 The causes of the low hours of work per person are many; they include early retirement, delays in finding a job, strikes for non-contract related reasons, as well as more holidays than other countries.To illustrate the tradeoff between work and leisure Kostoris calculated that if every Italian gave up one week of time off the GNP would increase by 0.3% to 0.4%.The idea was initially endorsed by Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi; in a speech in Cernobbio on 29 March he said "There are too many holidays.