessment in human-robot collaboration
• Mental health and social protection
• Work, well-being, and environmental sustainability: legal regulation and industrial relations issues
• Models and techniques for monitoring the external environmental impact of business activities for environmental damage prevention
• Evaluation of environmental accidents and near misses, and emergency management
HEALTH, DISABILITY, AND CARE
• Health, disability, and care: a gender perspective
• Long-term caregiving and health: impact on work and policy proposals
• Gender differences and health among family caregivers
• Gender inequalities in informal care services in the context of demographic transition
• Population aging, labor market, and care sector
• The role of immigrants in care work
SOCIAL AND HEALTHCARE SERVICES
• Models for managing health big data
• The relationship between healthcare and social care labor supply, professionals’ health, and service quality for citizens
• Human capital development in the healthcare sector
• Organizational forms of social and healthcare services, and socio-assistance integration
• Digitalization and healthcare innovation
Referees
prof.ssa Ylenia Curzi, prof. Marcello Morciano, prof. Roberto Pinardi, prof.ssa Barbara Pistoresi,
Disciplinary areas
Labour and Industrial Economics and Public Policy Evaluation, Labour Law and Industrial Relations, Economic Statistics, Organization and Human Resource Management, Psychiatry, Occupational Medicine, Health Economics and Policy, Cognitive Neurology.
Progetti di Ricerca
Designing efficient, equitable and sustainable funding systems for Long-Term Care: an empirical investigation for the new Italian “prestazione universale per anziani non-autosufficienti“ (ref: Macello Morciano) About Us – ESHCRU
[Improving the Well-Being of Emergency Care Staff: Strategies to Reduce Turnover and Increase User Satisfaction]“Migliorare il benessere del personale dell’ emergenza-urgenza: strategie per ridurre il turnover e aumentare la soddisfazione dell’utenza” (PI: B. Pistoresi). FAR 2024 Fondi di Ateneo per la Ricerca. Progetto di ricerca del Dipartimento di Economia Marco Biagi – Linea A.
“The Future of Emergency Care: The Interplay Between Territorial and Organizational Innovation and Its Effect on Employee Outcomes”(PI: T. Fabbri) FAR 2024 Fondo di Ateneo per la Ricerca – Bando per il finanziamento di progetti di ricerca interdisciplinari– Linea FOMO.
[Local Assessment of the Healthcare Organizational Reform Measures Identified in Ministerial Decree 77/2022] Valutazione locale degli interventi di riforma dell’organizzazione sanitaria individuati nel DM 77/2022 (ref. Marcello Morciano)
“What makes hospitals work? Organizational conditions and interventions for improving employees work ability”, (PI: Y. Curzi) FAR 2023 Fondo di Ateneo per la Ricerca – Bando per il finanziamento di progetti di ricerca interdisciplinari– Linea FOMO.