Studies

Major topics of contemporary relevance: the challenges for Italy and Europe in a globalized world

The center of economic development is shifting increasingly towards the Far East/North America axis, to the detriment of Europe.

In fact, a number of indicators show that, starting in the late '90s, the competitiveness of the Old World went into a lull. From 1990 to 2006, the contribution of Europe to world GDP decreased 9%, dropping from 35.2% to 26.2%.

The causes behind this situation are to be found in a number of critical structural factors shared by countries within the EU: relatively low importance of high-tech sectors, low level of (especially private) investment in research and development, limited amount of funds set aside for education, small average size of companies, limited level of competition in the goods and services market, rigidity of the labor market (especially problematic the 15-24 and 55-64 age brackets and female workers), aging of the population and low birth rate (which on the one hand reduces the size of the working age population, while on the other has a direct impact on the social service costs of many European countries).

As a result, there is a risk that Europe will become an international backwater and Italy the backwater of the backwater. Not least because for years Italy has been in a situation of increasing relative weakness with respect to its main competitors as reflected in its continuous loss of international standing, lack of ability to attract Foreign Direct Investment and with an international image that often is not positive—just some of the symptoms of the country's profound malaise.

Italy and Europe, therefore, find themselves having to face the difficult challenge of growth.
A challenge as multi-faceted as the questions it begs: infrastructure, liberalization, governance and decision-making systems, innovation and general knowledge, and cultural integration, to name only a few.
For these and other issues, with the contribution of leading experts and opinion leaders on an international level, The European House-Ambrosetti has created and developed STUDY and strategic studies to formulate policy, recommendations and concrete suggestions in order to find solutions to specific problems.

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