Keynes said that growth is about our grandchildren (that is, the world that will be two generations from now). However, it is obvious that if there is no growth, it is our fault and not our children's children...
The issue of insufficient innovation that characterizes Italy, especially in the last twenty years – when this variable has played an increasing role in explaining growth differentials within advanced countries – has been extensively discussed in a specific chapter of the Annual report of the Bank of Italy published on 31 May last (chapter 11, which follows the one on "productive structure and structural policies"). If we carefully read those 10 dense pages, full of data and references to other research, we see that there is almost everything to improve, if not to rebuild, as far as our innovative activity is concerned, as carried out by companies, favored by services (starting with the financial ones), and promoted by the public sector. These are three aspects that combine to determine a situation of balance – not very innovative – which certainly cannot be changed with interventions on the sidelines or in a short time.
If we want to summarize in just two concepts the necessary tracks on which to place a radical change in the direction of a dynamic innovative activity, which allows us to start recovering some of the lost ground, we would say that it is necessary:
1) Alla Aghion (2012), the transition to a strategic state, that is, one that directs, promotes, stimulates, but is careful not to manage everything needed for innovation;
2) A structure of companies of increasing size (beyond the boundaries of the entrepreneur's family), capable of direct access to the capital market, and of climbing the qualitative scale of the human capital employed.
It is obvious that each of these two aspects in turn includes many others, both from an analytical point of view (the diagnosis made by the Bank of Italy) and from the point of view of the necessary structural reforms and consequent industrial policies. The Bank of Italy positively underlines the many small things done in the latest provisions of the Government and the legislator. But even taking this into account, it is clear that if we want to grow again - that is, if our grandchildren must have the hope of living better than us - there is so much that remains to be done and it requires a concentrated and prolonged effort, as well as a shared one. , as has not even been perceived by public opinion so far.
