| Description |
1 online resource |
| Contents |
Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Introduction: Why a book in English on Italy's decline? -- PART I MERITOCRACY AND DECLINE -- 1. In a nutshell -- 1.1 What is meritocracy? -- 1.2 Meritocracy and equality of opportunity -- 1.3 The enemies of meritocracy: vested interests and lobbies -- 1.4 Meritocracy and moral standards -- 1.5 Why did growth stall in Italy? -- 1.6 Meritocracy versus connections and lobbies -- 1.7 Historical legacies and social capital |
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1.8 The interplay of social capital and meritocracy -- 1.9 Egalitarianism and the 'long '68' -- 1.10 The 1975 wage indexation accord, inflation, and debt -- 2. Italy's decline: stylised facts -- 2.1 Half a century of crises -- 2.2 The 1970s: inflation -- 2.3 The 1980s: public debt -- 2.4 The 1990s: crisis and hope -- 2.5 The new millennium: the two original sins -- 2.6 From the GFC and the sovereign debt crisis to NGEU -- 2.7 Italy, the sick nation of the advanced world -- 2.8 The facts about growth and productivity -- 2.9 Why low productivity? -- 2.10 Facts about the debt and the budget |
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2.11 Methodology -- 2.12 The Prosperity Index -- 2.13 Appropriate use of international rankings -- 2.14 Italy's ranking -- PART II COMPARATIVE EVIDENCE: SOCIETY -- 3. Legacies of a troubled history -- 3.1 Low mutual trust -- 3.2 Historical legacy and trust -- 3.3 Democratic legitimacy and meritocracy -- 3.4 Some unpleasant truths about SMEs -- 4. Lobbies in government -- 4.1 Trust and governance -- 4.2 Difficult transitions of power: Berlusconi and the 'red togas' -- 4.3 The rise and fall of populism -- 4.4 The government, ubiquitous and untraceable -- 4.5 Lobbying by rule-makers |
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4.6 Attempts at institutional reforms -- 4.7 Powerful lobbies: magistrates -- 4.8 Is Italy corrupt? -- 5. Lobbies in education -- 5.1 Low level of education -- 5.2 Egalitarianism for whom? -- 5.3 Funding of universities -- 5.4 Ranking of universities -- 5.5 Attempts at reform -- 5.6 Lobbies against merit -- 5.7 The North-South divide in education -- 5.8 Low return to education -- PART III COMPARATIVE EVIDENCE: ECONOMY -- 6. Key problems and inequities of Italy's economy -- 6.1 Confirmation and some surprises -- 6.2 The blunder of the gender gap -- 6.3 Schumpeter forgotten |
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6.4 Professional managers? -- 6.5 Antitrust versus many large and small lobbies -- 6.6 Exports: good, not excellent -- 6.7 The drama of the North-South divide -- 6.8 Quality of government in the regions of Italy -- 6.9 Inequality and social mobility -- 6.10 Gerontocracy -- 7. Competitiveness -- 7.1 Low foreign direct investment -- 7.2 Connections and corporate governance -- 7.3 Relationship finance -- 7.4 The burden of regulation -- 7.5 Lobbying by tax evaders -- 7.6 The rage of taxpayers -- 8. Egalitarianism and labour -- 8.1 Reforms and Penelope's shroud -- 8.2 Merit does not belong here |
| Summary |
The book draws lessons on the importance of rewarding merit for economic growth by analysing Italy's decline in the past few decades. Connections rather than merit are a long-standing feature of the Italian elites, even in the corporate sector. This became a significant problem when Italy could no longer grow through low wages, imitation, devaluations, and public debt and faced the challenges of becoming a frontier knowledge-based open economy. The book uses international comparisons over many aspects of society, from social capital to governance, the role of the public sector, efficiency of the judiciary, education, gender and social inequality, social mobility, corporate standards, financial structures and more to evaluate the performance of Italy. It argues that the arrogance of a mediocracy is more damaging than that of meritocracy. Also, the former is more likely to facilitate the rise of populism. Studying Italy's case can be helpful to many other countries: Italy was the country of the economic miracle after WWII, and it is still an advanced economy and a member of the G7 club. Until the 1960s, it seemed destined to catch up with the best-performing countries. Then the growth engine stopped, its debt skyrocketed, and Italy became the weak link in the Eurozone and might endanger its very survival |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Description based on online resource; title from home page (Oxford Academic, viewed December 4, 2023) |
| Subject |
Elite (Social sciences) -- Economic aspects -- Italy
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Economic development -- Italy
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Economic development
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Economic history
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Economics.
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Economics.
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| SUBJECT |
Italy -- Economic conditions -- 1994-
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh97005376
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| Subject |
Italy
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
Galli, Giampaolo, author.
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| ISBN |
0191957739 |
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9780191957734 |
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0192692216 |
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9780192692207 |
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0192692208 |
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9780192692214 |
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