Training as a development strategy: human capital and growth
The relationship between human capital and development has been a topic of study since economic policy has existed. Nevertheless, training and skills enhancement have long been underestimated by theories that have foregrounded other productive factors as decisive to economic growth.
Intellectual Property: Protection and Enforcement
At just over a year from the outbreak of the pandemic, the attention being given to the delays and difficulties of the vaccine campaign is overshadowing a fundamental fact: it took less than 12 months for scientists to produce a successful anti-covid vaccine. This is an astonishing result, and is thanks to public/private collaboration. That atmosphere of cooperation must not be allowed to fail now as efforts are made to manage its production and distribution.
Recovery Plan for the new generation
The European Union response to the pandemic’s economic consequences has been the unprecedented mobilization of 2.4 billion euro in resources. The largest slice of the pie – 672.5 billion – will be earmarked for financing the Recovery and Resilience Facility, half of which is to be disbursed in the form of subsidies and the other half in loans. The end of austerity and renewed Member State solidarity have made it possible for Italy to count on 200 billion euro in such subsidies and loans.
The challenge for the young Italians in technological innovation
Although Italy continues to offer proof of excellence in a broad array of fields, there is still considerable margin for growth in younger generations’ understanding and application of technological advances. The current Covid-19 pandemic and the possibility of stemming its spread with the mRNA vaccine have further underscored the need to invest in research and innovation in the interests of creating social and economic value.
Investing in R&D: why should Italy do it?
Research is one of the assets that Italy needs to tap as it strives to jumpstart the economy. The pandemic and the science community’s rapid response to the virus have further emphasized the importance of a competitive ecosystem in this sector. Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan offers an opportunity to invest both in basic research and in subsequent development and technology transfer stages. The country can claim a certain amount of progress over recent years, but intervention is still necessary in a range of areas.
The Power of Resilience in a Changing World
Globalization, new technologies, social media, migrations, racial tensions, and now the Covid-19 pandemic, have completely changed the face of society and are revolutionizing the business world for large and small firms alike. The pandemic, in particular, has sorely tested our systems’ capacity for resilience and foregrounded many fragilities, not only from a financial standpoint, but also in a more sweeping sense that encompasses public health, the environment, employment security and social equilibrium.
Southern Italy: the key to relaunching the Italian economy?
Southern Italy needs a new vision for the future built on consideration of its system strongpoints and on a deeper scrutiny of its problems, with a view to identifying alternative proposals focused on the competitive capacity of those regions, with the goal of improving the business environment.
Research and innovation for life sciences in Italy
The daily effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on every individual and organization are clearly foregrounding how wealth and health go hand in hand. The quest for health – the focus of the political agenda and objectives of every government – will influence every government’s process of reconstruction for months to come.
Generational turnover in Italy
Business is the fundamental agent in the recovery of an economy struck as dramatically by the pandemic as Italy’s has been. To determine whether that recovery will be a success we need to consider the system’s economic armature of countless small and medium-sized family-run enterprises. Today’s generational hand-over becomes even more important than it has been over recent decades. At stake is the result of the major challenges awaiting national manufacturing: the digital transformation and the environmental transition.
Doing business in Italy
“Doing business” is a term that evokes complexity and challenge, especially when paired with “in Italy”, a country well known for its structural problems and irreconcilable contradictions: Structural problems consisting of a slow and chaotic bureaucracy, lack of legal certainty – due to repeated impulsive legislative modifications as well as to inconsistency and sluggishness in the judicial application of the law – and excessive difficulty accessing credit; irreconcilable contradictions in the form, first, of constant references to entrepreneurs as the drivers of economic recovery clash, wi
Science, politics, society: different speeds, common challenges
The relationship between politics, science and society is playing an increasingly prominent role in rising to the challenges of modernity. A strong alliance of political institutions, scientists, experts and citizens is essential to defeating the global pandemic, but also an essential prerequisite for the success of policies aimed at inverting the advance of climate change and introducing new technologies and new solutions for boosting the quality of life, prosperity and wealth of modern societies.
Aspen Institute Italia Award 2020 for scientific research and collaboration between Italy and the United States
Orbital angular momentum microlaser[1] – A semiconductor laser of micrometric size that produces twisted light by exploiting an “exceptional quantum point”: this is the study that won the fifth edition of the Aspen Institute Italia Award for collaboration and scientific research between Italy and the United States.
Future by quality: life sciences and research in Italy
Science and technology parks are an essential part of the innovation ecosystem. Their ability to link a variety of experiences and disciplines, thereby creating networks of research centers, spin-offs, start-ups, incubators, business angels and venture capitalists makes them a major factor in the country’s competitiveness, in addition to offering nation-wide opportunities. This important contribution is even more fundamental in the field of life sciences, where development timelines are very long and risks quite high.
Social mobility: on youth and merit
A mapping of the current phenomenon of continual social mobility reduction shows university training as having an extremely important role, since successfully completing a good post-secondary education is one of the essential prerequisites for improving social status and economic prosperity.
Dealing with complexity today: how to launch the recovery
The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown that followed has dealt a hard blow to Italian enterprise. According to Bank of Italy estimates, the 2020 GDP contraction will be somewhere between 9 and 13%.
I nostri Anni Venti. Come uscire dalla sindrome del lockdown
According to Ipsos data, the fears of 54% of Italians of a pandemic outbreak in April have ebbed considerably. The June data show less concern over contagion (one-third of Italians) and more over economic recession. The Covid-19 contagion peak triggered a broad sharing of values such as social cohesion, interdependence, civic sensitivity, the importance of volunteerism and a greater assumption of responsibility for social capital and faith in institutions – with the exception of the court system and the European Union.
Never waste a crisis: what lessons to draw for the Italian health system?
The emergency that erupted in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic has some important lessons to offer the Italian healthcare system. Although it is clearly difficult to compare the healthcare models of regions affected asymmetrically by the virus, it is undeniable that coordination at various levels has proven to be one of the system’s weak points. The situation has generated confusion along the chain of control and implementation of measures, and immediate intervention regarding operational aspects – even before institutional prerogatives – is imperative.
A new start for post-pandemic tourism
The pandemic crisis now under way is only the latest chronologically since 9/11, the Arab Spring, the 2008 financial downturn and Brexit; not to mention climate change, which acts as a sort of umbrella for all recent emergencies.
Proposals for the future from Aspen Institute Italia Junior Fellows
The economic, social and geopolitical impact of Covid-19 presents challenges that, as they are confronted, will have significant, long-term consequences for the country’s future. In Italy, one of the nations most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, preexisting economic structural weaknesses make an effective response to the emergency not only strategic but especially difficult.
More and better jobs in the great global transformation
The future of work was the main theme of the digital panel discussion set up with the collaboration of the national council of the association of job consultants, where a paper entitled “More and better jobs in the great global transformation” was presented.
The discussion focused on the difficulties reviving productive activities such as services in the presence of a pandemic. Much will depend on the effectiveness of the measures adopted to ensure the survival of businesses and labor relations during the lockdown and as the recovery begins.
A Country for young people
The fourth Aspen University Fellows roundtable was devoted to the theme of Italy’s compatibility with the newer generations and the role of those generations in a society whose complexity often generates uncertainty and pessimism.