Minerva Lab

The Italian production system in the aftermath of the pandemic: firms’ behaviours, production filières and productivity
di Andrea de Panizza, Alessandro Faramondi, Silvia Lombardi, Francesco Giovanni Truglia

The Italian economy did not recover the 2007 level of GDP until the end of 2023. This period has been characterised by stagnating productivity, but also by profound structural changes, including a sharp contraction of manufacturing and, overall, a slight increase in the average size of firms, a low rate of business creation, and the rapid ageing of employers. Recent years witnessed a surge in ICT adoption, accelerated by the pandemic. In this work, we address the issue reviving productivity, by focusing on the role of structural and organizational changes accompanied by the modernisation and digitalisation process. We empirically test the association between enterprises’ productivity levels and some of their key structural characteristics and behavioural choices, as well as the participation in production chains, by making use of a unique set of integrated firm-level data based on information collected in the latest Italian Business census survey for the year 2022. Findings demonstrate the role of highly performing filières, especially for small enterprises. The analysis also confirms and qualifies the crucial role of innovation, technology adoption and human capital, all of which prove key determinants of productivity, net of very detailed controls, with specificities associated with company size.

Il testo è tratto dall'articolo pubblicato su:

EI_1-2024

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