[2] On 19 March 2004 Kostoris published an article in the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore entitled Abolire una settimana di ferie per rilanciare l'economia.
Kostoris adduced statistics showing that the average Italian worker works fewer hours throughout his career than his European and North American counterparts.
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.