Italy’s Advantages

(A conference in memory of Riccardo Faini)

Riccardo Faini was leading one of the research teams for this conference when he passed away last 20 January. Together with his friends and co-authors, we decided to complete his project and hold this conference in his memory. The conference will be opened with a commemorative speech in his honour by Francesco Daveri and the proceeding of the event will be dedicated to him.

The conference has been organized by Fondazione Ing. Rodolfo Debenedetti with the aim of evaluating how Italian productive specialization is changing, into the new global context, and how these changes should be accompanied by policy intervention.

The first speech of the conference will be given by Richard Baldwin, one of the most famous experts of international economics. He will talk about the specialization changes in the European productive environment. In particular, he will explain how some European countries have recently improved their competitive advantages and gained important market shares. Then, two different reports will be presented. Giorgio Barba Navaretti will present the first one, aiming to identify in which sectors the Italian productive specialization has improved and in which it has not. In particular, the presentation will focus on which economic variables may encourage a valid specialization process. The second study, carried out by the Fondazione Debenedetti staff (Tito Boeri, Pietro Garibaldi, Paola Monti, and Michele Pellizzari) will assess how to enforce an appropriate unemployment benefit system in the Italian environment (taking into account all the issues regarding the Italian labour market, such as shadow and temporary employment, public administration inefficiencies and critical budget constraints). Pierluigi Bersani, Roberto Colaninno, Pietro Modiano e Giulio Tremonti will attend the final round table discussion.

The conference was be held in Palazzo Marini, a conference room belonging to the Chamber of Deputies.

Programme

Why Riccardo did not believe in decline
Francesco Daveri (University of Parma)

The new phase of Globalization
Richard Baldwin (Université de Genève)

First report:
How is Italian Productive Specialization Evolving
by Giorgio Barba Navaretti (University of Milan), Matteo Bugamelli (Bank of Italy), Fabiano Schivardi (University of Cagliari) and Alessandra Tucci (CEP, London School of Economics) (executive summary) (presentation)
Discussion by Giorgia Giovanetti (ICE) and discussion by Gianmarco Ottaviano (University of Bologna)

Second report:
For a Soft Landing
by Tito Boeri (Bocconi University and Fondazione RDB), Pietro Garibaldi (University of Turin and Fondazione RDB), Paola Monti (Fondazione RDB) and Michele Pellizzari (Bocconi University and Fondazione RDB) (executive summary) (presentazione)
Discussion by Sandro Trento (Confindustria) and discussion by Andrea Brandolini (Bank of Italy)

Final Round Table:
How to Improve the context in which firms operate
Pierluigi Bersani (Ministry of Economic Development)
Roberto Colaninno (Omniaholding S.p.A.)
Pietro Modiano (General Director Intesa-San Paolo)
Giulio Tremonti (Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies)

For the press review, please click here.

The proceedings of the conference had been collected in a volume published by Il Mulino “Come sta cambiando l’Italia“.