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.
Science and technology: new resources, new challenges
The resources now available to science and technology have become immeasurable. The human brain has been creating increasingly smaller and powerful technologies that, in many cases, surpass human strength and capacities. Machines are digitalizing and perfecting nearly every sector, some of which are undergoing a revolution of unprecedented proportions.
Labour market: innovation and skills development
The global economy is undergoing deep and rapid changes that are revolutionizing how production is organized. The very concept of the “job market” seems outdated in a world where skills are increasingly becoming the real currency. If the most innovative firms’ main demand is for talent, however, it is impossible to imagine a future without policies tailored to the transition that the majority of workers are going to have to face as they adapt to the continuing changes imposed by digitalization.
Focus on Industry: Competitiveness and the new industrial triangle
The new industrial triangle (Lombardy, Veneto, Friuli) is currently one of the European continent’s most dynamic drivers behind growth in GDP, exports and value added manufacturing. A performance made possible by an intersection of business, universities and public administration anchored to major technological and research platforms. The data are gratifying but, at the same time, they raise questions. In a country characterized by such exasperated dualism, it becomes urgent to understand how the new industrial triangle can bring the rest of the country with it.
Research, Innovation, Regulation
Given the important links between research, innovation and regulation, businesses, universities and institutions are being called upon to work in unison to reinforce and improve Italian competitiveness and with it the economy. Indeed, highly innovative businesses, for example, consider regulation an effective aid to economic progress and the creation of value added benefits.
Future by quality: Life Sciences and Research in Italy
Widespread and well-rooted start-ups – recently formed and highly innovative companies – are often seen as proxies for competition in a given territory and its ecosystem. Starts-ups in the field of life sciences are contributing to a substantial transformation of that ecosystem and to modifying relations among actors, nevertheless in a context in which the Open Innovation paradigm is less applicable and where the need to protect intellectual property prevails.
Innovative therapies and welfare: a new paradigm
The Italian and European healthcare systems are under increasing pressure as the result of a series of dynamics involving their populations and of new technological and scientific trends that are calling into question the efficacy and appropriateness of current approaches to the provision of healthcare services.
Science and people. Understanding and supporting research and its applications
There has been a waning over recent years in society’s trust in and understanding of scientific progress and its pervasive benefits. How can science and public opinion be reconciled when the two appear to exist on parallel planes, divided by the critical confrontation being fomented by the social networks? A polarization of positions that is influencing the perceptions of communities and of policies that include with scientific and/or technical aspects.
The requalification of industrial areas in crisis: a vision for the future.
The crises of 2008 and 2011 had a greater impact on Umbria than they did on other parts of Italy and Europe. Conditions had already begun to deteriorate in the early 2000s, creating a division between Umbria, a region with a great manufacturing tradition, and the wealthier parts of the country. The study presented at the conference cited microeconomic data about the origins of the crisis and highlighted a sharp polarization of companies’ competitiveness.
The future of labor: uncertainty and emerging values
This roundtable devoted to examining the workplace of the future also marked the launch of a new Aspen Institute Italia initiative, the Aspen University Fellows group, aimed at students that are at an advanced stage of their university studies. It was observed that these members of generation Z, the post-Millennials born after 1995, are called upon to grapple with two challenges: the creative destruction of jobs caused by technological innovation and the need to build a new social contract that ensures shared prosperity, inclusion, and competitiveness.