innovation and industry policies to be finding
Mario Pianta
ilmanifesto.it
The unemployment rate of 10% in the U.S. and in many European countries shows how serious the crisis yet. What will be the face of the real economy, production structures, after the end of the recession? The players - big business - have fired plants closed and moved production abroad, they cut investment and research, open season acquisitions of firms in difficulty, the activities concentrated in the major production centers and in areas of core business. These strategies, as in the service industry, create barriers to recovery and undermine local economies, networks of subcontracting, employment and incomes.
are problems common to European countries, but particularly serious for the weakest links in the production chain, such as Italy, where for ten years, labor productivity has stagnated. To update this picture there are new data on Istat 'Measures of productivity ", that record after changes -0.3% on average between 2000 and 2004, a +0.2% between 2004 and 2008: the levels of labor productivity are still essentially those of a decade ago, and the crisis will slip further down the data of 2009. All this in front of more sustained growth rates well not only in the new industrial countries, but also in the old countries of Northern Europe and Germany.
The "lost decade" of the Italian productivity is the result of choosing to leave it to companies (or 'miracles' of the districts), confident that the decisions of individual market would not only ensure greater efficiency of short-term allocation of resources, wise choices but also long-term development of new technologies, investment and productions. Industrial policies and innovation - which had played a central role in the development of postwar Europe - have been forgotten, overwhelmed by the thought only liberal. The result was only the industrial decline. Italy, and much of Europe, find themselves on the traditional technological trajectories, with old products, lack of research and innovation, a dynamic low demand and a heavy environmental impact of production.
Decisions on the future of Italian and European production structure must be reported within the public sphere. A new generation of policies can overcome the 'failures' of the past and introduce creative and selective interventions. The objectives of the industrial and innovation policies should promote the development of knowledge, technologies and economic activities that improve economic performance, social conditions and environmental sustainability. Encouraging business and industries with learning processes, rapid technological change and strong demand growth and productivity. A preliminary list of priority activities may include knowledge, information and communication, environment and renewable energy, health and welfare. On the site
www.sbilanciamoci.info suggest that the form and content of innovation and industrial policies could take. To stop the loss of activity production, to accelerate recovery from recession, to move - after Copenhagen - on a path of sustainable development.
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