Renato Brunetta was born in Venice on 26th May 1950. He is full Professor of Labour Economics at the Tor Vergata Rome University. On 8th May 2008 he was appointed Minister for Public Administration and Innovation in the XVI Legislature of the IV Berlusconi Government.
Since April 2008 he is a Member of Parliament in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, elected by the Veneto II Electoral College from the Popolo della Libertà Party list.
From June 1999 to April 2008 he was a Member of the European Parliament, elected from Forza Italia Party list and enrolled in the EPP-ED political group, where he served as Vice-President of the Industry, Research and Energy Committee; furthermore he was a member of the EU Croatia joint Parliamentary delegation, of the EU-Turkey joint Parliamentary delegation and of the Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China of the European Parliament.
He is responsible for Forza Italia party’s programme sector and since 2007 he is the Deputy National Coordinator.
He is also a columnist for “Il Sole 24 Ore” and “Il Giornale”.
He is the author of many scientific publications in the field of labour economics and industrial relations among which, worth mentioning are: “Il modello Italia” (The Italian model) (1991), “Economics for the New Europe” (1991), “Disoccupazione, isteresi e irreversibilità” (Unemployment, hysteresis and irreversibility) (1992), “La fine della società dei salariati” (The end of waged workers society) (1994), “Sud” (South) (1995), “Economia del Lavoro” (Labour Economics) (1999).
He is the founder and director of “Labour” – Review of labour economics and industrial relations, published by Blackwell Publishing Lts. Together with Vittorio Feltri, he has edited the book series “Manuali di Conversazione Politica” (Political Conversation Handbooks) published by Libero and Free Foundation, and the series “Manuali di Politica Tascabile” (Pocketbook politics) published by Il Giornale and Free Foundation.
In the eighties and nineties he collaborated, as economic advisor, with the Craxi, Amato and Ciampi governments. From 2003 to 2006 he was economic advisor to the President of the Council of Ministers, Berlusconi.
From 1985 to 1989 he served as Vice-President of the OECD Labour and Social Affairs Committee (Paris). From 1983 to 1987 he was responsible for employment and income politics strategies at the Labour Ministry. In 1989 he founded the EALE (European Association of Labour Economists) of which he became the first Chairman.
Over the course of his career he has received many awards: in 1988 the Saint Vincent prize for economics, in 1992 the Tarantelli Prize for best work on Labour economics, in 1995 the Scanno Prize for best work on industrial relations, in 2002 the International Rodolfo Valentino Prize for economics, finance and communication.
