Italy’s Political Upheaval and the Consequences of Inequality

Intereconomics - Political upheaval, with the dangerous rise of the far right – in Italy and Europe – is likely to be stabilised when politics and policies again turn their attention to...     

Innovation and Development: The Evidence From Innovation Surveys

In this article we investigate the existing evidence on innovation produced by innovation surveys in developing and emerging countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. We review the relevant literature, discuss methodological issues, and analyze the results for the countries with the most comparable surveys, considering the well-established findings of innovation surveys for Europe as a benchmark. From the evidence we considered, regional patterns are identified and some stylized facts on innovation and development are proposed, pointing out the specificity of innovation processes in economies engaged in industrialization and catching up.     

The Engines of Inequality

In Europe and in the United States, one of the legacies of the economic and financial crisis will no doubt be a high and particularly worrying level of economic inequality. Inequality has roots that go well beyond the 2008 collapse, but the stagnation that has followed it has made disparities in income and wealth more serious and more difficult to eradicate. The challenge now is to turn the injustice of current inequality into a theme of public mobilisation and political action.     

Italy’s Political Turmoil and Mario Draghi’s European Challenges

Intereconomics - Italy’s economy is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels before the first half of 2023, and an early return to budgetary constraints would be disastrous.     

Employment Effects of Product and Process Innovation in Europe

This paper develops a model of the employment impact of innovation considering, on the one hand, the interactions with demand and labour costs and, on the other, the variety of patterns of technological change. Different technological strategies are considered. First, a search for technological competitiveness is based on product innovation and productivity rooted in quality advantages; second a strategy of active price competitiveness has productivity growth rooted in process innovation-based restructuring; third a passive price competitiveness strategy is pursued by non-innovators relying on cost-cutting. The new European innovation database drawn from the Community Innovation Survey 1994-96, merged with structural and macroeconomic data 1994-99 drawn from the OECD are analysed at a sectoral level across eight European countries: Italy, France, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, the UK, and Sweden. The innovation survey data provide information on several quantitative and qualitative aspects of firms' innovative activities. A comparison of the results from the first (1990-92) and second (1994-96) Community innovation survey data is also carried out. The results show that, in the last decade, technological change has had a major impact on employment in manufacturing industry, associated with the dominance of an active price competitiveness strategy.     

The Coming Coronavirus Crisis: What Can We Learn?

Intereconomics - The coronavirus pandemic is bringing with it the prospect of severe financial and economic crises. The article investigates its economic consequences in terms of financial...     

Why Europe Needs a Public Investment Plan

In the continuing stagnation of European economies, the persistence of inadequate demand plays a crucial role that deserves greater attention. First and foremost, we are in a context of slower international growth, in which global world trade is growing more slowly than global GDP. This implies that exports are not in the position to be the driver of renewed growth for Europe.