Capital Accumulation, Productivity and Growth: Monitoring Italy 2005 (Central Issues in Contemporary Economic Theory and Policy) (original) (raw)
Related papers
2010
Italy’s economic growth over its 150 years of unified history did not occur at a steady pace nor was it balanced across sectors. Relying on an entirely new input (labour and capital) database by us built and presented in the Appendix, together with new Banca d’Italia estimates of GDP by sector, this paper evaluates the different labour productivity growth trends within the Italian economy’s sectors, as well as the contribution of structural change to productivity growth. Italy’s performance is then set in an international context: a comparison of sectoral labour productivity growth rates and levels within a selected sample of countries (UK, US, Germany, Japan, India) allows us to better time, quantify and gauge the causes of Italy’s catching-up process and subsequent more recent slowdown. Finally, the paper analyses the proximate sources of Italy’s growth, relative to the other countries, in a standard growth accounting framework, in an attempt also to disentangle the contribution o...
Exploring Italy's Growth Challenge: A Model-Based Exercise
SSRN Electronic Journal
Since the mid-1990s, Italy's economic growth faltered, primarily due to sluggish productivity growth. This article investigates the root causes of the slow growth. Firstly, it benchmarks Italy over time visà-vis euro area and OECD countries in the area of human capital, product market regulation, taxation structure and innovation. The analysis shows that Italy's gaps in these areas have grown over the last 15 years and are particularly large for human capital. Secondly, it uses a set of stylized simulations in QUEST R&D model of the European Commission to assess the potential impact of a package of growth-enhancing reforms in these areas. The simulations show that structural reforms could boost productivity and GDP growth significantly. Important reforms are ongoing. Given the very nature and the size of the gaps, it is important that the reform momentum is maintained.
Capital Accumulation, Productivity and Growth
Economic growth accelerated in the second half of the nineties in most of the major industrial economies, often return-ing above the eighties average. However, in the major countries of Continental Europe (France, Germany and Italy) it remained well below that of the US, determining a new sharp widening of the gap between the two coasts of the Atlantic 1 and giving way to a widespread debate on the "decline" of the European economy. The debate has been particularly intense in Italy, where growth rates of per capita GDP have been in the last part of the nineties, and again in the first half of the new decade, among the lowest in the G7 countries, together with those of Germany and Japan 2 . One of the main explanations advanced in the literature for the general resurgence of growth, and, on the other hand, for increas-ing differentials among industrial countries, assigns a crucial role to IT investment and to innovation produced in the IT sectors 3 ; however, the contributi...
Italy's Growth and Decline, 1861-2011
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
With the end of the celebrations marking the 150 th anniversary of the unification of Italy, the availability of a large body of new historical statistical data calls for a redefinition of the features of Italian economic growth. The paper presents new estimates -at both national and regional level -of Italy's GDP from 1861 to 2011; we discuss their interpretation in the light of the changes in the institutions, in technological regimes and in the broader international context. In contrast with its successful long-term performance, Italy's economic growth has slackened since the 1990s and has now come to a halt. The paper deals with the question of whether fears that the country is on the road to economic decline are grounded. The answer is an affirmative one. Part of the problem is southern Italy's inability to converge towards the more virtuous part of the country.
By making the most of a newly-available large set of historical statistics, the paper outlines the main features of Italy’s modern economic growth from unification (1861) until the present day (2011). Alongside national GDP estimates, regional inequality, living standards and inequality of personal income distribution are also discussed. Over the long run, Italy successfully caught up with the most advanced economies, and did so in a virtuous manner: while the regional imbalance persisted, at the national level economic growth was accompanied by a secular decline in income inequality. This pattern has come to a halt: during the last two decades, stagnation in GDP per capita has been mirrored by an unprecedented decline in productivity; southern regions have further lagged behind the rest of the country, and income inequality is on the rise. Italy has entered a phase of rapid relative economic decline.
Italy’s Growth and Decline, 1861-2011 (E. Felice, G. Vecchi)
CEIS Tor Vergata. Research Paper Series, vol. 11, Issue 13, No. 293 − October 2013, 2013
With the end of the celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, the availability of a large body of new historical statistical data calls for a redefinition of the features of Italian economic growth. The paper presents new estimates – at both national and regional level – of Italy’s GDP from 1861 to 2011; we discuss their interpretation in the light of the changes in the institutions, in technological regimes and in the broader international context. In contrast with its successful long-term performance, Italy’s economic growth has slackened since the 1990s and has now come to a halt. The paper deals with the question of whether fears that the country is on the road to economic decline are grounded. The answer is an affirmative one. Part of the problem is southern Italy’s inability to converge towards the more virtuous part of the country.
Productivity Growth in Italy: A Tale of a Slow-Motion Change
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2018
Productivity is the main factor holding back long-term economic growth in Italy. Since the second half of the 1990s, productivity growth has been feeble both by historical standards and compared with the other main euro area countries. Understanding the reasons for such a performance and finding the most effective policy levers is crucial to increase Italy's potential growth rate. Against this background, we provide a detailed analysis of the data and a critical review of the available empirical evidence to identify both the structural weaknesses limiting productivity growth and the strengths of the Italian productive system that may support it looking forward. Since the end of the 1990s and more intensively since the second half of 2011, the reform effort has been particularly effective in the regulation of product and labor markets and industrial policy. On other factors which are very relevant for productivity dynamics, the reform action has been less effective so far.
Italy’s Total Factor Productivity in a Global Economy: Growth and Spillover Effects (c. 1400–2010)
Italian Economic Journal
General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the KNAW public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain. • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the KNAW public portal. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.