“The total expenditure in research and development in 2013 it was just 1,2% of GDP in Italy, compared to the 2,1% of the European Union average and 2,9% in Germany. The differential is formed, rather than in public spending, in that of private companies, which is negatively affected by one company size systematically smaller than competing firms in other advanced countries". He said it today Salvatore Rossi, general manager of the Bank of Italy, during a lectio magistralis held at the Almo Collegio Borromeo in Pavia (the complete text of the report is attached in Pdf).
“Because of this characteristic of our production system – he added -, the distribution of investments in research and development it is highly concentrated: in 2013, the top three companies by level of expenditure accounted for 56 per cent of total private expenditure, compared to 39 in Germany. While growing since the mid-nineties, too the ratio between the number of patents filed with the European office and the total population it is comparatively low. Company size is, again, crucial. The small size goes with a proprietary structure and with managerial practices often reluctant to take on the risks of innovation. On the other hand, the market for venture capital, i.e. the financing method specialized in promoting the rapid growth of innovative start-ups, is still underdeveloped in Italy”.
How many to the workers, according to Rossi "the university system Italian does not produce adequate human capital for a modern and advanced economy; the companies that should ask for it are in reality almost never equipped to recognize the different degrees of quality and to assign them the right price, often because they are too small. Salary levels, even in ad personam contracts, almost never distinguish between a recent graduate of a low-level Italian university and a Harvard PhD. If one thinks of the American, English and German graduate schools or the French grandes écoles, it almost seems as though Italy has given up on training its professional elite at home, leaving it to the universities of other countries to carry out this task”.
Attachments: Complete speech by Salvatore Rossi.pdf
